'Extraordinarily important': Bishop highlights 'very telling' decision by new pope

One MSNBC guest believes there is a very telling reason Bishop Robert Prevost chose the name Pope Leo XIV.

Morning Joe guest Bishop Robert Barron, from the diocese of Winona, Rochester in Minnesota, pondered the name which was last selected by a pontiff in 1878.

Barron also grew up just 25 minutes from Pope Leo, and he is still in awe that there is an American Pope.

“I was one of those people saying it will never be an American. His name was mentioned [before the conclave]. Everyone knew his qualities, but everybody said it won't be an American,” Barron recalled.

“After I've gotten over the shock of it, and last night with the adrenaline going, I had trouble getting to sleep. I kept drifting back to his name. His name, I think, is extraordinarily important.”

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Barron went through his thoughts, “If he was, you know, simply continuity with Francis, why wouldn't he be Francis II? He didn't choose that name. He could have chosen a name like John Paul III, like John the 24th, and would have given a very clear indication I'm on this side or that side.”

“The fact that he reached back to the very end of the 19th century to this figure, Leo XIII, is very telling. Leo was someone who, at a pivotal moment, engaged modernity in a creative way. The church had said no initially to the, you know, political reforms of the 18th century, the philosophical innovations of the 19th century, especially Marxism,” Barron said.

“Simply said, no Leo gave a very nuanced response that was both affirming and challenging, and therefore he sets the tone, I think, for a very intelligent creative engagement for the world.”

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