Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the 69-year-old American from Chicago elected Pope Leo XIV, marks a historic first after 2,000 years. Hosts debate his rumored conservative leanings and potential to unify the fractured Church while critiquing the ban on clergy marriage. Referencing viral memes of Donald Trump as the Pontiff and clips of the President's congratulations, the discussion highlights the symbolic shift during the Trump administration. Ultimately, this event challenges historical anti-Catholic sentiments in the U.S., suggesting a new era for the institution. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, Qwen/Qwen3-ForcedAligner-0.6B, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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America Gets a New Pope00:05:54
I did not expect this, you guys.
We were just talking on the live show about the Pope being announced.
We had just seen the smoke coming out of the chimney, and I cannot believe it.
I am so happy.
I am so happy for Catholics, for the church, and for America.
This is the first time in 2,000 years, ladies and gentlemen, that America has a Pope.
How do you like that?
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost.
He's going to be going by Pope Leo XIV.
That is the name he has taken.
He has just become the next Pope.
The Vatican making the announcement.
Of course, we knew it was coming when we saw the smoke moments ago.
Wow.
We have white smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel.
This means that we have a new Pope.
It is the third vote that's been taken.
This is quite frequent timing.
This is day two of the new Pope.
We have been waiting for this vote.
White smoke, any moment.
We'll see if this pope comes from the conservative wing of the party, the progressive wing, or is one of those consensus candidates.
We know that the pope has three outfits, one of each size.
So he will have something that he fits in.
In about 40 minutes for now, we will hear those words ring out that a new pope has been chosen.
And we will see who that pope is come out live on the balcony.
Harris, we've been waiting for this moment.
You've been covering it for the last two days.
So I want to talk a little bit about what comes next.
So it takes them about 40 minutes before.
they will let us know, sometimes a little bit longer than that.
Unbelievable.
You know, I don't get that emotional, especially for something like this, but I got to just tell you, this is one of those moments.
You think about Catholicism and all of its history and it being around for 2,000 years, and I know we're a young country, but this is the first time, and it's just kind of symbolic, don't you think?
I mean, symbolic.
I saw somebody tweeting out, hey, maybe the meme worked.
Remember the Trump meme?
I mean, the new Pope being American, it's a huge, huge, huge, huge deal.
Let's go to, I think this is some video.
Well, first, before I show you that, let me just show you.
Remember the Trump meme?
He took all kinds of flack for it.
Maybe that was a subtle way of saying, hey, Vatican, you don't want any terrorists, do you?
Make sure, make sure you put in somebody good.
And I think this guy might be really good.
If this is true, this is what's being circulated on Twitter.
Not only is he American, ladies and gentlemen, you got yourself a Republican.
A conservative Pope, Robert F. Prevost, age 69, out of Chicago.
He spent a lot of time down in Peru working with missionaries there.
Again, Pope Leo XIV is the name he is taking.
And don't forget, like the Catholic Church has been through a lot, right?
There's been a lot of fracturing.
You have these ideological sort of splints.
You've got people that are super progressive and more conservative wings.
And he is going to be seen as the guy who brings it all together.
And that's really, I think, in fact, what this church needs right now.
I mean, it's what the world needs, right?
Being brought together.
And so this is an opportunity.
Let's go to the video of him there in the formal pope robes, just walking out at the Vatican moment.
You know, I agree.
Peace of my mind.
There he is again, Pope Leo XIV greeting the crowds there at the Vatican.
I'm just telling peace of my mind.
I don't think it's a coincidence at all.
I think that they kind of heard the message loud and clear.
America's back, baby, right?
You've got America sort of in charge of the world again, Donald Trump in power.
And the Vatican did not want to be on the wrong side of Donald Trump or America for that matter.
Oh, somebody's saying, why are you calling him America?
Pope.
I kind of, you know, it's kind of neat to think that America has a pope.
Why don't we do that?
America has a pope.
It's incredible.
First in 2,000 years.
We don't know if he's conservative or liberal necessarily.
We know that people are putting out on Twitter that he's a registered Republican.
I have not vetted that myself, but gosh darn it, wouldn't that be great?
If that's the case, then yeah.
Holy moly.
I did.
I probably shouldn't say that.
Here we are.
I.
I just got to say, this is really kind of an amazing thing to see, just an amazing thing in that video coming to us courtesy of Sky.
