1089 words, 6 minute read.
When Pope Leo XIV appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s earlier today, I had no idea who Robert Prevost was, but the obvious joy on the faces of the cardinals around him reassured me greatly. His subsequent words then furthered my joy at this 267th successor of St. Peter. As Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re put it so beautifully in his sermon during the mass for the election of a new roman pontiff, “The election of the new Pope is not a simple succession of persons, instead it is always the Apostle Peter who returns.”
Listening to his first address after being elected, I had a clear sense of continuity with Pope Francis, whom he also explicitly thanked. He spoke about peace (“This is the peace of the Risen Christ, a peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering.”), about God’s love for all (“God loves us all unconditionally.”), about “Help us too, and then help one another to build bridges—through dialogue, through encounter—coming together to be one people, always in peace. Thanks to Pope Francis!”), and about the kind of Church he would like us to be (“We want to be a synodal Church, a Church that journeys, a Church that always seeks peace, always seeks charity, always seeks to be close especially to those who suffer.”).
I also delighted in hearing that he was an Augustinian and by the choice of quote from St. Augustine he used: “With you, I am a Christian; for you, I am a bishop.”
Later in the day I looked for what he has said over the last years and I discovered that he also had a Twitter (now X) account, scrolling thought which gave the sense of a genuine, humble, normal person.
What particularly struck during this first, brief excursion into the thought of Leo XIV were the following:
- His sense of the mission of the Church: “We have to announce the good news of the Kingdom of God at the same time that we understand what the Church is in its universal reality. […] There are many different cultures, many different languages, many different circumstances around the world where the Church responds. So when we list our priorities and weigh up the challenges before us we have to be aware that the urgencies of Italy, Spain, the United States, Peru or China, for example, are almost certainly not the same except in one thing: the underlying challenge that Christ left to us to preach the Gospel and that this is the same everywhere. The priorities of pastoral work will always be different from one place to another, but recognising the great richness of diversity within the People of God is tremendously useful because it makes us more sensitive when it comes time to better reach out and respond to what they expect from us.”
- His thoughts on polarization and ideology: “It is a real challenge, especially when polarisation has become the modus of operating in a society that, rather than seeking unity as a fundamental principle, goes instead from extreme to extreme. Ideologies have acquired greater power than the real experience of humanity, of faith, of the actual values we live by. Some misconstrue unity as uniformity: “You have to be the same as we are.” No. This cannot be. Nor can diversity be understood as a way of living without criteria or order. The latter lose sight of the fact that from the very creation of the world, the gift of nature, the gift of human life, the gift of so many different things that we actually live and celebrate, cannot be sustained by making up our own rules and only doing things our way. These are ideological positions. When an ideology becomes master of my life, then I can no longer dialogue or engage with another person because I have already decided how things will be. I am closed to the encounter and transformation cannot, as a result, take place. And that can happen anywhere in the world on any issue. This obviously makes it very challenging to be Church, to be community, to be brothers and sisters.”
- His clear vision of what a bishop is called to be today: “We must above all be “Catholic”: sometimes a bishop runs the risk of focusing only on the local dimension. But a bishop must have a much broader vision of the Church and of reality, and experience the universality of the Church. He also needs the ability to listen to others and to seek advice, as well as psychological and spiritual maturity. A fundamental element of the profile is to be a pastor, capable of being close to the members of the community, starting with the priests—for whom the bishop is both father and brother. To live this closeness with everyone, excluding no one.
Pope Francis spoke of the four forms of closeness: closeness to God, to fellow bishops, to priests, and to all the People of God. One must not give in to the temptation to live in isolation, separated in a palace, elevated by a certain social status or level within the Church. And one must not hide behind an idea of authority that no longer makes sense today. The authority we have is that of service—accompanying priests in order to be pastors and teachers.
We are often concerned with teaching doctrine, the way to live our faith, but we run the risk of forgetting that our first task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ and to bear witness to our closeness to the Lord. That is the first thing: to communicate the beauty of faith, the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus. It means that we ourselves are living it and sharing that experience.” - His active engagement in social justice: “We should be concerned about national and regional policies aimed at alleviating the most urgent ills afflicting our society and our city. We cannot be complacent; we must face the problems and seek viable and sustainable solutions. […] We must work for the poorest, most vulnerable families. We must also promote spaces for culture, art, and sports, as well as spaces to celebrate faith.”
- His opposition to the death penalty three years before it became official Catholic teaching: “It’s time to end the death penalty.”
- … and a good sense of humor in reposting this TikTok on X about social distancing: https://x.com/andrescarras/status/1277069538555723776
Looking forward to discovering more about him over the coming days and weeks!
eyebeleave 