When Pope Bob (known as Leo XIV) was announced (I saw it live), reporters were scrambling to find any facts that they could. Among the tidbits of information was that even though he was born on the south side of Chicago, he was a Cubs fan, not a White Sox fan.

Imagine my shock to read Gerard Baker’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal An American Pope in the Era of Trump, which includes this sentence:

I’m sure the conclave—and the Holy Spirit—had all kinds of reasons for picking a protege of Francis, a missionary, and a Chicago White Sox fan for the throne of St. Peter.

I told my wife, “How could Baker make such a mistake? The Pope is a Cubs fan!” I was reading the print version, and I thought to myself that someone would point out the mistake and it would be fixed online. About 10 days later, I decided to check on it, the sentence is still there – see above. How can this be?

Easy. the initial report that he was a Cubs fan was wrong. He’s always been a White Sox fan, and this article has a brief video of then Father Prevost at a White Sox World Series game in 2005. This initial report was wrong…and therefore, I was wrong. And instead of letting Gerard Baker, an editor at large of the Wall Street Journal, correct me, I assumed he was wrong, and I was right. Oops.

There’s a lesson there, and it reminds me of a story from Air Force days more than 50 years ago. Stay tuned.

The ear that listens to life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. The fear of the LORD is instruction in wisdom, and humility comes before honor. (Proverbs 15.31 – 33, ESV)

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 14.12, ESV)