In thinking about yesterday’s election and elevation of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Pope Francis, I’m pretty sure there’s never been a reception study of popes, or a pope, in U.S. intellectual historiography.* I can’t say this with authority, but after a quick search (using Worldcat and Google) I couldn’t find any titles like “John Paul II in America,”** “Americans and Leo XIII,” or “America’s Pius XII” (to add a controversial entry to this fictional list). Still, I think one could create a series on this topic in relation to Pius XII, John Paul II, John XXIII, Paul VI, Benedict Read more