Again, I just want to share with you, this is what is being shared on Twitter.
Somebody writing, it looks like the new pope is an American, a Republican.
I'm thinking we're back.
He worked in Peru, peace of my mind, pointing out for 20 years, it's correct.
Staying Relevant in the Real World00:06:52
He ran a missionary operation there.
He was well regarded for that.
The hope is that he can bring together, out of Lima, Peru, he can bring together his strong international network and try and sort of pacify both sides.
And that, you know, you've had a lot of negativity, right, surrounding the church.
And the guy who was there previously, the Argentine guy, he was uber socialist, right?
Like uber, uber, uber socialist.
Didn't seem to have a whole lot of use for Israel.
Really was on the side of the Palestinians, didn't have a lot of sympathy for what Israel's been going through, felt that we needed open borders, open borders on steroids.
That was all his belief.
And I think that, you know, that has kind of come and gone, and America has proved that.
Retired nurse, he is 69 years old, so young, right?
Hey, young.
Shields putting out, you know, he needs to clean up the Catholic Church.
I don't disagree with that.
I think the Catholic Church does have a lot.
of troubles.
I mean, look, you know, you kind of had me at the, you know, you can't marry thing.
I think that that would be kind of top of the agenda to fix.
I studied this actually at one point earlier in my academic career.
And when you look at sort of Italian history and how this all came about, what you find is that in the early days, you actually could marry.
But they wanted to make sure that they were preserving as much wealth as they could within the church.
So you didn't want to have people getting married.
and then therefore having kids and therefore splitting up the wealth.
In other words, they could keep it all to themselves, right, if whoever's coming into the church did not have offspring, did not have a wife.
So it was actually a very practical and economic reason why they reversed that.
In the beginning, you could, and then they reversed that because they wanted to hoard all the money for themselves.
I think they actually got to go back to basics because I think that's a big problem, frankly, for the church.
And I'm going to just tell you, like on a personal level, when my husband and I were going to get married, And we went into St. Patrick's Cathedral and met with a priest at like seven something in the morning just after Mass.
He'd invited us in.
And I hadn't been to church, Catholic church anyway, in kind of a while.
And I don't know as I anticipated all the questions that were coming.
But, you know, bottom line, I think my takeaway was I'm not comfortable with somebody who has never had a relationship with a woman in his life, has never had to deal with the challenges of parenthood telling me how to live my life.
So long story short, I wound up actually moving into the congregational church where we have a lot of fun.
And it's a little bit more self-governing.
And we don't have to answer to something like the Vatican.
You just answer to yourself, right?
But I think that if the church could kind of get back to some core values and maybe find some way through this no marriage thing, because that's honestly like it's attracting a base in terms of the priesthood that perhaps you don't necessarily want.
Well, we know we don't want, right?
You don't want what has happened to the Catholic Church to happen, period.
Full stop.
End of story.
So how do you modernize and make sure you're recruiting the best and the brightest?
I don't think you can expect people to give up an entire life.
And nor should you want somebody who has no experience with a spouse and the challenges of marriage and the challenges of raising a family trying to tell you what to do all the time, right?
Like, how are you supposed to like have a, you know, honest dialogue with somebody who has no clue?
what you are actually up against in the real world.
And so I think that there's a lot that the Catholic Church can do to improve upon that.
I also think it needs to make itself a little bit more fun.
I remember going to a Billy Graham revival when I was a correspondent at CBS News out in Queens, and I was like, you got to be kidding me.
This is amazing.
Like, they're dancing all over their place.
They're having a grand old time.
And so there's so much good that religion can do, and it's so powerful and so important.
But if you kind of have this negative environment, and frankly, I mean, in my estimation, but you're talking to somebody who is no longer a Catholic, in my estimation, there's a lot that it could do, that it should do, and it needs to do in order to stay relevant in the real world today.
And I guess I'm just getting a little emotional because I'm so patriotic, and I love to see the fact that America is getting a pope.
But I also think you need to take it a step further.
It's not just that America is getting a pope.
or an American pope has been elected, but that there's an opportunity here to modernize the church in good ways.
And when I say modernize, it's not, you know, like, okay, we got to do progressive stuff.
But, you know, come to the realization that people are people.
And in order to have the best people representing you in your church, you need to make sure that you are somewhat accessible to getting the best talent.
And you're not going to get the best talent when you tell somebody they can't ever get married in life, okay?
