Good morning. Someone has given Pope Leo XIV a big chunk of Materia to start the day:
How, uh, nice! His Holiness looked thrilled by the gift. I am sure he is, as we speak, pondering which of his many weapons he should equip it to, or if he should give it to one of his party members (Cardinals) for them to make use of it.
This looks like Magic Materia, specifically, which would allow Pope Leo to cast both black and white magic spells in combat if he equips it. It’s unclear exactly which spell this Materia is for; however, the people who gifted it to the Pope may have provided a clue. The Materia was brought to Pope Leo by a group called Saint Peter for Humanity, a Vatican-affiliated nonprofit that, per its own website, works “to preserve, promote, and share humanity’s cultural, spiritual, and material heritage for the common good.” The group claims that this orb is a “symbolic” piece of work intended to represent the idea of retaining humanity in an age of AI.
This topic is coming up now in front of the Holy See because Pope Leo recently addressed this matter in an encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, in which he called for AI to be “disarmed” in favor of focusing on the human person, as distinct from machines. “To disarm does not mean rejecting technology,” he wrote. “but preventing it from dominating humanity.”
What’s an orb got to do with it? In a video shared with Fox News, St. Peter for Humanity head (and, uh the CEO of Fiat and CMO of Stellantis?), Olivier François, described the orb as follows:
The sphere is a Murano sphere, so it’s blown by hand, and the breathing of humans, the symbolism of the sphere is that it’s a perfect shape, but executed in a very imperfect way, which is the human way, because humans breathe, robots don’t breathe, and this ability to breathe helps us create beautiful things, which are not always perfect but so much more beautiful.
To me, this screams Wind Materia, meaning that if the Pope equips it, he might be able to cast Aero, Aerora, or even Aeroga.
That said, I do not think the Pope should equip this Materia, because I am suspicious of its origins. It’s hard to immediately find any information as to what this Saint Peter for Humanity charity actually, practically does, and its leadership is uh, interesting. One of its board members is Kimbal Musk. Yes, correct, that’s Elon Musk’s brother, and yes, he is in the Epstein files! The board also includes television producer Mark Burnett (creator of The Apprentice and currently Trump’s special envoy to the UK). Not great!
Anyway, all that just tells me that this Materia is cursed. I’m sorry, Your Holiness, I know your face in this photo clearly indicated that you very much love and desire this orb, but you’re going to need to let it go. Maybe see if Chadley wants it. When do you really need to cast Aeroga, anyway? I assumed the Holy Spirit had you well-covered on that front.
