Pope Leo XIV, 80th Anniversary of Defeating Nazis, Removing Habeas Corpus, and Recapping a Week in Financial Markets
A weekend briefing to "lift up ordinary people", as Pope Leo XIV has pledged
In today’s weekend briefing newsletter, you’ll find the following:
My thoughts on the new Pope who has pledged to “lift up ordinary people”
The changing world order 80 years after defeating the Nazis
Premium: Trump considering the removal of habeas corpus and what consequences that could have, plus recapping a week in financial markets and looking towards the week ahead
Note: if you missed the 5 books that transformed my worldview, you can read or watch here.
An American Pope for ordinary people globally
Pope Leo XIV held his first mass as pontiff on Friday morning inside the Sistine Chapel. In his homily he pledged to lift up “ordinary people.” He called for missionary outreach to help “heal the wounds that afflict our society.”
But perhaps my favorite quote came when he introduced himself to the world on Thursday from the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square, where he called on Catholics to:
“Be a missionary Church, building bridges, dialogue, always open to receiving with open arms for everyone…, open to all, to all who need our charity, our presence, dialogue, love…, especially to those who are suffering.”
This is what Catholics must do to maintain relevancy in an increasingly secular world. Pound the pavement. Meet people in the streets. Build bridges between the issues that divide us.
Pope Francis emphasized finding bishops that were active in their communities. And Pope Leo XIV, whom Pope Francis had appointed to the powerful role of Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, was responsible for selecting and supervising bishops worldwide. Pope Francis put him in that role for a reason.
Pope Leo XIV, or Father Robert Prevost as he was known back then, spent years working and living in Peru. When an influx of Venezuelan migrants came to Peru, some Peruvians accused them of being criminals. There was a lot of cultural pressure against helping them, and plenty of backlash for those who did.
Sound familiar, my fellow Americans?
But then Bishop Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, did not let that stop him. According to local priests, he mobilized local churches, clergy, and lay leaders to feed, house, clothe, and care for the Venezuelan migrants.
In this regard, Pope Leo XIV very much follows in the footsteps of his predecessor Pope Francis. And he’s not afraid to wade into the political fray or speak out about the global migration crisis.
When Vice President JD Vance tried to apply the Catholic concept ‘ordo amoris’, which is Latin for ‘order of love’, then Cardinal Prevost corrected him on X:
He explained to Vance that Jesus does not ask us to rank our love for others. This came after a JD Vance Fox News appearance where he attempted to rationalize expelling migrants and illegal immigrants — some without due process — by citing the Catholic ‘order of love’, arguing we should be focusing our love on our family, community, and citizens first.
This is antithetical to Jesus’s teaching that called for loving thy neighbor as thyself.
‘Ordo amoris’ was first used by St. Augustine, the influential Catholic bishop of the early church who is the namesake of the order that Pope Leo XIV belonged to — the Augustinians. Similar to the Jesuits, the Augustinians are an order that’s very focused on education and the intersection of wisdom and faith.
I should know — I went to Villanova Law School, an Augustinian school, which sits across the SEPTA train tracks from where the future Pope Leo XIV attended undergrad, earning a B.S. in mathematics from Villanova University.
As The Catholic News Agency describes, ‘ordo amoris’ is “not meant to diminish the importance of loving all people as Christ commanded but does acknowledge that certain relationships, practically speaking, carry more immediate obligations.”
This will likely not be the last time Pope Leo XIV has to serve as a counterweight to his fellow Catholics in the United States like JD Vance, Steve Bannon, and Roger Stone, all of whom are close to President Donald Trump.
I have to wonder if this is precisely why the Vatican chose to finally select an American Pope.
The conservative movement in the American Catholic Church has gained significant steam in recent years, particularly amongst young men. Many of them are staunch defenders of Donald Trump, and many had big problems with the letter Pope Francis sent to all U.S. Bishops in February 2025, shortly before his death, excoriating the administration’s handling of immigration and due process.
