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It is wild to see America in 2026, I grew up idolizing it.

But a quote I heard during the election of Pope Leo:-

> “Cardinal George of Chicago, of happy memory, was one of my great mentors, and he said: 'Look, until America goes into political decline, there won't be an American pope.' And his point was, if America is kind of running the world politically, culturally, economically, they don't want America running the world religiously. So, I think there's some truth to that, that we're such a superpower and so dominant, they don't wanna give us, also, control over the church."

Has stuck with me, and I thought it to be a little far fetched. But here we are and I find it hard to deny America is in decline.