Or you're going to get some other kind of talent.
That's just the reality of the world.
And I would also say one of the frustrating things I find with the Catholic Church now is you go, at least where I live, you go to Mass and nobody has English as their first language.
Everybody's from the Philippines or somewhere else.
Because who the heck wants to be a priest?
Like, no one.
And the nuns forget about it.
So how do you manage that going forward?
I think that the church has some real problems.
And I'll tell you, in Italy, nobody's a practicing Catholic anymore.
You go to Ireland.
Where the church like ran everything right, they still actually run the public schools.
It's sort of weird like the Catholic church runs your public schools yeah, um.
But I, I look to Ireland, I I think about how sad that is, because some of my cousins over there have said to me, gee, you know, you're so lucky that you have the opportunity say, to go to a congregational church we can't.
And if we did, because it's so identified with, like you know your, your who, you are, your very being right because of the orange and the green and the wars that have been fought over religion, Protestantism and Catholicism there, you don't have that optionality.
You probably don't have a Protestant church in your town.
And even if you did, it would be really weird because the Protestants were the ones that, you know, kept the Catholics down.
So you've got all of this that you got to get through.
Breaking Out of the Ivory Tower00:06:29
And it's a shame because religion can do so much good.
And we want it to do so much good because it's just an important part of life and something else.
But I've got to tell you, the Trump meme, I'm thinking it worked.
I'm really thinking that this had the intended effect.
The media flipped out.
Oh, Catholics were so offended.
No, they weren't offended.
Here was Trump's response to that one.
Times greater, I believe, but far greater than the numbers that you're putting out.
It's a very, very deadly, horrible war.
Okay?
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Sweet Catholics were not so happy about the image of you looking like the Pope.
Oh, I see.
You mean they can't take a joke?
You don't mean the Catholics.
You mean the fake news media.
Not the Catholics loved it.
I had nothing to do with it.
Somebody made up a picture of me dressed like the Pope, and they put it out on the Internet.
That's not me that did it.
I have no idea where it came from.
Maybe it was AI, but I know nothing about it.
I just saw it last evening.
Actually, my wife thought it was cute.
She said, isn't that nice?
My question about.
Actually, I would not be able to be married, though.
That would be a lot.
To the best of my knowledge, popes aren't big on getting married, are they?
Not that we know of, no.
No.
I think it's a fake news media that, you know, they're fakers.
My question, though, sir, was about the fact that it was put out on the White House account, even though it was AI generated, it was a joke, it was a meme.
substance of the official White House account to have it go out on that particular day.
Give me a break.
It was just somebody did it in fun.
It's fine.
Have to have a little fun, don't you?
You do have to have a little fun.
And hey, on the margin, if you actually get an American Pope, it was worth it, right?
I mean, incredible, incredible.
I also like how he mentioned, oh gosh, but wait a second, I wouldn't be able to be married now, would I?
Oh, okay, well there goes that.
That might have even been, you know what I was just talking about, guys, right?
Is it one of the problems with the Catholic Church is then allow anybody to get married and then you're attracting a whole other element and then you can't get anybody sort of, you know, that you want?
Here in America, wanting to become, who the heck wants to be a Catholic priest for goodness sakes?
Think about if you actually change some of these rules, what you could open it up to because you want people who have actually had real world experience advising people.
I don't like the idea I told you of somebody who's never had a relationship with a woman somehow coming in and saying, I know how these marriages should work.
No, you don't.
You've never had to be married for goodness sakes.
You don't know how it is to parent.
You don't know the stress of everyday life.
You're living in some literally ivory tower, right, in the priesthood, not relating to everyday folks.
And so this is an opportunity in so many ways to really start to, I think, bring Catholicism back if they're really willing to do this.
We'll see what he can actually accomplish.
I want to go to Donald Trump's response on the news and the American Pope.
Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis, Prevost.
who was just named Pope.
It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope.
What excitement.
What a great honor for our country.
I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV.
It will be a meaningful moment.
Donald Trump acknowledging what a big freaking deal this is for America to have the first Pope ever in 2000 years since they've been having popes.
I mean, this is really, really, really incredible.
And I got to tell you, it happened right away.
I mean, it's only been a couple of days, right?
Usually they get that smoke going forever.
So a little bit more about the gentleman.
He spent a lot of time in Lima, Peru, of course, built the archdiocese there in Peru, built a very strong international network.
