The Popecast: A History of the Papacy

On his first anniversary, a reflection on Pope Leo XIV's election as Bishop of Rome. Where were you on that day? What do you remember?

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Where to find The Popecast:

Dr. Matt Ponesse – or @medievalistmatt as he's known by so many – is a medieval history professor by day and a world-class memelord over on Instagram by…earlier in the day, as you'll learn in this episode. His calling card is using the marginalia from ancient manuscripts – the little doodles off to the side of the text itself – sometimes irreverent, sometimes just odd, but always hilarious when seen through 21st Century eyes.

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[BOOK] A Canticle for Leibowitz: https://amzn.to/3LFqGa7

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Our favorite fellow papal history buff is back with us this week, Fr. Richard Kunst from the Diocese of Duluth Minnesota, here to talk about meeting Pope Leo XIV, his huge upcoming exhibit at the Mall of America, and some other little tidbits you won’t want to miss about traveling to and around Rome.

Fr. Rich's website: ⁠papalartifacts.com⁠

Our pope this week bears a familiar name to us in the present day, was one half of a powerful alliance between a pope and one of the greatest Western kings to ever live, and even had something in common with the current United States president. Stay tuned to the end to find out what it is.

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Where to find The Popecast:

FROM THE EPISODE:

FROM THE EPISODE:

- Check out The Scriptorium Project: https://thescriptoriumproject.com

- Order from Dr. D.P. Curtin on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3J5oPtF

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The guy we’re covering this week was nothing short of a prophet. He called out society’s future ills decades before they actually happened, and reigned as pope through the assassination of an American President, the sexual revolution, and a sweeping reform in the Catholic Church.

FROM THE EPISODE:

- Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler - https://amzn.to/3Hmn8XV

- Humanae Vitae (full text): https://www.papalencyclicals.net/paul06/p6humana.htm

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Where to find The Popecast:

Since there's a Pope Leo in the Vatican for the first time in over a century, we thought it might be nice to learn about the ORIGINAL Leo, who came to power at one of Catholicism’s first major turning points – the collapse of the Roman Empire and the simultaneous rise of the Church as the caretaker of civilization. Spiritual and corporeal danger alike were brewing beyond the walls of the Eternal City, but this GREAT pontiff was up to the task.

Read the Tome of Leo here: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3604028.htm

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HABEMUS PAPAM! The cardinals elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, OSA on the evening of Thursday, May 8, after which the new pontiff took the regnal name of Pope Leo XIV.

Here's our armchair reflections on the election, his first appearance to the world from St. Peter's Basilica, and what to be thinking about in the weeks and months ahead.

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Friend of the show and renowned papal memorabilia collector Fr. Richard Kunst rejoins The Popecast to talk about the Conclave of 1903 and the last instance of "jus exclusivae" – the right assumed by Catholic monarchs for centuries to veto a pick for the next pope (through their cardinal primate) if they found a particular candidate objectionable – along with various papal historical intricacies and speculations about the upcoming conclave to replace Pope Francis.

Our favorite Instagram world traveler and fan of the show - Marilis Pineiro of @exnunontherun - joins The Popecast for EPISODE 100 to share some great stories about her time in religious life serving Pope Francis directly while working in the Vatican.

Our pope this week reigned at a time when the historical record wasn’t much, and we don’t know a whole lot about his life as a result. And yet his contributions to the history of the papacy have still resounded for over 1600 years.

Read Pope St. Siricius' full letter: https://thepopecast.fm/blog/siricius-decretal

Today we chat with Andrew Gillsmith, author of the new and critically-acclaimed sci-fi novel, Our Lady of the Artilects. The book is absolutely outstanding (find the link to purchase it below) in its merging together of a plausible ultra-high-tech future and a global landscape that's shifted both geographically and spiritually.

GET THE BOOK: https://amzn.to/3E8bFpq

Find Andrew on Twitter @andrewgillsmith

Other book references from Andrew:
- In the Camps: China's High Tech Penal Colony - https://amzn.to/3TRMKN2
- The Fourth Secret of Fatima - https://amzn.to/3Ai60MD

Our pope this week was your garden variety early Church pontiff – battling heresy, beautifying churches, and being an all around good guy. But one thing set him apart...sending a certain snake-expelling bishop on mission to a little island in the North Atlantic, and changing the face of the world forever.

Our pope this week was in the Chair of Peter for barely a moment in the great lifespan of Catholic history, but his humble heart and joyful demeanor has influenced each of the three popes that have followed him and put him firmly among the most memorable and beloved pontiffs of the last several centuries.

And yes, this is the second time we’ve covered him on the show, but he deserved a refresh – after all, on the day this is being released, our pope will be BEATIFIED by Pope Francis in Rome.

First it was Peter. Then it was Linus. And then it was this guy.

Today's episode is a great conversation with Timothy Nerozzi, who currently works as a Breaking News Reporter for Fox News. Timothy shares his take in particular on why secular reporting about the pope is quite terrible these days, his approach to journalism, and then of course we go into great detail on the office of the papacy itself – why we should keep a level head about Pope Francis, how the papacy has been changing over the past century, and a ton more.

In addition to his work at Fox News Digital, Timothy has written for a large swath of solid publications, including Catholic News Agency, The Lamp Magazine, Washington Examiner, and the Daily Caller.

LINKS:

Now, here at The Popecast we normally cover those men who are considered to be “valid popes” – that is, a legitimate part of the unbroken line of succession in the Roman Catholic Church that began when Jesus gave the keys to Peter and, as is commonly understood, sits now with Pope Francis.

