From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
August 18, 2025
Robert Cardinal Prevost was elected by the College of Cardinals of the Roman Church as the 266th successor of St. Peter on May 8, 2025. August 16 is/was the 100th day of his papacy. And even before the anniversary date arrived, there have been many published commentaries expressing a variety of opinions about how the new pope is doing at his job or the direction he might take in the future. Many of these commentaries tell us more about the authors than about the new pope and their predictions of the future frequently lie in the realm of “reading tea leaves.”
Many have observed the differences between Pope Leo’s attire and that of his predecessor, Pope Francis, when he first appeared on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and was presented to the world as our new pope. However, a little noted difference, one that particularly struck this author, was the new pope’s expression of devotion to the Virgin Mary, Mother of God. After noting that May 8, the day of his election, was the feast of Our Lady of Pompei, he invited everyone in attendance and those listening throughout the world to pray with him the Hail Mary and to invoke her intercession for his Petrine ministry and for the whole Church under that title.
The origin of that feast is particularly interesting, and in a sense leads directly to one of the first canonizations that Pope Leo is scheduled to celebrate, that of the founder of the shrine in Pompei, Bartolo Longo, on October 19, 2025. Longo (1841-1926), an Italian lawyer and former satanic priest, was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on October 26, 1980, and was approved for canonization by Pope Francis (who died on April 21, 2025), on February 25, 2025.
Though the son of devout Catholic parents, Bartolo was much influenced by the anti-Catholic nationalism of the Italian peninsula as well as by the spiritualism and occultism so prevalent throughout Europe in his day. All of this contributed to his decision to renounce his Catholic Faith and to be ordained a satanic priest. Subsequently, he suffered greatly from anxiety and turned to a friend for guidance. That friend introduced him to a wise and holy Dominican priest who led Bartolo to return to the Catholic Faith and to embrace devotion to the Virgin Mary and to the rosary. Longo soon became a Dominican tertiary and began to practice great works of mercy with the poor in and around the modern village of Pompei (near the ancient city destroyed by the volcano in 79 A.D.).
With the help of a wealthy patroness, Longo soon set about the restoration of a dilapidated church. A poorly preserved painting of Our Lady of the Rosary was installed in the same church in 1875 and was quickly venerated as miraculous in the wake of many reported healings. The cornerstone for a larger church was laid on May 8, 1876. That church was later again enlarged and in 1939 it was designated as the Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Pompei.
Dare we not imagine that this Marian gesture of Pope Leo, when all the world was watching, was an expression of his faith and of his heart?
Framed portraits of Pope Leo XIV and some first books about him:
https://inhisname.com/search?options%5Bprefix%5D=last&q=leo+xiv
On Blessed Bartolo Longo and other “champions of the rosary”:
https://inhisname.com/products/26-champions-of-the-rosary-31716
