I have very learned friends from my days as an undergraduate who have been devout Roman Catholics for almost 70 years. One pointed out that Leo XIII was the first to grasp the power of film as a means of reaching a wider audience. Perhaps Leo XiV chose his name to reflect a decision to use the great power of social media to reach out to the world.
One could say, well, using social media is simply how things are done today so of course Leo will use it. My friends and I opined that perhaps Leo XIV might be looking to use social media to combat the "evil" that social media has cultivated. Donald Trump's team has stated that it seeks information dominance meaning that anybody or any notion that Trump's team does not like gets swamped by a barrage of social media on all fronts.
The notion is that social media has been weaponized by the powerful and not just by Putin and Xi but by Trump. I think this is probably true. If Leo believes this too then perhaps he is planning to bring his considerable ecclesiastical knowledge to the "struggle" for the hearts and minds of Christians in the US who may still think that Trump gets a pass because he managed to stack the US Supreme Court with conservative Christians.
If anybody on the planet has the stature to take on conservative Christians it would be a pope and especially one who may be planning to use social media to combat the idiocy of "so called" Christians who really don't behave like the god/man they claim to worship.
I think that both of you made a good point regarding the nature of the institution that is the Roman Catholic church. Institutions matter a great deal. They are how we enshrine values we hope will outlive us. My father joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on his 18ty birthday in 1944. He trained as bomber crew but the war ended before he finished his training so he never saw combat. In his mid-90's he told me that his greatest disappointment in life was that the United Nations had failed to end wars.
There are a large number of transnational institutions which were established in the aftermath of WWII devoted to making the world a better place. We see Trump trying to undo much of the good that was done. For us to survive Trump we need American institutions to contain him and we need the many transnational institutions to survive so that the world does not end up being run by bullies.
I forgot my punch line. And that the Roman Catholic Church is one of, if not the, world's largest transnational institution.
I have very learned friends from my days as an undergraduate who have been devout Roman Catholics for almost 70 years. One pointed out that Leo XIII was the first to grasp the power of film as a means of reaching a wider audience. Perhaps Leo XiV chose his name to reflect a decision to use the great power of social media to reach out to the world.
One could say, well, using social media is simply how things are done today so of course Leo will use it. My friends and I opined that perhaps Leo XIV might be looking to use social media to combat the "evil" that social media has cultivated. Donald Trump's team has stated that it seeks information dominance meaning that anybody or any notion that Trump's team does not like gets swamped by a barrage of social media on all fronts.
The notion is that social media has been weaponized by the powerful and not just by Putin and Xi but by Trump. I think this is probably true. If Leo believes this too then perhaps he is planning to bring his considerable ecclesiastical knowledge to the "struggle" for the hearts and minds of Christians in the US who may still think that Trump gets a pass because he managed to stack the US Supreme Court with conservative Christians.
If anybody on the planet has the stature to take on conservative Christians it would be a pope and especially one who may be planning to use social media to combat the idiocy of "so called" Christians who really don't behave like the god/man they claim to worship.
I think that both of you made a good point regarding the nature of the institution that is the Roman Catholic church. Institutions matter a great deal. They are how we enshrine values we hope will outlive us. My father joined the Royal Canadian Air Force on his 18ty birthday in 1944. He trained as bomber crew but the war ended before he finished his training so he never saw combat. In his mid-90's he told me that his greatest disappointment in life was that the United Nations had failed to end wars.
There are a large number of transnational institutions which were established in the aftermath of WWII devoted to making the world a better place. We see Trump trying to undo much of the good that was done. For us to survive Trump we need American institutions to contain him and we need the many transnational institutions to survive so that the world does not end up being run by bullies.