Papal audiences are booked months in advance, so any topicality is generally a fluke. But there was something eerie, or serendipitous, or providential about the sheer number of US visitors who dropped by the week after Leo stuck his oar into a US church squabble for the first time.

I’m not terribly familiar with the particular case,” the Pope said on 30 September when he was asked to comment on the Archdiocese of Chicago’s award for Senator Dick Durbin, in recognition of his work supporting migrants despite his record of support for abortion rights. He then commented pointedly on Durbin’s 40 years as a senator and the wider challenges to church teaching in US politics – the death penalty, the inhumane treatment of migrants – before demanding “greater respect for one another”. Not terribly familiar, Holy Father? That demand for respect was barbed: the 10 or so US bishops who had declared Durbin “unfit” for any Catholic honour came dangerously close to an ad hominem rebuke of Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich in the year he celebrates his golden jubilee. Cupich was part of last week’s parade of American guests, accompanying a labour union delegation; others included Hispanic ministry leaders, Catholic Charities officials and even students from the Pope’s alma mater Villanova.

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