Healing Tones

Robert Francis Prevost, born in Chicago in the middle of the 20th Century, became the first American born Pope on May 8th, 2025. Ten-thousand people from many parts of the world filled St. Peter’s Square as the whole world tuned into the conclave of 133 cardinals who came to Rome from 14 countries to choose from among their number their new leader and head of the Catholic Church. “Habemus Papam!” was the announcement in Latin from the traditional balcony of St. Peter Basilica overlooking the square where the people congregate to see the Holy Father, as he is known, and to receive his blessing: “We have a Pope!”

There are 1.375 billion Catholics in the world, of which nearly half live in the US. That’s half the number of Christians and nearly 18% of the current global population. That’s a critical mass which can, heeding the words of their newly elected leader, lever the fallen consciousness of humanity and thereby transform the world.

Marianne Williamson posted the following commentary on this momentous event. Her response resonates with my own. Coming from a devout Catholic family, and having spent seven years in seminary studying for the priesthood, I still have a love in my heart for the many friends and seminary classmates who traveled with me in those early years of searching and pursuing our vocations in life . . . one of whom recently reconnected with me after years of search. He went to Rome for his four years of Theology and ordination. We met in the seminary Gregorian chant choir, which I loved conducting. We sang ballads with guitar together and became best and forever friends. I felt a strong calling to a priestly life of service, and I have answered that calling in the healthcare field as a spirit-led chiropractor and holistic physician. So, Marianne’s words rest easy in my heart. I would like to share them with you now in this blog post.

TRANSFORM with Marianne Williamson

Humanitarians, progressives and Christians who are truly interested in the teachings of Christ are jubilant over the choice of Robert Prevost as Pope. At a moment when American public policy reflects a moral abyss – inverting every injunction to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and help the poor into its opposite- the first American Pope stands as a reminder of the American soul we seem to have misplaced.

I don’t know if any of the Cardinals who voted for Prevost were consciously sticking it to Trump and Musk by doing so. They say not, but they knew what they were doing either consciously or unconsciously. We need a moral counterforce to rising authoritarianism in the world today, particularly given that the United States has joined its ranks. Whatever the Pope says, the world will hear. And Pope Leo XIV, we can tell already, will be saying quite a lot.

Many have noted the holiness of Leo’s visage and I agree. But I see something else there too. There’s a mischievous twinkle in those newly anointed eyes, as though he knows some things and he’s about to say them. I’m not Catholic but I believe in divinely inspired decisions. You don’t have to be Catholic to get the feeling God had His hand in this one.

Some have argued that people are making way too big a deal about Leo’s election. Not everyone likes certain things he’s said and done, after all, and the Pope has no actual political power on the world stage. But anyone who influences over a billion people with every word he says is inherently relevant. He who touches the heart holds the greatest lever of power, and it’s the only power that can possibly save the world in time. In his first homily, Pope Leo called for the Catholic priesthood to show humility. That’s a big deal, because the meek after all will inherit the earth. Their strength will take the place over.

Leo expresses a spiritual wisdom that is universal, harkening to Truths that speak to people of all faiths and to no faith. He doesn’t talk b.s. He talks about Love. Promising to further the tradition of Pope Francis, while the world speaks of war we can expect that he will speak for peace. In a world obsessed with billionaires, he will point to the least of these. While some are trying to colonize space, he will speak of saving the earth. As he said in his first appearance as Pope, “Evil will not win.”

Gandhi had a word for that: Satyagraha. Satyagraha means insistence on the truth of the heart even when challenged by the lies of the world, such insistence a form of nonviolent resistance to all systems of oppression. We can hold to what we know in our hearts regardless what devilish propaganda declares that cruelty is okay, or idolatry patriotic. Satyagraha is the secret source of nonviolent revolution. It changes the world because it changes us.

Pope Francis had satyagraha. Abraham Lincoln had satyagraha. Martin Luther King, Jr. had satyagraha. The world’s greatest people have had and have it. They are those who refuse to forget the truth in our hearts, who refuse to look away from human suffering or ignore the call for love that goes out from every soul.

In the days ahead, the world will indeed be blessed if we have another satyagraha Pope. Many people, not just Catholics, could feel something powerful in the air when Robert Prevost was elected last week. May God work through him and stand beside him, as he so obviously stands with us.

Jesus’s words of command are love of God with all and love of one another as self. We should never underestimate the power of love in expression through the collective heart of a critical mass of humanity. Like the rudder of a great ship on the high seas, such power can and will change the course of our current destination and head us in the direction of a collective transformation that will take us victoriously into the Golden Age of a New Earth.

Love God with all and neighbor as Self . . . even your neighbor who doesn’t worship God the way you do in your church. Many have a critical view of the Catholic Church, which has a history, in concert with three other churches, of condemning witchcraft and approving burning them, along with heretics, alive at the stake. I have struggled with this for years being a student of religious history and aspirant to the Catholic priesthood. Judgement has come easily into my heart and mind. Still does. Let it go! Let it go! Let it go! It’s hard at times not to judge others . . . and self, for that matter. But it’s absolutely essential to the salvation and restoration of our species; the restoration of Man, male and female, to our ordained role as co-creators with God in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. It’s critical to all life on Earth.

Words of a ballad I wrote and sang back in the 1960’s entitled “What Do You See When You See?” come to mind: “Man, you’re the reason for hatred; Man, you’re the reason for love; Man, you’re the keeper of Eden! What’s in your heart when you see?” And the closing phrase: “Man, you are love. Can’t you see?”

On this special day when we remember our mothers with love and appreciation, I give deep thanks for my mother and for all mothers through whose wombs we all were born into this world to love and live life fully. We are all mothers in that we are created to bring forth the spirit of God through the womb of our hearts. I send you the blessing of my love and appreciation for sharing the thoughts and meditations of my heart. Until my next post . . .

. . . be love; be loved.

Anthony

Email: tpal70@gmail.com