Faith, Hope, and An American Pope

Written by Dr. Lo Sprague

“Lo” is the current President of The Guibord Center. She has dedicated her life to enabling others to find and follow the best within themselves. A recently-retired Jungian-oriented psychotherapist, she lives with her two "Little Lions" and works passionately to protect the lives and freedom of all animals.

Faith, Hope, and An American Pope

by | May 27, 2025

Dr. Lo Sprague

We in America find ourselves in a time of fragmentation and upheaval when the old norms of civility have gone missing, forced into hiding by a litany of anger and grievance that fills the air. We have been stunned and assaulted by the way cruelty has come to replace compassion in the Public Square and in the airwaves that surround us. We have been left to search for those who dare to show us how to hold onto our souls against this tide of self-centeredness and greed.

Our longed-for strength of goodness has been battered relentlessly but it has not disappeared. It lives on powerfully in the remarkable courage and faithfulness of many individuals and communities. Time and again they, like others, have chosen to resist turning against their neighbors even in the face of threats and amid their own staggering grief. They continue to do so in the shadow of a president who degrades our humanity at every turn in his efforts to eradicate any semblance of American decency.

In this context the very last thing millions of people around the world would have expected in the search for a new pope was that he would be an American. When the announcement came I was stunned. I could not have imagined it – or that my cheeks would be streaked with tears.

I’m not a Catholic – and yet, my heart was over-flowing with wonder. The Pope is an even larger figure than the President – a global figure of undisputed goodness and integrity: a perfect counter-balance to the darkness. The choice of Pope Leo XIV certainly seems like an answer to so very many prayers.

As I searched for the words to convey the depth of the hope that this new pope represents, I came across a sermon that my colleague, Rabbi Sharon Brous of IKAR preached to her congregation on the Sabbath following the announcement. It is in the form of a letter to Pope Leo XIV. With her permission, I am sharing it with you. It conveys far better than I can a sense of the enormity of both the task before him and the hope and prayers we in the faith communities and others bring to meet him.

https://ikar.org/events/a-letter-to-the-pope/

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