Letters to the Editor: Readers have mixed feelings about what it means to have an American pope

Letters to the Editor: Readers have mixed feelings about what it means to have an American pope

'As we see on Easter Vigil, the light of Christ resurrected eliminates the darkness,' writes an L.A. Times reader. 'I finally have hope for my country.'

The Geography of a Pontificate: What It Means to Have a Pope from Chicago

When the French Cardinal stood on the loggia over St. Peter’s Square and the name “Leo XIV” was announced, the Church and the world learned something unprecedented: the successor of Peter hailed from Chicago. In choosing the name Leo—rich with historical resonance—and bringing with him the formation of a distinctly American, urban, and immigrant-rooted Catholicism, this new pope represents more than just a geographical novelty. He embodies a new…