The only thing weirder than having an American Pope is having an American Pope with a Tulsa connection. Yes, this ultimate servant of the servants of God has walked the streets of his Chicago hometown, rooted for the White Sox, and presumably consumed some quantity of Malört. But from 1999 to 2001, he was sort of, kind of, a Cascia Hall Commando:
Before Cardinal Robert F. Prévost was Pope Leo XIV, he was a leader in the Augustinian order with connections to an Oklahoma diocese.
Prevost served as provincial of the Augustinian Province of Chicago, or Midwest Augustinians, from 1999 to 2014, and as part of his work leading the region, he left an impact on Oklahoma Augustinian schools and organizations.
He previously served on the Board of Directors at Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa and even attended the dedication of the school's Saint Augustine Hall in 1999.
Cascia Hall headmaster Fr. Philip Cook reports that the man-who-is-now-Pope “was down here frequently for meetings, fostering relationships with the community here in our school.” But did he eat at Queenie’s? Did he catch a high school football game? Did he know about the psychedelics? We eagerly await the Tulsa chapter in Pope Leo XIV’s official biography. —Alicia Chesser
The Boys Are Tusslin'
Oklahoma songwriter Zach Bryan recently got paid a reported $350 million, which is a lot of money to give a guy whose songs are boring. And that’s not just my opinion!
Fellow Oklahoma songwriter and former collaborator John Moreland sounded off about the deal this week, posting that “$350 M is a lot of money to pay for the fuckin off-brand version of me. Y‘all have a great day” to his Instagram stories.