UsefulCharts: Popel Leo XIV family tree

 What the YouTube channel Useful Charts does is interesting. They not only look at his family tree, but they look at his "episcopal" lineage also. They look at his connection to other prominent Catholic cardinals, bishops or even other popes.

In the news it has come out that Pope Leo's lineage may include ancestors of African descent. As they discuss here his lineage includes Louisiana Creole who are often mixed race. He is of Italian descent on both sides of his family, and Popes have typically been of Italian descent.

Bear in mind when I say this, Pope John Paul II & Pope Benedict XVI were not of Italian descent. They were Polish and German respectively. Pope Francis was of Italian descent, however, he was born in the Latin American country of Argentina.

Also, another important this about the former Cardinal Louis Prevost is that he is the first U.S.A (or American if you prefer) born Pope in history. His immediate predecessor of course Pope Francis was born in Argentina so he was the first non-European born pontiff.

Pope Leo is also known as a Chicago-boy and a White Sox fan and there are photos of him at a World Series game in 2005 - which the White Sox swept the Houston Astros to win it all. He was said to have lived in the Roseland neighborhood though his childhood was spent in suburban Dolton, Illinois.

His childhood parish is located on the City Limits between Dolton and Chicago known as St. Mary of the Assumption. Both his childhood home and this church could become historic landmarks and that would be cool.

Anyway, here's the Useful Charts video if you want to look at his family and episcopal connections [VIDEO]

How Did The Vatican Lose 99.9% of Its Land?

Allow me to start by saying the video you're about to see is only about the history of the Roman Catholic Church. I'm in no way equipped to even think I can discuss Catholicism in a theological way. That's really not the point of this post.

With this said earlier this month a new Pope of the Catholic Church was installed in Leo XIV. Not only is the Pope the visible head of the 2000+ year old church he's also a head of state - the microstate of Vatican City which is only 109 acres. It's an enclave of the Italian capital city of Rome.

And just bear in mind why is it the Roman Catholic Church because it's history started with the Roman Empire and guess where is the capital city of the Roman Empire - Rome. Either way we see that the Catholic Church and the Pope had significant influence throughout Europe. The Pope was said to be able to crown Emperors & Kings in addition to being involved with diplomatic disputes.

Let's also add that the Pope used to own more significant territory than Vatican City - which was established as an independent state thanks to the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The so-called Papal States was about the size of West Virginia and then in 1870 Italy eventually annexed the Papal States.

Up until 1929, the Pope considered himself a prisoner in the small area we now call Vatican City as a result of the loss of the Papal States.

The video below by GeoBro discusses how the Vatican lost 99% of it's land (the Papal States). I gave you the gist, the territory gave the Pope a lot of influence. Of course as we know thanks to the number of Catholics in the world the Pope still has a lot of influence [VIDEO]

In light of the historic events of the month of May 2025 I wanted to do a quick recap of what lead to the ascension of Leo XIV to the papacy. Who gets to select the new pope and what exactly is his role? And what is the history of the papacy. Hopefully I'll give myself the time to do that soon.

Mr. Beat: Israel & Palestine compared

 

[VIDEO] All I know about Palestine and Israel is that the population of both are so vastly different that unfortunately they hardly get along. I think this is a great video if you want to know the history of each territory. And you get a lot of religious history that causes me to want to look into this more. Easily this part of the world is the birthplace of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

Antioch M.B. Church destroyed by fire on Friday

 

[VIDEO] I'm sharing this story because there is a connection with Bennett-Shedd Schools. My former third grade teacher and principal at Bennett-Shedd was a woman named Mrs. Barbara Ellis. Her funeral was held at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in 2011. Antioch is located right off of 63rd Street on Stewart. And I almost failed to make the connection until recently.

It's an architecturally significant church that sadly met the same fate as Pilgrim Baptist Church in Bronzeville in 2006. Some work was being done to the buildings and then a fire started and that building is now gutted.

Here's hoping Antioch M.B. Church is back in business in no time! 

Fire destroys south side food pantry #Ward09

[VIDEO] Been quite a while since I've shared a local story on this blog. On Monday there was a fire in Roseland near 111th/Michigan where a church operated a food pantry. You see the story above from WGN.

There is a GoFundMe drive page [CLICK HERE] for this church and also it was reported that Rev. Jesse Jackson is pledging help for this church as well. From ABC 7

Strausberg: Pfleger says no one shot or wounded last night is proof ‘We can do this’ #putthegunsdown

Fr. Michael Pfleger

An interesting account written by Chinta Strausberg for those events connected with #PutTheGunsDown from last Friday. Here's hoping everyone had a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend.

Concerned Citizens of Chatham - Novel Idea: Let's Give Charters To Parochial Schools

 

Since I've already stated that education would still be a focus on this blog, here's a piece to read. Worlee Glover also writes for my other blog - The Sixth Ward. In addition he also maintains his own blog - Concerned Citizens of Chatham.

He mainly opines about the recent approval of 7 new charters schools. Then additionally offers his idea to offer charter school status to parochial schools.

The parochial or catholic school system has operated in the city of Chicago for more than a 100 years. It has been the only option in some communities and was the only alternative for some families who had poor performing Chicago Public Schools. Over the last several years with some Chicago Public Schools offering high performing schools such as Young, Payton, Jones, Brooks, etc it has made some catholic high schools pay model obsolete. Also, when Mr. Tim King, who attended the all boys school Mendel Catholic and was later the principal at the all boys school Hales Franciscan, opened Urban Prep it basically doomed the all boys school pay model.

The remaining schools high schools such as Leo, Mt. Carmel, Hales Franciscan and Gordon Tech , etc and the host of elementary schools should be offered the option to become charter schools. It makes sense because most of these schools out perform Chicago Public Schools and operate schools in areas where CPS has closed schools and in some cases could take over buildings that have been left vacant by the last round of school closures.

Ultimately, the master plan is to have a master education system administered through CPS and since we are almost halfway there why not finally put "children first" and provide proven, stable environments operated by proven operators versus having operators with questionable backgrounds come out of no where and payoff politicians to get taxpayers money,waste it and not serve our young people.

This makes sense I suppose, but this was said knowing that many are opposed to charter schools. Probably many are opposed to charter schools because of the organizations who got the charter and their ties to certain politicians.

For example, amongst those seven charters approved is a Concept Charter school to be located at 8522 S Lafayette has ties to Rev. Charles Jenkins who is the pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church owns the property where the school will be located. He also has ties to the Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel. The property Rev. Jenkins owns is referred to as The Legacy Project click the link for more information.

All the same I recognize that this idea could truly raise eyebrows amongst those who support public education. Besides Mayor Emanuel may be a proponent of charter schools, however, there are plenty of opponents of charters as well.

What are your thoughts?