The motto of one newly elected American world leader: " Fight! " The other introduced himself to the world with his first public word as pope: “ Peace."

While Pope Leo XIV presides over a flock of 1.4 billion people from within Vatican City, there’s one worldly responsibility he may not escape: Uncle Sam.

As a Chicagoan who teaches at Villanova University, it was surreal for me to watch the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as Pope Leo XIV last Thursday. The new pontiff grew up in Chicago and graduated from Villanova,