And while there have been grandiose antipopes throughout history – men who we may one day talk about in more detail – today’s subject is another case entirely. Few may know about the man from Kansas who claimed to be pope, and unironically so.

Recently he died, so today’s episode will tell the story of and serve as a tribute for David Bawden, the man who for the past 32 years had – by his estimation – reigned over the true Catholic Church as Pope Michael.

This pope is another one of those best kept secrets of Catholic history – he held some of the most influential post in Renaissance Christendom, presided over Catholicism’s response to the Protestant Reformation, and then cracked the top 10 for shortest papal reigns. But his mom sure would have been proud that he kept the name she gave him.

Matt had the pleasure of being a guest on Real Presence Radio out in the Midwest, on a show hosted by none other than our most recent special guest Fr. Richard Kunst, to talk about the origins of The Popecast and his own personal favorite popes and papal history stories, among other things.

Today’s pope is certainly one for the record books. Even though he was only in office a couple short years, he’s memorable for one major papal staple that we take completely for granted these days.

Today’s episode is one we’ve been very excited to bring you all for a long time. Our guest, Fr. Richard Kunst, is the curator of the world's largest collection of papal memorabilia and artifacts outside of the Vatican. Our conversation covers everything from how Fr. Rich’s collection came to be, some of the coolest and strangest articles he’s seen, his appearances on Pawn Stars, and (in the patron-only bonus section) even some never-before-heard stories about BOTH Popes John Paul.

In addition to curating this great collection, Fr. Rich is a priest of the Diocese of Duluth Minnesota, pastor of St. James Parish in Duluth, and believe it or not, was even at one time Fr. Mike Schmitz’s vocation director when the latter was in formation for the priesthood.

Our man this episode is altogether unique – and not just because he’s the only Successor of Peter with this particular name. No, he’s actually most famous for something he had no control over at all – because he was dead.

This episode is about another one of those popes who you’ve probably never heard of, but is definitely one to remember. He was saintly from an early age, and despite desiring a life of anonymity in his service to Christendom, was plucked by the emperor from obscurity to become pope and, ultimately, usher in one of the biggest reform movements in Catholicism’s 2,000 year history.

Today’s episode is about a pope who’s probably easy to overlook. He only reigned for a short time, we don’t know all that much about him, and he isn’t remembered as a saint – a canonized one anyway. And yet, he dabbled in plenty of important things and did alright.

Today’s episode is about a pope who lived...and died...during the last and worst of Rome’s persecutions of the Christian people, that of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. But just how that living and dying went is still up for discussion. 1700 years later.

Here's a pope who kept his head down and worked tirelessly for the good of Christendom. But in an age where secular rulers used the papacy as their plaything, he refused to be anyone’s puppet, and ended up paying the ultimate price. And what’s more, everyone though he was a bad pope until not all that long ago.

This episode we're joined by JD Flynn and Michelle La Rosa from The PIllar to tackle one of the saltiest and most recent papal conspiracy theories – one of the doozies in pretty much the whole history of the Catholic Church. A half-century ago a pope reigned for a mere 33 days. Was it all just a strange coincidence, or was there something more nefarious afoot?

This week's episode is a very special one indeed. Our pope today needs no introduction, being one of the finest men to ever grace the Chair of St. Peter, but he does need a long episode to tell the whole tale of his long and eventful life. October 22 – the day that this episode is being released – is this man’s feast day and the anniversary of the 1978 inauguration of his papacy, so raise a glass (or a pierogi) for one of the greatest of all pontiffs.

This pope is a guy who rose from the lowest rungs of society to become the leader of a burgeoning but still illegal faith. And yet, it wasn’t the Romans who gave him the most grief. It was one of his fellow Christians.

Today’s episode is a Popecast Redux about a pope who may well have single-handedly kept the known world from a very, very different future. In fact, 2021 marks the 450th anniversary of his masterstroke – a convening of both corporeal and a spiritual armies to lead the Catholic Christian West to victory in one of the greatest sea battles ever fought.

Our pope this week was in the Chair of Peter for barely a moment in the great lifespan of Catholic history, but his humble heart and joyful demeanor has influenced each of the three popes who followed him and put him firmly among the most memorable and beloved pontiffs of the last several centuries.

Our pope this week was a pontiff in exile – the whole Roman Curia was in those days – who everyone thought would be near death, but he ended up sticking around for 10 years and set about cleaning up the clerical riff-raff, leaving us with one of the greatest hymns ever written, and hiring a bloodhound in a red hat to prowl around Italy and gain back what was rightfully Peter’s.

Joining the show this week is special guest Eduard Habsburg, the Hungarian Ambassador to the Vatican and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, sharing the incredible story of Pope St. Gregory the Great, the "Pope Who Founded Western Civilization"

This pope was far more renowned for his life BEFORE the papacy than he was after. And that was a bummer, because he kinda gets a bad rap for it. But it certainly didn’t help that he avoided accepting his election like the plague.

Our pope this week was startlingly good for a Renaissance pontiff – he didn’t use his power to elevate all of his greedy nephews, he began as a monk and never really forgot it, and he worked so hard and so much that he could have coined the phrase “I can sleep when I’m dead.”

This guy was an able pontiff who brought much-needed respect back to the papacy at its lowest point in history. And on the family front, he was a real diamond in the rough. A lone bright spot amidst a group of relatives that would make the Kardashians blush.

This pope wasn’t long for this world once he made it to the Chair of St. Peter and was a compromise pick from the beginning, to boot. Apparently it had something to do with being just another pretty face, but history is silent on whether or not he was a ...barbarian.