What’s clear, however, is that Pope Leo XIV was not elected solely because of his American citizenship. Much of his adulthood has been spent outside the United States, whether in Peru or in senior roles at the Vatican. He’s an expert in Canon Law and can speak numerous languages (rare for us Americans!), addressing St. Peter’s Square on Thursday in both Italian and Spanish.
But then again, the new Pope is also allegedly a baseball fan, which brings him even closer to my heart. According to the Pope’s brother, who refers to him as “Bob”, he’s a fan of the Chicago White Sox and has been known to explain the rules of baseball to his Italian friends.
Most likely, Pope Leo XIV was elected not for his love of baseball or his American citizenship, but for his vision. He appears to be a centrist that will not do anything radical to change womens’ role in the mass or grant more rights to LGBTQ people, appeasing the conservative Catholic wing, but will push forward on other areas of Pope Francis’s legacy. Namely, the focus on marginalized peoples and missionary outreach.
I wish the Catholic Church would modernize some of its doctrine by permitting women to be priests, allowing priests to marry, and recognizing that love is love regardless of sexual orientation. But I suppose we would be unreasonable to expect too much all at once from a new pope.
What I do hope for is that Pope Leo XIV follows in the footsteps, not only of Pope Francis, but of Pope Leo XIII. The latter led the Catholic Church from 1878 to 1903, and founded modern Catholic social teaching.
Pope Leo XIII focused the church on social and economic issues during the Gilded Age in America, where wealth inequality spiked globally as countries industrialized and robber barons cornered resources. He also emphasized the dignity of individuals, community, and caring for marginalized peoples. The previous Pope Leo recognized the common good, not the good for a few, or some contorted interpretation of concepts like ‘ordo amoris.’
Any takeaway that Pope Leo XIV is simply an American Pope is incomplete. Most evidence suggests that he’s intent on continuing the legacy of his predecessor, in addition to challenging those who want to strip rights away from migrants, immigrants, or displaced peoples.
Pope Leo XIV isn’t simply an American Pope. He’s a Pope for all ordinary people globally. And I couldn’t be more excited and thankful to have a positive voice of hope in the current uncertainty plaguing the world.
V-E day - the 80th anniversary of defeating Nazi Germany
Some of the most concerning uncertainty that plagues our world is geopolitical. The New York Times Paris Bureau Chief, Roger Cohen, captured this uncertainty best here:
“Fear has spread, in Europe as in the United States. Europeans acquire burner phones, devoid of content, for visits to the United States, as if they were headed for Iran.”
This is the new world we live in where Russia and China increasingly grow closer in their opposition to America (note: we need to divide them). It’s a world where Trump appears intent on strong-arming even America’s closest allies while simultaneously appeasing (Russia) and attacking (China) her adversaries. Constitutional rights have been stripped from certain immigrants and even students who simply write op-ed pieces the administration doesn’t like.
No wonder Europeans don’t want to visit America with smartphones that might have critical Trump content. If they even visit at all. Tourism is way down to start the Trump presidency.
This all comes as we remembered V-E Day on May 8th. It was a day that French President Emmanuel Macron and American President Joe Biden commemorated together just a year ago. But despite the fact this year marked the 80th year since defeating the Nazis in Europe, Donald Trump was nowhere to be found on the continent.
Perhaps Europe appreciates the fragility of freedom a little more than her American counterpart. She may have a more direct and painful memory of what the loss of democracy and the spread of fascism did to her continent.
It’s up to all of us to simply acknowledge and call out any degradation of democratic rights. Silence leads to the further erosion of rights, albeit slowly most of the time. But like any gradual erosion of a muddy, unstable hill, the mudslide can come suddenly. And when it does, it is horrific and often deadly.
In case you missed it — 5 books that transformed my worldview
I wrote about the 5 books that transformed my worldview. I featured the video in my last newsletter, with the goal of describing the books that have been most impactful to how I see the world.
As I wrote in that newsletter, people are reading fewer books. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this drop in reading coincides with a rise in autocracies around the world. When people are less informed or incapable of thinking critically, they’re at higher risk of manipulation.
So with that in mind I wanted to share the books that have helped me, not only to learn to love reading, but how to see the world in all its complexities.
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Removing habeas corpus and making sense of markets
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