The political novel The Ugly American was published in 1958 by William Lederer and Eugene Burdick. Both authors were Navy veterans, and both were disillusioned by the content and style of U.S. diplomacy in Southeast Asia. They wanted to reshape diplomatic efforts by changing the conduct of North Americans who spent a lot of time overseas (military personnel, businesspeople, tourists, and others). They coined the phrase “the Ugly American”, which describes the typical North American overseas who does not learn the local language nor study the local culture. The ugliness is expressed in expecting/demanding that the nationals speak English with the American, even in their own country. The ugly American has little knowledge about the local culture or politics. The ugly American usually demonstrates an abundance of ethnocentrism and believes our “North American” way of doing things is always the best way. In summary, the ugly American is arrogant, disrespectful and unteachable. This novel had a significant impact in its day and is partially credited for the creation of the Peace Corps by President John F. Kennedy.

Fast forward seven decades. Last week, the Roman Catholic Conclave of Cardinals surprised almost everyone by officially selecting Cardinal Robert Prevost to become the new pope. Prevost immediately chose his new name, Pope Leo XIV. The surprise is the fact that he is the first U.S. citizen ever to be elected head of the Catholic Church. (Full disclosure: Although I am a follower of Jesus, I am not a Roman Catholic. Therefore, I do not ascribe to the special status that “popehood” holds for most Catholics, I do recognize his position as the spiritual and moral leader of 1.4 billion Catholics around the globe.) I suggest that the new pontiff might be a healthy contrast and antidote for the disease of the “ugly American”.

Although he was born and raised in Chicago (home of “Da’ Bears”), Prevost spent more than two decades of his adult life in the South American country of Peru. He served the poor as a priest in the city of Trujillo and in the rural areas that surround the city. He learned to speak fluent Spanish and the language of the indigenous people.  He loved the people and respected them as “greater than himself”, and as a result was well beloved by them as a man of “goodness, grace, humility, mercy, and faith”. He even chose to become a Peruvian citizen (holding dual citizenship of both Peru and the United States. More recently, he has lived in Rome and served the church in many official capacities. He earned the respect of many Cardinals and overcame their understandable reluctance to elect an American as pope.

Prevost adopted the name Leo XIV, giving a nod to Leo XIII, the nineteenth century pope who defended in the encyclical Rerum Novarum “the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, while affirming the rights to property and free enterprise, opposing both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism.” It is likely that Prevost will generally continue the positions of Pope Francis.

From what I know of the new pope, he seems to be a sincere follower of Jesus who will set a good example of how not to be an “ugly American”.