It's being reported within the church while working as the late Pope Francis' chief official for the appointment of bishops in large parts of the world.
So highly connected, 69 years old.
I cannot confirm whether or not the Twitter acknowledgement of his political party is true.
But it's nice to think about right, um amazing 2 000 year history of this church and this is the first time America has a seat at the table with the pope.
So this is a very big deal and I just wonder like how much of it, how much of it might be related to Donald Trump as president, the acknowledgement that America is darn serious very, very serious, about where we're heading.
His insistence that we start having everyone, I mean, hey, even the Vatican, right?
Paying their fair share.
I would not underestimate the Donald Trump effect in all of this.
I mean that because it's sort of like we're living in a new time, in a new dawn.
I want to go again to the video of the Pope here coming out on the Vatican balcony.
Here we go.
Let me see first.
Here we are.
Cardinal Lomberti.
The cardinal proto-deacon.
Cardinal Dominique Lomberti.
And he's smiling.
He's smiling.
He will give us the announcement.
Here we are.
Suspense.
Annuncio vobis Gaudium Manium.
Abemus Papam.
Abemus Papam.
Eminentissimum, Eminentissimum, Ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Robertum Franciscum, Sancte Romane Ecclesiae Cardinaleum Prevost.
An American Leader for Latin America00:04:45
Quisi bi nomen imposuit Leonem Decimum Quartum.
So the Pope is Cardinal Robert Francis Provost, who's taken the name of Leo XIV, Pope Leo XIV.
Cardinal Provost is an American, and he spent most of his ministry in Latin America and in Peru and also in Paraguay.
And he's an Augustinian father.
He was the provision.
Okay.
An American Pope.
Kind of an amazing thing, right?
Only, you know, and I know, you know, a lot of you guys don't really care and, you know, maybe you're not Catholic and, you know, maybe none of this is that relevant in your daily lives.
I get it.
But it's symbolic.
It's symbolic.
I mean, just the other day you had the media all worked up about this one.
And what did Donald Trump say when he was outside the chopper?
He said, gee, I'd like them to pick an American.
And they joked about maybe it would be him.
But like I don't think that was lost.
They picked an American Pope and somebody who's seen as not crazy left.
This is not like a crazy left socialist.
So this is a massive deal and it speaks volumes about the direction the world is heading.
So this is good news for us, good news for America, good news for the Catholic Church, which needs to do a lot to kind of become more relevant. in the world today.
And I got to say, I'm really happy.
I'll tell you, my grandmother would be thrilled, absolutely, positively thrilled.
You know, this is almost as good as an Irish Pope.
No, I think it's better.
She was American through and through.
Anyway, Pope Leo XIV, let's hope he can unify.
Let's hope he can make religion more relevant.
You know, I think back to the FBI reports of going in and trying to arrest Catholics for going to mass in Latin.
Remember that?
We had Michael Knowles on the show.
He was reporting on that at the time.
They really were somehow trying to target anybody who was Catholic and went to Mass in Latin because you were thought to be possibly a threat to America.
Unbelievable, right?
Well, now we get an American Pope.
How do you like that?
We got Donald Trump as president.
How do you like that?
Okay, so take that, Joe Biden's FBI, for goodness sakes.
It's a really, really good, good thing.
And I wish him all the very best.
Catholicism still, not for me, not for me.
You know, it's ethnically who I am, but I have made an adult decision that I want to have a little more fun on Sunday.
And the Congregationalists have better music.
But I would say, and they allow people to be married in the church, which is kind of, to me, kind of central to what you want and what you want to encourage.
But I think that, you know, Catholicism's been around for a whole long time.
And hopefully this guy can take them into the future a little bit more.
So we wish them very, very well.
This is an extra special edition of the Trish Regan Show just to cover all this big news with the Vatican.
I don't know.
Was he speaking Spanish or Italian?
I speak both and I did not hear either one.
I think that was Latin.
He was speaking Latin.
People were upset that he wasn't speaking English.
Well, you know, Latin's kind of the language of the church.
And that's a big deal to them, Latin.
I think the original Bible was written in Greek and then it was translated to Latin.
Anyway.
I will let you think about this.
Let me know on the comments what you think.
Don, you're a terrible Catholic, but this morning you're Catholic.
I love it.
I know.
I'm like, you know, I feel very Catholic right now.