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I don't know if you've heard already, but there's a new pope in town.

Not only is he American -- the first U.S.-born head of the Catholic Church -- but he's also from Chicago, which is close enough to where I live to have sent a thrill of victory through me when I heard the announcement.

For Greek people, it's like hearing someone famous is Greek. Did you know Jennifer Aniston is half-Greek?

She's one of us.

In the aftermath of the news about the papal election, there were plenty of funny pictures and videos generated about Pope Leo XIV's Chicago roots. There was one of him emerging on the Vatican balcony in his papal vestments to The Alan Parsons Project's "Sirius," also known as the intro music for the Chicago Bulls. Another picture showed him dressed as Mike Ditka. The Chicago Sun-Times headline for the story was "Da Pope." A famous Chicago hot dog stand wrote "He's eaten our dogs" on their billboard in Latin.

Great fun was had.

A lot of media people bothered the pope's brother, who was forced to tell every reporter from the local newspapers on up to The New York Times which Chicago baseball team the pope liked as a lad. It's the White Sox, as it turns out, although one of his parents was a St. Louis Cardinals fan, so at least Cubs fans narrowly escaped having that to deal with.

You'd be forgiven, consuming the media coverage around these parts, for thinking Pope Leo was a real hometown boy, though it seems to me he spent a heck of a lot more time in Peru, South America, than in Peru, Illinois. He was an actual missionary, the kind of "put your money where your mouth is" Catholic that even I, a non-Catholic, can respect.

So it's interesting to see the reaction among American conservatives to his election to the papacy.

Just a few months ago, Pope Leo, then known as Cardinal Robert Prevost, tweeted out an article critical of Vice President JD Vance's statements about how Christians are instructed to care for those who are close to them above all, then spread the care outward. In introducing the article, Prevost said this: "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others."

The new pope burned you on Twitter? That, my friends, is what my 6-year-old would call "an owie."

Vance prides himself on his Catholic scholarship and converted in 2019 in no small part due to his affinity for St. Augustine. He even selected him as his patron saint.

Leo XIV is no slouch in that regard, though. He was an Augustinian friar and is the first Augustinian pope, according to his official Vatican biography, which also said that he "defended his doctoral thesis on 'The Role of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine'" in 1987.

"His episcopal motto is 'In Illo uno unum' -- words pronounced by Saint Augustine in a sermon on Psalm 127 to explain that 'although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one,'" the biography reads.

Now, I'm no scholar, but it sounds like he knows quite a bit to me.

In response to Pope Leo's election, Vance had this to say on Twitter: "Congratulations to Leo XIV, the first American Pope, on his election! I'm sure millions of American Catholics and other Christians will pray for his successful work leading the Church."

Note that Vance did not say that he would be praying for the pope. But someone will, he's sure of it!

Laura Loomer, President Donald Trump's erratic (some might say "crazy") advisor, hates the new pope. On Twitter, she called Leo XIV a Marxist puppet and bashed him for praying for George Floyd.

Honestly, though, the new pope is no Marxist. He's not even a liberal. Like Pope Francis before him, he's not going to come out in favor of gay marriage, or women serving as priests or any number of more traditionally liberal ideas. He has simply reflected the beliefs that have been the cornerstone of Catholic faith for hundreds of years: Help the poor. Welcome the visitor. Be kind to all.

Disagreeing with those positions doesn't make you old school Catholic. It means you skipped school entirely.

But whatever. I don't think the pope particularly needs the approval of Loomer, or Vance or any other Republicans.

After all, he's tough. He's from Chicago.

He's one of us.

To learn more about Georgia Garvey, visit GeorgiaGarvey.com.

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