{"id":79954,"date":"2025-06-27T12:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T18:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=79954"},"modified":"2025-06-27T12:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T18:23:07","slug":"calgarians-feelings-about-pope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2025\/06\/27\/calgarians-feelings-about-pope\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgarians weigh in on the new American Pope\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Jaxyn Flunder, a missionary in Calgary, hopes that the election of an American-born pope will bring more North Americans into the church. (Photo by Aldin Avdic\/The Press<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Calgarians have mixed feelings about an American-born citizen being elected to lead the Roman Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find it odd. It seems like some sort of power move on the American side,\u201d said Haya Mhareb, a non-Catholic who\u2019s been following the election closely.<\/p>\n

For the first time in 2,000 years, the Roman Catholic Church elected a North American-born cardinal into the papacy on May 8, 2025.<\/p>\n

Robert Francis Prevost chose to be called Pope Leo XIV.<\/p>\n

His election comes at a time of tension between Canada and the United States, driven by talks of annexation and rising tariffs on goods.<\/p>\n

Mhareb fears that Trump will use the presence of an American in the papacy to assert American dominance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sometimes seems odd for one big country to have hands in everything and then continue to stretch out,\u201d said Mhareb.<\/p>\n

She said that she hopes the new pope doesn’t become a mouthpiece for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Some Calgarians view the Pope as having a low influence on world politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he were Canadian, maybe it would have more value because of nationalism,\u201d said Seth Ferguson, a non-Catholic Calgarian.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause he\u2019s not, it has very little impact especially if you’re not a Catholic,\u201d said Ferguson.<\/p>\n

Megan Calapardo grew up in an evangelical home but is now a practicing Catholic.<\/p>\n

Calapardo came to Canada from the Philippines nine years ago and feels people misunderstand the new pope because they judge him solely on being American.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn’t seem evil,\u201d said Calapardo.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people just have these backwards beliefs,\u201d said Calapardo. \u201cYou can’t speak about what’s happening because you have no interest in how [the church] runs. You have no interest in being a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaxyn Flunder moved from Red Deer to Calgary to join the Seeds of the World, an organization dedicated to spreading the word of God.<\/p>\n

Flunder was happy to see Pope Leo XIV in Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s experienced poverty. He\u2019s experienced America. He\u2019s experienced the poorest of the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flunder feels the church will bring more people in North America into the faith.<\/p>\n

The previous Popes mostly came from Europe. Pope Francis, who led the church from 2013 to 2025, was from Argentina and was the first Pope from the Americas.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, this could really change the way he can reach out to people. With our last Pope, and the part of the world where he was from, I feel like he was very misunderstood. A lot of times I hear people say they don\u2019t understand European culture,\u201d said Flunder.<\/p>\n

Rita Zak, a 72-year-old who rekindled her faith after experiencing what she calls a divine intervention, felt amazed at news of the 267th Pope.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really sweet because (he\u2019s) American (and has) western culture. He\u2019ll probably have a very deep understanding of it,\u201d said Zak.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Rita Zak, who rekindled her Catholic faith, celebrates news of an American pope.(Photo by Aldin Avdic\/ThePress<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calgarians have mixed feelings about an American-born citizen being elected to lead the Roman Catholic Church. [ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":945,"featured_media":79958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Pope","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-79954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-life"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79954"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79985,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79954\/revisions\/79985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}