𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐏𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐨 X𝐈𝐕 𝐢𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐧 — 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡, 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐞𝐞𝐭

An Agnostic. A non-practicing Catholic. A ritualistic warrior—confers inner thoughts and discussion.

🔗 Watch the Mass here

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I share this not as indoctrination. Even the many who do not announce beliefs or faith practice are among the souls coexisting in this human dimension, and here I allow another insight—an exposure to my dimension of examination and experience. By incident, I watched. Not by pursuit. Not by design, but by proximity.

And by the same token, I also watched as leadership of the United States has boldly, unabashedly, despotically rendered to the world a diametrically opposing, reprehensible presentation of divine contradiction. We are facing an antithetical, dissociative demonstration of social behavior—in the person of what is a President of the United States—and I do not say that lightly. Because in a world where there is such diametrical opposition, where one may even discern something diabolical in its posture, we are confronting a warfare that feels beyond the constructs of human dimension.

𝐘𝐞𝐭… 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐈 𝐚𝐦 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. Present.

I am an all-inclusive religionist—yes, I hear how that sounds, and even I pause at it, because who comes up with this kind of rhetoric? That phrase alone calls for its own deconstruction. But if I am to sit with it honestly, to reflect as I am wont to do, what I am really saying is far simpler: I am universal—as the word Catholic was always meant to denote.

To my own deciphering, I am cradled in Catholic Church teaching—admittedly, a preferenced bias, as it is what raised my religious upbringing. But let me not pretend—I am no devotee. It is the very Church that provokes much of my ire and disdain. I question, because I have a penchant for questioning and interrogating, and yet, within the sanctum of my spirit force, there is an undeniable belief, a faith, a sacramental intuition that I hold in deeper reverence than I outwardly show.

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I was attending the service of Pope Leo XIV because, by proximity, sitting within listening distance in my sister’s company, the television program was on. And in its entirety, I was courted by the music—so vibrant, so invigorating, so authentically Cameroon—and yet it sounded like the Caribbean Catholic Church. It sounded like us.

There was energy—dancing, singing—and people who looked like me, looked like you, looked like us, a diaspora of our collective people, their spirituality and their faith representation vividly on display. And there was tradition, and there was the Gospel, the Good News.

And in that moment, what stood before me was more than a man. It was the affect of a human pontiff—a shepherd—presenting a Presence of the Unseen. Pope Leo XIV prayed to the flock, not just in Cameroon, but to the body of Christ, to all people of the world, seeking peace, justice, and humanity.

And maybe—just maybe—the Service of the Mass, in that moment, was not command, but invitation. A quiet, one-on-one calling to pray for one another—across every line we have drawn—for Jews, for Muslims, for all faiths, to become one in goodness and in peace.

And so I hold this in its entirety—the contradiction, the tension, the knowing and the unknowing. Because while the world presents one face of power—fractured, forceful, unyielding—there still exists another expression: quiet, sacred, unseen, yet undeniably felt.

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭—𝐈 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬.