Enjoy the Calm

Around 2020 I started writing satirical Catholic news. At first, it was just a personal writing exercise, a light project to sharpen my skills and maybe help cope with the craziness of that time. But it was enough fun that I soon began sharing articles with those friends who were clerical enough to appreciate the niche Catholic humor. I eventually even made a low-quality website (slogan: “Probably not malware!”) so all three of them could read them even in their respective seminaries or parishes.

I have since moved on to other projects as my time and interest faded. But I look back on it fondly, occasionally still returning to the website I just can’t bring myself to let die. Time has added it to a growing list of COVID-era realities that, for no good reason at all, are starting to appear nostalgic. (“Remember the plague? Times were simpler back then…”)

But it would be hard to keep such satire going nowadays, even for someone more competent. The articles under Pope Francis practically wrote themselves. Every week there was a new groundbreaking story of something he said, did or didn’t do that was, shall we say, ripe for parody. Many of these were obviously due to particular aspects of his personal style; some because of his cultural and religious formation as an Argentine Jesuit; and some were reactionary blowups over a pontiff many, by the end, seemingly wanted to hate. But fair or unfair, the bottom line was a Francis Pontificate surrounded by a media and cultural firestorm that was, at the very least, never boring. It paralleled the Trumpian political atmosphere that is, er, easy for satire — when it doesn’t just do the jokes itself.

Trump’s political theater is still with us. Pope Francis’ (peace be upon him) is not. We have a new pope; we do not have a new theater. Because we more or less don’t have a theater at all. My hope for the early days of Pope Leo XIV was mostly that we could forget about the early days of Pope Leo XIV. I believe that hope has been fulfilled. He’s been in Catholic news (he’s the pope, after all). But his Catholic news has been largely uncontroversial.

So, I like Pope Leo, partially because I haven’t felt the need to pay much attention to him. That isn’t to imply anything about him or his work is unimportant. Nor even that it’s truly forgettable in its proper sphere and history. It’s to say that much about his person and work belongs in a sphere unimportant and forgettable to me — the everyday sort of Joe who spends his days trying to raise children, keep a roof over his head, and waste people’s time with unfunny satire. Pope Leo’s days are spent in diplomacy, appointing bishops, refining and adjudicating law, and resolving disputes — precisely the kind of things that we notice less the better they’re done.

Obviously, that work is important, even to little hinterlandian laymen such as myself. And equally obviously, the pope’s work includes other, not merely administrative responsibilities whose weight is immediately clear , even to those dull enough to enjoy satire.

I hope Pope Leo enjoys long years of good health. In the course of those long years, I’m sure controversies and epoch-making moments in the Church will appear that will require a pope to weigh in in precisely the kinds of ways that top our headlines. There were these moments during the reign of Pope Francis, and his responses in part contributed to the controversy and firestorm of his tenure. This must be so for the leader of a global Church; whether he responded exactly right or exactly wrong, Pope Francis was doomed to be contentious by virtue of being pope.

Nevertheless, the contention takes a toll. And Pope Francis — again, not necessarily through his own fault — lived a particularly contentious papacy. I have no interest in dredging up the old fights. At any rate, it’s beyond my scope to adjudicate the difficult decisions of a man now in God’s hands. Suffice it to say that a conservative Catholic caught plenty of grief from the liberal wing of the Church; a liberal Catholic caught plenty of grief from the conservative wing of the Church; and anyone in between caught plenty of grief from both. We strive to live in unity with one another believing in God’s Providence over the Church. The contention undermined both the unity and the belief. It was exhausting — and all of us, in one way or another, were worn out by either Pope Francis or the reaction to him.

These early days of Pope Leo have given some space to rest and reset. They have offered a chance to forget a little bit about the Vatican and remember a little bit about our local situations. The Roman Church is bigger than Rome.

We’re a year and a half into Leo XIV; who knows how much longer we have before the churn of history once again thrusts him and the Vatican into the polarizing controversies that have plagued every pope of our age. Some of those controversies may be the same ones as under Pope Francis. Many will be new. Some Catholics will have learned from the Pope Francis contentions; some will have only learned to be more contentious. Public Catholicism will one day again become overshadowed by the public life of the pope, for better or worse, necessarily or tragically. But not right now. For now, we have a rare Roman Peace. And for our betterment, I think. 

So, I hope you are enjoying the calm. I know I am.