Religion professor, historian David Fink speaks to FOX, WYFF about new pope

Furman University’s David Fink spoke to FOX Carolina News and WYFF News 4 about the Vatican’s selection of the first American-born Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo XIV. Fink, the Dorothy and B.H. Peace Jr. Associate Professor of Religion, told FOX Carolina the appointment took many by surprise with audible gasps rippling through the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the announcement. Fink said Robert Francis Prevost was “not really on anyone’s shortlist of candidates,” but as part of Pope Francis’s inner circle, he wasn’t a longshot either.

In a report from WYFF News, Fink said, “I think you’re probably going to expect to see a pope who feels a little bit freer to weigh in and speak to some of the pressing issues that are dividing Americans today,” and “I would hope that this is an opportunity for our political leaders and the leadership of the Catholic Church to, in some ways, hit the reset button and have stronger lines of communication.”