True story: I needed a fictitious pope for the Joe Catholic story. This meeting was written about many months ago. I’ve always loved Pope Leo the Thirteenth, specifically his encyclical on social teaching Rerum Novarum and his meditations on emerging technologies at the time. So, when it came time to name the pope in my story, I figured “Leo the Fourteenth” would be a good one. Further, I wanted him to be a little bit younger than recent popes and perhaps an American. Imagine my surprise — shock really— when Robert Cardinal Prevost emerged on the balcony after election and choice of the name Leo XIV! So, i decided to change the name of the pope to a more “unlikely” one that hasn’t been activated since the few centuries of The Church: Linus. So, my American homage to Leo became a British Cardinal who took the name of an early martyr for The Faith upon election. This way, the story can emerge as it will. Interesting, no?