Authored by Jonathan Turley via Jonathan Turley,
"So, the Pope doesn't take sides. Prevost has another opinion, but we won't do that now."
That funny quip from Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Prevost) referred to the historic game in Rome when the Villanova and Notre Dame basketball teams play each other.
However, a story this week raised a different question of when the Pope, as opposed to Prevost, can "take sides."
This month, American-born Pope Leo XIV became the first pope ever to vote in a U.S. election.
A longtime Chicago native, the Pope mailed an absentee ballot to Will County, and the clerk's office confirmed to Fox News Digital that "Robert Prevost is on the list of individuals who requested a Vote by Mail ballot." There is no question that the Pope can vote in the Holy See. Indeed, he is the ultimate and final vote in the Vatican, but can he actually vote in Illinois races (including the governor's race involving incumbent Democrat J.B. Pritzker)? The answer appears to be yes, but it raises some novel questions.
Now, as a threshold matter, I want to shed some bias. I was raised Catholic in Chicago. No, that is not the bias. There is that lingering conflict with the Pope coming out as a White Sox fan. Many of us on the North Side hoped for a conversion to restore our faith in papal infallibility. However, he has remained entrenched in his South Side allegiance.
This column ri
