By Donald A. Collins | 9 May 2025
Church and State
In viewing the attacks for example on abortion choice which culminated in the overturning of the almost 50 year Roe v Wade decision in 2022 and the subsequent attacks by the Trump administration on the availability of birth control means including an attempt to restrict the use of birth control contraceptives such as Mifiprestone should feel right at home with Pope Leo.
Whether or not the new pope will take any steps to lessen priests sexually attacking young choir boys or top RC leaders ignoring such behavior remains an open question.
Excellent! pic.twitter.com/5eoiQto1XW
— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) May 15, 2025
Pope Francis did show some liberality toward transsexuals, but the role of Catholic women may not be enhanced by Pope Leo XIV’s election.
In short, the same dreary, repressive and non-progressive attitudes about important things in our modern age are not going to change under pope Leo XIV.
However, there certainly should be some hope that Pope Leo XIV will understand the threat that Trump and his repressive colleagues pose to our constitutional democracy.
Perhaps the election of this first American pope was the result of the hope by Francis’ appointed majority of Cardinals voting that Pope Leo XIV would offer resistance to some of the many authoritarian Trump policies and attacks such as has occurred with our research universities, with racism, with non-scientific medical solutions, with restricting Trump’s attacks on our cultural icons, and our overall search for adherence to the rule of law under our constitution.
BREAKING: MAGA world melts down as the Catholic Church elects American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost to become Pope Leo XIV — a man who has slammed Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in the past.
Republicans wanted a far-right pope and instead they got a continuation of Pope… pic.twitter.com/S7MvrBhlsr
— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) May 8, 2025
But no one should be surprised if the RC hierarchy continues to oppose the modern secular verities, such as abortion choice, enthusiastically embraced by so many enlightened RC adherents.
Religious beliefs in various gods best survives in circumstances where tolerance prevails but fails when leadership fails to face reality!
Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?”, “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”, “Can Our U.S. Survive 8 Plus Billion of Us”, “Economic Growth: A Cancer on all Earthly Life”, “On the Precipice of Political Disaster in 2024”, “Democracy at Red State Risk”, “Does Trump Go to Jail or to The Oval Office?”, “Trump: Pardon or Punish?: The Nixon Precedence Was Not A Trump Coup Denied!”, and “Common Sense: When will Trump be Impeached, Indicted, and Exited?”.“What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”: https://t.co/fHuh0CG6JD
“We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”: https://t.co/TA4j7cp1tE
“From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”: https://t.co/lkC2t3E1A9 pic.twitter.com/bQsL2mLBcO— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) November 1, 2021
New Pope Robert Prevost to be known as Pope Leo XIV | BBC News
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What we know about Leo XIV, the new American pope
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