How a Quiet American Cardinal Became Pope | Hacker News Reader

How a Quiet American Cardinal Became Pope

nytimes.com

28 pointsnxobject9 comments

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https://archive.ph/m83f7

> ”Bob, this could be proposed to you”

That’s incredible. The new pope is called Bob. I will only refer to him as Pope Bob I.

Bob's twitter account is still online. Used sparingly and mostly for retweets, but used:

"Catholic, Augustinian, Bishop"

Currently in Rome.

https://x.com/drprevost

And the official Vatican account, @Pontifex, went back to being attributed to Francis, after briefly being named "Apostolica Sedes Vacans".

I suppose it makes more sense than the total mess that is @eucopresident, where past tweets are retroactively attributed to the current officeholder.

Most importantly, title is in Spanish!

Just like that, Bob's your uncle and Holy father.

Considering Pope Bob I's the only pope with a very active online history, I wouldn't call him "quiet". Especially with him being an anti-MAGA critic of the current US regime, as his post and comment history on X shows.

I’m a lapsed catholic. I look forward to seeing how the new Pope chooses to use his position. I saw Francis as a decent, respectable man, and especially took heart in his and the church’s recent rational missive on AI.

Leo XIV has to rise to one of the greatest organisational challenges anyone could face in the current day; managing this Leviathan institution through a minefield that’s ever shifting, the consequences for gaffes and misspokenness are very real and enormous.

Francis did a lot of the heavy lifting, clearing the way.

He gutted the completely corrupt management of the Vatican bank, which was amici intimi with la Cosa Nostra. That alone was a major milestone of his legacy, that no one talks about anymore.

He opened the door to talking about women as near-equals in the Church, and homosexuals as valuable parts of the congregation worthy of respect. Sure, going farther would have been better, but I'm not sure it was really possible. He may not have turned the RC Church around, but at least he untied the steering wheel from its anciently lashed position.

THIS pope starts with a blemish on his public record about handling pedo priests; HOPEFULLY that will spur him to being more proactive than even Francis was.

[I'm an atheist former Catholic.]

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