Leo's first interview with The Catholic Monitor - CM: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. XIV: Call me Bob. CM: And your favorite song? XIV: "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes"

Edward Feser

@FeserEdward

Sorry, but at least in moments like this I can’t stop thinking of him as Pope Bob, and only with reverence and affection rather than with the slightest disrespect. Not everyone can combine the dignity of high office with the common touch, but so far Leo XIV is pulling it off well

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EWTN Vatican

@EWTNVatican

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Jun 4

Pope Leo XIV welcomed the National Italian American Foundation to the Vatican, recalling how Catholic faith sustained generations of Italian immigrants to the U.S. through times of hardship.

2:43 PM · Jun 4, 2025

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Here at the Catholic Monitor, we have had a chance to pose some questions to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, now that he is giving interviews to the press.  Our exchange is  published below in full, with certain sections edited for clarity.

CM:  Holy Father, thank you for taking the time to talk with us today, given the many pressing questions the Church is facing in the post-conciliar and, indeed, the post-Bergoglian context.  If we could begin with--

XIV:  Call me Bob.  I'm from Chicago.  I think it's very important for people to get to know one another in order to foster a sense of mutual respect, don't you?  

CM:  Quite.  If we could begin with the significance of your own recent elevation to the Throne of Peter.  Observers were astonished that an American was chosen--the first in all of history.  Do you think your nationality was a significant factor and, if so, in what sense?

XIV:  My brother says it was, and he would know.   He's a smart guy. I play "Words with Friends" with him whenever he has the time, but I only win when he lets me.  He says Cupich probably pulled some strings and also that, if we could paint that guy's face blue, there'd be no way to tell him apart from Papa Smurf.  Seriously, it's like they're twins separated at birth or something.

CM:   Speaking of Cardinal Cupich, has his own history of restricting the Traditional Latin Mass--and, indeed, time-honored Catholic devotions of many descriptions--influenced you regarding "Traditionis Custodes" and the future of the "liturgy wars"?

XIV:  You mean that whole thing about , like, the stuff you say in church?

CM:  Well, yes.

XIV:  It's complicated.   Am I supposed to understand everything?  I mean, what do people want from me, anyway?  There I am, playing "Words with Friends" with my brother, and I get this text message that I've got to change clothes and go out on a window sill.  Right away!  And I was winning for once, too!  It wasn't even my birthday yet.  It was my birthday the other day, though.  Did you wish me a happy birthday?  I'm Bob, from Chicago.  Who are you, again?

CM:  And what was that like--standing on the loggia for the first time?

XIV:  Trippy.  Totally, totally trippy.  First I do a quick Google search to find out what the word "pope" means, so that's cool.  Then I look down and see all these people waving at me, you know?  They never did that in Peru.  So I try to think about what to do when lots of other people are waving at you and all of a sudden, it comes to me--you wave back!  This seemed to work.

I had  remembered, you see, watching Roger and Susan (they were the prom king and queen back at my brother's High School in Chicago)  and how they kind of cupped their hands and turned them in a twisty way, and I remembered thinking how I would have liked to try that if I was up there, too.

CM:  "Up there"?  Do you mean, on the parade float with Susan?

XIV:  No; with Roger.  

CM:  But what about blessing your flock in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit?

XIV:  It's funny you should mention it.  Somebody whispered that very suggestion to me while I was waving.  And who knows?  Maybe it would have been a good idea.  It's just that you want to practice a thing like that a few times before trying it on camera.  What if I did it backwards?

CM:  Indubitably.  And could you shed some light on why you chose the name, "Leo XIV"?

XIV:  Because the last Leo was called the thirteenth.  Googlei it for yourself.

CM: Regarding the question of "women's ordination," so called, that you have recently addressed, didn't John Paul II declare the subject closed, given that Jesus Christ Himself chose only men as apostles?

XIV:  I like that Jesus guy.  He really got to know people, right?  He was always going around saying stuff like, "You are Peter," " or  "the man you are with now is not your husband."   But you know what I like about Him the most?  That whole, "to each according to his need" thing.  Right now, I so totally need a deep dish pizza.  Could you Door Dash one for me?

CM:  But didn't Our Lord also condemn the religious leaders of His own time as a "viper's brood", not to mention "whited sepulchers"?  How does the modern-day focus on political correctness over dogma square with Sacred Scripture itself?

XIV:  What is a "sepulcher," anyway?  I told you I'm not very good at "Words with Friends."  Maybe I'll ask that guy with a nose like Papa Smurf''s.  I like that guy.  He's nice to me.  He gives me stuff.  He talks to me and helps me know what to do.. And when I do it,  he smiles  and says we have reached a point of "mutual respect."  I think that mutual respect is a very important point to reach; don't you?

CM:  Holiness, we'd like to thank you again for your time and your gracious availability.  Before we go, could we take a moment to get a little more insight into you as an individual?  Do you have, for example, a favorite movie?

