It's expected that a new pope, as Bishop of Rome, will address the faithful in Italian on his first appearance. What's interesting, as you point out, is that the one brief exception he made was for Spanish rather than English. I suspect that too much is made of him being American. We know now that he has spent most of his adult life outside of his homeland and that he also holds Peruvian citizenship. Avoiding English in his first address was perhaps a signal that he is not going to be an American pope, but a pope for everyone, as he ought.
Thank you for this article. One thing no one has addressed in connection with the Conclave or the new Pope is what is proposed in response to the presence of an increasingly assertive Islamic population in so many nominally Christian countries. This seems to me to be something that will become a greater and greater challenge, but no one seems to talk about it. Advocating for peace, as our new Pope did in his words yesterday, is fine, but what is the strategy if the self-styled "religion of peace" keeps growing stronger in Europe? The other question of course is China. What is the new Pope's approach there?
(Although he appears an excellent person and hugely in contrast to his predecessor in temperament, I am still troubled by the questions arising from his handling of two sexual abuse matters in earlier days. There doesn't seem to be any denial in either case. In the most concerning of the two problematic past events no one seems to argue that it is untrue that three young women had something very bad done to them by a priest under the now Pope's direction. The now Pope, in response to the evidence given to him by one victim, seems to have moved the priest in question and nothing more. But possibly things were more nuanced and in fact the polarised situation in Peruvian Catholicism is leading to distorted accounts.)
It's expected that a new pope, as Bishop of Rome, will address the faithful in Italian on his first appearance. What's interesting, as you point out, is that the one brief exception he made was for Spanish rather than English. I suspect that too much is made of him being American. We know now that he has spent most of his adult life outside of his homeland and that he also holds Peruvian citizenship. Avoiding English in his first address was perhaps a signal that he is not going to be an American pope, but a pope for everyone, as he ought.
The more I've learnt about him, heard and seen (his first sermon yesterday, for instance), the more I'm reassured.
Did you notice also the upswelling of a spontaneous Salve Regina from the crowd? Very moving.
Thank you for this article. One thing no one has addressed in connection with the Conclave or the new Pope is what is proposed in response to the presence of an increasingly assertive Islamic population in so many nominally Christian countries. This seems to me to be something that will become a greater and greater challenge, but no one seems to talk about it. Advocating for peace, as our new Pope did in his words yesterday, is fine, but what is the strategy if the self-styled "religion of peace" keeps growing stronger in Europe? The other question of course is China. What is the new Pope's approach there?
(Although he appears an excellent person and hugely in contrast to his predecessor in temperament, I am still troubled by the questions arising from his handling of two sexual abuse matters in earlier days. There doesn't seem to be any denial in either case. In the most concerning of the two problematic past events no one seems to argue that it is untrue that three young women had something very bad done to them by a priest under the now Pope's direction. The now Pope, in response to the evidence given to him by one victim, seems to have moved the priest in question and nothing more. But possibly things were more nuanced and in fact the polarised situation in Peruvian Catholicism is leading to distorted accounts.)
We shall have to wait and see, BUT I am confident that we will hear no more of 'there are violent people on both sides' talk as we did in the past. On the abuse cases, there is a forensic article in crux that is well worth reading. https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2025/05/serious-questions-of-credibility-surround-coverup-allegations-against-new-pope
I pray he will be all that the church needs..