A Hint at Leo’s Papacy
Pope Leo XIV gave an address to the College of Cardinals earlier today, giving me a hint of the direction of his papacy. Three passages struck me.
“At this moment, both sad and joyful, providentially bathed in the light of Easter, I would like all of us to see the passing of our beloved Holy Father Pope Francis and the Conclave as a paschal event, a stage in that long exodus through which the Lord continues to guide us towards the fullness of life. In this perspective, we entrust to the ‘merciful Father and God of all consolation’ (2 Cor1:3) the soul of the late Pontiff and also the future of the Church.
Beginning with Saint Peter and up to myself, his unworthy Successor, the Pope has been a humble servant of God and of his brothers and sisters, and nothing more than this. It has been clearly seen in the example of so many of my Predecessors, and most recently by Pope Francis himself, with his example of complete dedication to service and to sober simplicity of life, his abandonment to God throughout his ministry and his serene trust at the moment of his return to the Father’s house. Let us take up this precious legacy and continue on the journey, inspired by the same hope that is born of faith.”
It seems like he has genuine fondness for Francis, not just perfunctory obedience, which is encouraging.
“I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, from which I would like to highlight several fundamental points: the return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation (cf. No. 11); the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community (cf. No. 9); growth in collegiality and synodality (cf. No. 33); attention to the sensus fidei (cf. Nos. 119-120), especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as popular piety (cf. No. 123); loving care for the least and the rejected (cf. No. 53); courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities (cf. No. 84; Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1-2).”
It seems that Leo very much sees his papacy as a continuation of Francis’s. It looks like the fearlessness the Pope Francis modeled in his engagement with the world and other religions—including prioritizing the needs of the most marginalized—will continue into Leo’s pontificate. This is so contrary to the fear-driven and defensive culture war Christianity I’ve experienced as imbedded into American Catholicism.
It reminds me of Benedict’s teaching that Christians “do not possess the truth,” rather, “the truth possesses us.” Our faith is not a house of cards that could fall at any time. We do not need to feel threatened by questions or developments or the outside world. We do not need to fear venturing into the “open sea of truth,” because “Christ, who is the truth, has taken us by the hand, and we know that his hand is holding us securely on the path of our quest for knowledge.” In the end, the Truth is not a set of “right ideas” about Christ, but Christ Himself. Real reform and evangelization is rooted in His taking us by the hand, walking with us through history, helping us understand more and more who He is, and in doing so, revealing to us more of what is truth about ourselves.
“I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.”
I love this. And I think his assessment of how important the Church’s social teaching is at this moment in history is dead right.
This address furthers the hope I have for this pontificate.
You can read the full address here: https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/may/documents/20250510-collegio-cardinalizio.html
Beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing, brother!
Very hopeful.