By Steve Stricker

Columnist

 

Fr. Joe Tonas, Pastor of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, Oxford, MS for 18 years, great friend and hero, would often humbly compliment me on an Oxford Eagle column I had written. One day, I said, “I didn’t write that.” He said, “Well, your name was on it.” And I said, “The Holy Spirit, as with all my columns, wrote it.” “Oh, I get that…”

On this Thursday, May 8, 2025, more than ever with this Eagle column due in a few hours, need the Holy Spirit as I had no time to absorb what had just occurred.  At church for daily Mass as usual, 10:15 a.m. for 12:10 pm Mass, an unexpected funeral Mass was in progress. So since my owner cat, Jaguar, had requested a few items from PetSmart, I proceeded to pick those up.

Finished in plenty of time to get back to church for 12:10 Mass, debated on what to do as I had this column due to the Oxford Eagle at 5:00pm that day…day to the Holy Spirit, but was out of my rhythm and elections for our new Pope to lead we 1.4 billion Catholics was in the second day, next vote expected, chose to go home. As I entered the house 11:15 a.m., tuned to TV Catholic Channel EWTN – WOW, white smoke was pouring from the Sistine Chapel pipe indicating that the 133 under 80 eligible to vote Cardinals had on the fourth ballot, elected the 267th successor of St. Peter as our new Bishop of Rome – but who was he?!

As the Cardinals too old to vote and excluded from the locked, beautiful Sistine Chapel looked on, I a Cradle Catholic, breathlessly waited with thousands in St. Peter’s Square, and millions of others, to hear the announcement of who our new Pope would be.  Finally, breathlessly, red curtains dramatically drawn back – WOW, the first ever American Pope from Chicago, Illinois, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, now known as, Leo XIV, stepped forth – THE 1ST EVER AMERICAN POPE!! Stunned – tears streamed down my face!

New Pope by minutes, graciously addressed the world in obvious, emotional, fluent Latin, Italian, and Spanish, but eager to hear, disappointedly, not in English.  There was no time to discern the reason he did this as I had to submit my column, but Catholic means “all embracing” and the “why” will be revealed in time. Choked and emotionally teary-eyed, it was difficult but elatedly that I continued to write.  Son Stephen – “I hoped he’d begin his comments with, ‘Hey, Y’all.’” HA! Exactly.

Beginnings and endings.  Pope Francis died on Monay, April 21, new Pope Leo XIV was elected a mere 17 days later on Thursday, May 8…VE Day May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe, was the official end of WWII in Europe – new life desperately needed in the Catholic Church, especially in the United States. You non-Catholic friends liking this, why? I challenge you to please become a Catholic – you will love it.

Pope Saint John Paul II is one of my all-time heroes.  I loved Pope Francis for his humility but was not a true “hero.”  New Pope Leo XIV first from the US, and as such is poised as quite possibly to be my all-time ever hero, instead now falls into my, I’m from Missouri  “Show Me” portfolio by not speaking English which I so desperately needed to hear – why after over 2,000 years no Pope from the Unites States do you deny me this??

Past my deadline to submit this on that Thursday, exhausted, I took a long nap, awoke, still trying to wrap my head around all this, searching for final words, my cat who adopted me and owns me, Jag, solid black, Jaguar waltzed into my office to tell me it was storming, raining outside and brought me back down to the here and now.  In the end, all we can do is trust God, “control” what we can in the here and now, love those who love us, and, welcome, Pope Leo XIV.  The first American Pope – forever.  Wrap your head around that!

Dio benedicis il Papa! You got this Pope Leo the 14th! Y’all go and have a swell pontificate….

Steve is a “Cradle Catholic.”