In retrospect, Pope Leo XIV Had it all going on for him.
The new pope, whose election on the second day of the conclave was surprised by the Roman Catholic world, seemed to be two places at the same time. He was born and trained in the United States, a country of vital for the finances of the church. But he was also a missionary, pastor and bishop in Peru who led the Pontifical Commission for Latin -America, part of the world where the church is lively.
He had the good papal household seal of approval of Pope Francis, his predecessor, who placed him in one of the best jobs in the Roman Catholic Church. There, such as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, he led the office that helped that pope to choose bishops and thus determine the future of the church.
He knew and was one of the voting cardinals in the powerful bureaucracy of the church, but he made liberals at ease with his strong support for the demonstrably greatest change of Francis, who wanted to make the decision-making process of the church more bottom-up and closer to the believers.
In uncertain times he led a global religious group, the order of St. Augustine, which required a refined understanding of the world. His deep theological formation can worry about the doctrine at ease. At the age of 69, the new Pope is the ideal age for a papal candidate.
The big strike against him was his American nationality, a dealbreaker in recent decades because it was seen as too close to the dominant superpower of the world. But in a world order that has changed considerably and in a church that is increasingly going beyond nationality, that is apparently not important for the 133 cardinals voting in the Sixtine Chapel.
“He checked all the boxes,” said John Allen, an experienced Vatican analyst and author of the book “Conclave”. He added: “Geography and nationality were no longer a voice.”
After a dozen year Francis’ shaking the church, the College of Cardinals apparently wanted to move in the direction of Francis, but with fewer detours and crashes. They opted for a gentle pastor, moderate in tone but determined in his defense of doctrine, a deep Roman experience and ruling pork chops.
“Together we have to look for how we can become a mission church,” said Paus Leo in the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in his first address on Thursday as leader of the Roman Catholic of the world in the world. He said the church had to work together “to build bridges and keep our arms open, like this very Piazza, hospitable.”
Only hours after his election it was impossible to know how Leo would rule. But his first words, and the name he took, gave some instructions. The Vatican said his name was the previous Leo, a pope in the late 1800s that helped establish the Catholic social justice tradition of the church. He also checked Francis and said, “Thanks, Pope Franciscus!” And encouraging an applause from the crowd below.
He said the word ‘synodality’, which means little or nothing for secular ears, but that in the church was volumes about his intention to perform Francis’ vision for a church that rules high in Rome than by consulting the believers, bishops and laying, including women, to bring the big decisions.
And he spoke about peace and close to those who suffered, reflected his pastoral feeling, but also returned to the Vatican tradition by appearing on the balcony in a robe that Francis had thrown.
While the Americans in the crowd look forward to the naming of one of them – “vs! USA!” Some sang – and received congratulations from the Italians who seemed stunned by the unknown face on the balcony, supporters of Francis expressed a sigh of relief.
The leader to succeed Francis was the State Secretary for the Church, Pietro Parolin, who, although an experienced diplomat with a distinguished career in the church, had no pastoral experience. In the weeks and days prior to the conclave, critics of Cardinal Parolin, including Italian cardinals, admired about other candidates, including Cardinal Prevost, which suggests that the support of Cardinal Parolin was softer than expected.
But when the white smoke bound over the Sixtine Chapel on the second voice day from the chimney, many liberals were worried that the voters had merged around cardinal parolin, a bureaucrat that they feared that they had sucked out all the fresh air that Francis had sucked in the church.
Cardinal Parolin originated on the balcony, but is still dressed in cardinal red. He smiled easily, a background figure for a new pope that liberals believed would protect Francis’s legacy.
In October 2024, Cardinal Prevost sounded a lot like Francis when he told Vatican news That a “bishop would not be a little prince in his kingdom, but is rather called authentic to be humble, to be close to the people he has to walk with them and suffer from them.”
Vatican analysts expect that Leo will clearly stop for migrants, the poor and those who are exploited by large forces, although perhaps less provocative than Francis did. He is considered pastoral and so open to listening to the worries of a wide range of Catholics. But for the time being he is at least seen as less than likely changes in church education about issues such as the ordination of women such as deacons, contraception and the status of homosexual men in the church.
Alberto Melloni, a church historian, said that although Leo was clearly in Francis’ fungus on his vision of a church that came closer to the people and was controlled more of the bottom-up, about social issues of the hot button, “he kept his hands free.”
But as Francis showed, people change when they become pope: he was considered a conservative cardinal in native Argentina.
In an interview with 2023 with Catholic news serviceLeo, then a cardinal, emphasized that clergy responds to problems in their parishes by thinking about their oath to “live and work in community with the Holy Father.”
That’s him now.
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