May 8,2025 Update: So we have a new Pope and he’s American Robert Prevost of Chicago, now known as Pope Leo XIV! What is shocking is that we could actually have sort of been right about this? There’s no word on if the Pope spent any time at Six Flags Great America outside Chicago, but in a video produced about him it has roller coaster and amusement park images! At the 1:20 mark of a Catholic News Service interview with the Former Cardinal Robert Provost (now Pope Leo XIV) there are a bunch of video from what appears to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk rides and coasters! The Catholic News Service is anews agency owned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that reports on the Catholic Church, so you can view this more as a promotional piece where the former Cardinal Prevost probably had a lot of influence on the look and feel. Maybe the new Pope does love roller coasters!

The Conclave to select a new Pope is scheduled to start May 7, 2025. I recently watched the movie Conclave which was surprisingly well done and it got me to thinking if we’ll ever have a pope who is a roller coaster fan? The Onion wrote an article years ago called “Pope Makes First Papal Visit To Six Flags” that is pretty funny, but obviously fake. However, there is hope as there are several priests out there who are coaster fans!

Father Anthony Ferguson is known on Instagram and YouTube as Father Airtime and his personal Instagram also has tons of pics. His YouTube channel Father Airtime Coasters has ton of trip reports to parks and according to a picture on Instagram he appears to be over 300 credits. He also is planning a 2026 “Holy Roller Tours” as a pilgrimage that will combine Catholic sites and theme park visits in Europe! Another who comes to mind is Fr. Jeff Walker who is known as “The Roller Coaster Priest”. If you follow his Instagram it will mix in an occasional theme park picture like this one of The Incredible Hulk at Islands of Adventure as “My view for morning prayer today”.

Under the category of not a priest, but instead a pastor is Sir Willow, the awesome YouTube content creator. His insights are great and occasionally he’ll mention his work as a pastor and also his ironic job playing a bank robber on Silver Dollar City train. If you like podcasts, you may want to try out the Ride of your Life podcast which ties together faith and theme parks with lots of special guests. There’s also Ed Young of Fellowship Church in Canton, NC who built and rode a roller coaster on stage as part of a sermon series called Roller Coaster. My son and I had a personal experience in 2023 when we met two young Catholic priests in line for the Dare Devil Dive roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia. Insert jokes here about two priests riding a coaster with the name “devil” in the name, but they were super cool guys.

Probably my favorite coaster and Catholic priest connection is the video of two Catholic Priests riding the Phantom’s Revenge roller coaster at Kennywood Park. It’s funny as heck with rosaries and prayers coming out during the ride to promote the upcoming Catholic Day at the park (yes that’s a thing). Two other priests also made a video riding Thunder Bolt at Kennywood advertising for the same event. If you want to attend Catholic Day this year it’s on July 16, 2025!

If you want to attend church in a theme park you can actually do that at Dollywood. Dollywood has a chapel called the Robert F. Thomas Chapel where weekly church services are held at 11:30am on Sundays during the regular season. You’ll also find Christian musical acts performing there at other times and on other days. The church is actually named for the doctor who delivered Dolly as a baby!

So will the next pope be a roller coaster fan? it’s probably unlikely, but it’s fun to think about. Maybe somewhere in his youth he’ll have ridden some depending on where he’s from or at least taken in some carnival rides. I remember rides at some of our annual church picnics as a kid. However, perhaps someday we will have a pope who craves both airtime and prayer time!