Painting the New Pope – My Latest on Catholicmom.com

Used with permission from the Cleveland Art Museum

John Rogers Cox  (American 1915-1990)

 “Good painting offers a mysterious pleasure that one cannot quite put his finger on because the painter, through honesty and hard work, has actually painted his own personality in a familiar subject; and any person’s personality or character or soul, or whatever your word is for it, is something of an enigma (“Gray and Gold”).

Leo XIV is the first pope to grow up immediately after the Second Vatican Council. That’s a burden I have been dealing with since I was 10. I vividly remember happily learning Bible stories and the history of the patriarchs in my little Catholic School during fourth-grade religion class. Our books had beautiful pictures, and the stories were so exciting. I looked forward to learning more in fifth grade.

But it was not to be. There was so much confusion about what to teach during that time that apparently the powers that be opted not to teach the faith at all, or at least not in its entirety. Only a few years ago, I learned the idea was to have the students “experience” the faith instead of bogging us down with catechesis. The result was that many of us graduated from high school knowing nothing about Catholicism. The consequences of that are still apparent. 

But Pope Leo seems to have grown in his faith. I am eagerly looking forward to hearing the story of how that elusive spirit of Vatican II and the subsequent endless burlap banners of cocoons to butterflies affected the new pontiff! 

The church at a crossroads 

Just as the Gray and Gold painting showed the country at a crossroads, America and the Church are also standing at an intersection. Will the church continue in the style of Pope Francis? Or will Pope Leo XIV be more of a unifier, giving importance to tradition and the faith while guiding and guarding the church in the 21st century? Whichever way we go, the storm clouds and threat will loom — they always do.  

Read the rest here.