By BOB BIRD

I am 73 years old and have lived under eight different popes. I even recall the news of the 1958 conclave.

I was shocked when the first non-Italian pope in 450 years was elected in 1978. I was shocked at the assassination of JFK, RFK and MLK. I was pleasantly shocked by Ronald Reagan’s two landslides. I was shocked at the multiple heretical moves and musings of Pope Francis.

But nothing prepared me for this: an American pope, from the diocese of my own birth, who was not on anyone’s radar screen as papabile. Give the College of Cardinals credit: They can still administer electro-shock treatments to the world.

We are going to likely have undignified insults traded between the White House and the Vatican. I hope Pope Leo will not respond in kind to Trump’s often childish musings. Pope Francis, who was quite practiced at snide and even crude insults, might have done so. But Trump would do better to allow Vice President JD Vance do the talking.

But this is a pope who has done the following:

1. Openly criticized America’s efforts to control our own border, which flies in the face of the Church’s own teaching. And it is interference in the domestic politics of a sovereign nation. The Church’s role is to save souls. What about these millions of illegals, who have broken our laws?
2. Ousted the most godly and humble bishop in America, Joseph Strickland, after he went “out of bounds” from his Texas diocese to picket the LA Dodgers. If you never heard of this, it is because the mainstream media buried it. Strickland, along with thousands of other Catholics, was protesting a vicious anti-Catholic parody that took place by the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence”, an LGBTQ mockfest, in a pre-game ceremony.
3. During Covid, Leo approved the use of non-valid confessions over the telephone, despite clear Church teachings against this practice.
4. He has been part of Pope Francis’ heretofore unheard of tactic, known as the  “synodal magisterium.”

Now Leo’s first immediate gestures might — might — be a harbinger of a change of heart. 

1. He blessed the people, unlike Pope Francis, who asked the people to bless him.
2. He wore the traditional red cape of a newly-chosen pope, the mozetta … unlike Francis.
3. He chose the name of a long-suffering and traditionalist pope of the 19^th century, Leo XIII.
4. He has made strong statements on the sanctity of innocent human life.

There have been surprise conversions in the 267 popes, the most noteworthy being Pope Vigilius. He was an “Insider” currying the favor of Empress Theodora in the 500s. He maneuvered the exile and possible murder of the previous and very humble Pope Silverius, who excommunicated two influential bishops for adhering to the Monophysite heresy, a heresy which stated that Jesus was not fully human. If Theodora used her influence to elevate Vigilius to the papacy, he promised to restore the excommunicated heretic bishops.

So — the Empress got Vigilius into the Shoes of the Fisherman. To restore these bishops would be to endorse a heresy. Catholics — and all current Christian denominations — believe in the “hyperstatic union”: that Jesus is fully God and fully Man. Not a 50-50 thing. Not 90-10. He is 100% God and 100% human. This impossibility is what makes Truth a divine mystery.

Theodora waited. And waited. And waited. She wrote Vigilius, “Our dearest friend and pope” about why he was balking at restoring these Monophysite bishops. His reply of 538 AD, is justly famous:

Far be this from me, Lady Augusta; formerly I spoke wrongly and foolishly, but now I assuredly refuse to restore a man who is a heretic and under anathema. Though unworthy, I am vicar of Blessed Peter the Apostle, as were my predecessors, the most holy Agapetus and Silverius, who condemned him.

There is a church-approved prophesy that came out of, of all places, Akita, Japan in 1973. I have visited the miraculous statue, a wooden and Japanese-looking Virgin Mary, which shed tears. The Japanese respect all religions, and this miracle was broadcast on live television at the time. 

“The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres…churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises, and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

This told accurately what would happen, and thus stands the Biblical test of authentic prophesy.

The news behind this man, Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, is too early. The Catholic Church just made an apparent hairpin turn to the Left.  Let me emphasize “apparent”. If Leo wants to really make news, he could restore Bishop Strickland, who certainly was no heretic, but worried about a pope who was flirting with Church dogma like it was his own toy.

If faithful Christians were praying for a good and holy pope, they might have one now. Yet they must now pile on and redouble their prayers. Vigilius is not on the list of saintly popes, but if he made it into Heaven, we can ask him to add his own pleas to the Almighty.

But Peter and Paul are there, and Paul rightly corrected Peter in Galatians 2:11-14. Let us hope that we will have bishops and cardinals who will dare to do the same, if Leo goes the way of his predecessor. 

Their fate, however, might become a newly minted word: Strickland-ized.

Bob Bird is former chair of the Alaskan Independence Party and the host of a talk show on KSRM radio, Kenai.