The quick election of a pope born and raised in the United States was a shock to almost everyone outside the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Conclaves begin with secular and Catholic experts making a list of possible front-runners, and no one had Robert Prevost on their bingo card.
For Americans, it was shocking and a bit exhilarating. We were always told that a global church would not want a leader from the planet's biggest superpower. But Cardinal Prevost had served so long in Peru and in Rome that he didn't seem as American as others might be.
Our secular news media only seem to view the church as a political force and consider how it affects their world. Right now, popes are considered good when they oppose (and hopefully shame) President Donald Trump on poverty and immigration, and popes are bad when they oppose abortion and the invention of 57 genders.
