The great resistance

The wind blows where it will, and we heard its sound with the election of Pope Leo XIV , who has the name of a "political program," but we don't know where it comes from or where it's going. The mystery and ineffability of the Holy Spirit is, as you know, by definition inscrutable, while we mortals pin our expectations on every tweet from the new Pope, elected on a historic day for Catholicism. And yet, in reality, we are still just another day at the office for this humanity that, at times, doesn't have a single tile in its place.

Only 133 cardinals elected an Augustinian from Chicago with Peruvian nationality and Spanish ancestry to guide the destinies of the First Rome and the religious government. With this decision, clearly a census-based decision, we begin to build today, beyond Maslow's pyramid of needs, "the great democratic resistance" against the authoritarianism of Donald Trump and his technically holy war. And look at the angle: a pre-democratic election, "that of mystery and smoke," that of Leo XIV, to represent the democrats against a democratically elected authoritarian leader, Trump. Not a single stone in place, but with these oxen we will have to plow, from now on, in the new era we are entering.

The democratic bloc is still diffuse, in the face of Trump's authoritarianism, a single node, organized

Curtis Yarvin , a new philosopher inserted in the Dark Enlightenment movement and an intellectual reference in the MAGA galaxy, stated in an interview with Le Grand Continent that "one of the most incredible things about the Trump-Vance phenomenon is that it is occurring without any kind of confrontation." "There is practically no resistance," he exclaims. And that is the concept, no resistance to what he calls the "Trump phenomenon," namely: a monarchical moment in the exercise of leadership and an unprecedented will to govern all spheres, not only the political and economic, but also the religious. All this is happening in the US, without that great resistance. It is the model that is spreading throughout our democracies.

The election of Pope Leo XIV confuses us at times, because it's true that Trump hasn't gotten his way—Bannon speaks of Prevost in the same contemptuous terms he did of Bergoglio—but it's also true that MAGA's religious agenda and its holy war go beyond the election of the Pope, because it wants religious government, which is something else entirely and serves its strategy. The Holy Spirit blows where it wills, and Trump, who is also a mortal, has nothing to do against that. But the Holy Spirit can't overcome everything, much less Trump's earthly will to dominate this religious government. The symbol is his image, dressed as Pope by AI.

Therefore, if the Augustinian Leo XIV were to resign from leading "the great resistance" that the Jesuit Francis deployed during his papacy, Trump would gain an advantage in this endeavor, because Trump is fought from a strong leadership and a great center of power. Without that, we will have a diminishing resistance, as Yarvin postulates. We must therefore ask ourselves: What display of power will Leo XIV make in the face of MAGA's overpowering and its holy war for control of religious government? Bergoglio stood up to the convert Vance's biased interpretation of the ordo amoris with his rebuttal. This has only just begun. And this will be Leo XIV's stress test for believers and non-believers alike.

To analyze the choice of Prevost over Parolin, Enric Juliana nailed it by explaining the diffuse Bergoglian bloc, which is the same as the still diffuse democratic bloc against Trump's authoritarianism: a majority, plural, and very broad arc of power centers with their interests facing a single node, MAGA, organized with a single frequency and a single direction of march.

Who will be the world leaders, from a perspective of democratic values, with a will to provide moral and political leadership, to confront Trump's takeover of democracy? Where will the "great resistance" come from, knowing the breadth of the democratic spectrum, its plurality, and its contradictions? The great resistance of the Democrats is diffuse, because they still fail to promote a return to the basics: a strong middle class. There is resentment, and the wind blows where it will. A global era is passing. But there is already an " us" and a " them ." The question is: who best guarantees my place in the world? The authoritarian or the democrat? What does the Resistance Manual say?

Next week Holy war

In the holy war technically proposed by the MAGA movement, Leo XIV's tweets are not an exercise of power, but expectations in our minds. As Pope, he will have to specify, for example, his defense of migrants. Will there be strategic continuity with Francis? The president of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, rightly recalls this, proposing a visit. In the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy, the parties leading the polls are comparable to Trump and have immigration as their touchstone. Immigration, a place in the world.

The Hawkeye Salvador Illa, 12-M

While First Rome and its Church send a message to the Trump Empire, Salvador Illa, technically Father Illa, consolidates his position as president of the Generalitat of Catalonia on the anniversary of his electoral victory on May 12. One year ago today. Those were highly strategic and technical Catalan elections, fraught with nuances, which took place precisely on the Feast of Saint Pancras. Illa promised them "health and work," and 12 months later he's delivering, judging by the economic and social figures and the return of businesses to Catalonia.