XIV:  I always liked the Peter Sellers character from "Being There."  The world would be a better place if we could all be more like him.  But you thought I was going to say "The Blues Brothers," didn't you?  Ha, ha!

CM:  And your favorite song?

XIV:  "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" by Jimmy Buffett.  Well, there's the Door Dash guy now.  I hope he didn't forget the little packets of Parmesan cheese.

Note: This piece is by a Catholic Monitor contributor.

Pray an Our Father now for reparation for the sins committed because of Francis’s Amoris Laetitia and for the restoration of the Church.

Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.

Conclave Notes:

Has the Trad Media fallen into a COVID-like mass formation with Leo XVI? While it's humorous to see the former anti-Francis Trad pundits suddenly acting like teen age girls infatuated with Leo, it could lead to a Trojan Horse effect

It appears that a group of Bishops or Cardinals needs to give Leo XIV Dubia questions on if he still supports "Invalid and Sacrilegious" Confession

"Prevost’s reported support...allowing divorced & civilly 'remarried'...to receive Holy Communion": “Whoever…helps...promulgation of heresy…is suspected of heresy.” - The Catholic Monitor

-- Open letter urges Pope Leo XIV to correct ‘scandalous incoherence’ in Amoris Laetitia...[Wow! Even notorious Popesplainer Fr.] Harrison warns that Pope Francis taught a ‘dangerous self-contradiction’ on Communion for the divorced and ‘remarried,’ petitioning Pope Leo to correct the record. [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/08/open-letter-urges-pope-leo-xiv-to.html]

--  Dr. Seifert, regarded as one of the greatest living Catholic philosophers, founding Rector of the International Academy of Philosopher & friend of John Paul II, to Cardinals: INVESTIGATE FRANCIS' HERESIES, VALIDITY BEFORE THE CONCLAVE.."If Francis is found guilty of heresy or apostasy, then: - His cardinal appointments would be invalid" [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/04/dr-seifert-philosopher-personal-friend.html] 

-- Are the Cardinals who will participate in the upcoming conclave authentically appointed & morally justified in voting, or will the shadow of Francis's possible illegitimacy cast itself over the next papacy?  [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/04/are-cardinals-who-will-participate-in.html]

-- Pray for the soul of Francis, but now it is time for all the Catholic Cardinals, Bishops & pundits who have been saying that nothing can be addressed until he dies to be held accountable to act [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/04/pray-for-soul-of-francis-but-now-it-is.html]

-- 5 Dubia Questions for 1P5's Steve Skojec & All faithful Catholics especially Francis is definitely Pope Cardinals, Bishops & pundits [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/06/5-dubia-questions-for-steve-skojec.html]

-- DEFINE WONDERFUL: An Open Letter to John-Henry Westen, Deacon Fournier and Bishop Strickland [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2025/07/define-wonderful-open-letter-to-john.html

Francis Notes:

l– Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church in such a situation:

“[T]he Pope… WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See.”
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)

Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said “the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church.”
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]

– “If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html

– “Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?”: http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html

– If Francis betrays Benedict XVI & the”Roman Rite Communities” like he betrayed the Chinese Catholics we must respond like St. Athanasius, the Saintly English Bishop Robert Grosseteste & “Eminent Canonists and Theologians” by “Resist[ing]” him: https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/12/if-francis-betrays-benedict-xvi.html 

 –  LifeSiteNews, “Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial weight behind communion for adulterers,” December 4, 2017:

The AAS guidelines explicitly allows “sexually active adulterous couples facing ‘complex circumstances’ to ‘access the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'”

–  On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:

“The AAS statement… establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense.”

– On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:

“Francis’ heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters magisterial documents.”

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.

Election Notes: 

– Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: “212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted…Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden” [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]

– Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times “Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003”: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html

– Tucker Carlson’s Conservatism Inc. Biden Steal Betrayal is explained by “One of the Greatest Columns ever Written” according to Rush: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/tucker-carlsons-conservatism-inc-biden.html?m=1

– A Hour which will Live in Infamy: 10:01pm November 3, 2020:
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1

What is needed right now to save America from those who would destroy our God given rights is to pray at home or in church and if called to even go to outdoor prayer rallies in every town and city across the United States for God to pour out His grace on our country to save us from those who would use a Reichstag Fire-like incident to destroy our civil liberties. [Is the [J6] DC Capitol Incident Comparable to the Nazi Reichstag Fire Incident where the German People Lost their Civil Liberties?: http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/is-dc-capital-incident-comparable-to.html?m=1 and Epoch Times Show Crossroads on Capitol Incident: “Anitfa ‘Agent Provocateurs‘”:
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1] 

Pray an Our Father now for the grace to know God’s Will and to do it.

Pray an Our Father now for America.

Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.