On the menu today: God bless you, Robert Francis Prevost, now known to the world as Pope Leo XIV. The world sure could use some clear, strong leadership that prioritizes the teachings of Christ and calls us to do the right thing, even when it’s hard or isn’t popular. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, the new pope’s brother John said that his sibling “has the patience of a saint.” Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. If years ago, you had told me that someday an American would become pope, and he would be a Chicago White Sox fan, I would have dismissed it as a rejected idea for a Christopher Buckley novel.
Leo XIV Steps onto the World Stage
There is something fascinating about how a new pope is greeted by corners of the U.S. and United Kingdom media like a new presidential candidate.
The Guardian warns, with shock and horror, that Pope Leo XIV is not a supporter of gay marriage.
After years of sympathetic and inclusive comments from Pope Francis, LGBTQ+ Catholics expressed concern on Thursday about hostile remarks made more than a decade ago by Father Robert Prevost, the new Pope Leo XIV, in which he condemned what he called the “homosexual lifestyle” and “the redefinition of marriage” as “at odds with the Gospel”.
In a 2012 address to the world synod of bishops, the man who now leads the church said that “Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel — for example abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia”.
I’m sorry, were you fellas expecting the new pope to be supportive of “abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia”? Are you guys familiar with the Catholic Church at all?
Let’s not overstate those “sympathetic and inclusive comments from Pope Francis,” either. Francis said he blessed the individuals in a gay marriage, not the gay marriage itself. A lot of people either accidentally misinterpreted it, deliberately misinterpreted it, or heard what they wanted to hear instead of what was actually said. I was reminded of the periodic vibe of surprise and sense of betrayal whenever Pope Francis reiterated the church’s adamant, full-spectrum opposition to abortion. It was as if certain Western elites believed that any man who appeared on the covers of The Advocate, the New Republic, the New Yorker, and the Italian edition of Vanity Fair simply had to be pro-choice.
A profile of Prevost in the New York Times, written before the appearance of white smoke:
As bishop in Chiclayo, a city in northwestern Peru, he opposed a government plan to add teachings on gender in schools. “The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” he told local news media.
When you ask a Catholic leader how many genders there are, you should expect an answer that is significantly lower than the number of Baskin Robbins flavors.
The New York Times, this morning: “The Pope Appears Uneasy with Trump Immigration Policies.” I mean, did anyone expect a pope to be an advocate for tough immigration restrictions?
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops laid out the church’s philosophy on immigration and migration:
Catholic social teaching must be understood in light of the absolute equality of all people and the commitment to the common good. A country’s regulation of borders and control of immigration must be governed by concern for all people and by mercy and justice. A nation may not simply decide that it wants to provide for its own people and no others. A sincere commitment to the needs of all must prevail.
Jesus reiterates the Old Testament command to love and care for the stranger, a criterion by which we shall be judged: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35).
The Apostle Paul asserts the absolute equality of all people before God: “There is neither Jew nor Greek . . . for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). In Christ, the human race is one before God, equal in dignity and rights.
You’re just not going to find a pope, or cardinal, or bishop celebrating the construction of a “big beautiful wall” or the proposal of alligator-filled moats or the notion of shooting migrants in the legs to slow them down.
Similarly, Politico reports, “Leo is America’s first pope. His worldview appears at odds with ‘America First.’”
Were you expecting the man to be a fervent nationalist? The word “Catholic” comes from the Greek meaning “through the whole,” that is “universal,” “world-wide,” “all inclusive.” That means it’s for everybody. The Catholic Church doesn’t believe that its mission and purpose stop at any border. When you’ve been around for a millennium or two, you’ve seen a lot of borders change; nations come and go. Souls are eternal and the faith abides.
The American pope shares the environmental concerns of his predecessor and supports the decentralization of the church that Francis encouraged (within strict limits). “Dominion over nature” — the task that God gave to humanity — should not become “tyrannical”, he told a seminar in Rome last year. It must be a “relationship of reciprocity.”
Would anyone expect a pope to advocate for a tyrannical relationship with nature?
No, if you want to get a sense of the man himself, check out his first homily:
Even today, there are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.
These are contexts where it is not easy to preach the Gospel and bear witness to its truth, where believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied. Yet, precisely for this reason, they are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life, the neglect of mercy, appalling violations of human dignity, the crisis of the family and so many other wounds that afflict our society. And these are not few.
Today, too, there are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman. This is true not only among non-believers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism.
It’s really early, but I’m starting to dig this cat.
The pontificate of Francis has been doctrinally, liturgically, and tonally disruptive. We hope Leo XIV brings peace within the church even as he calls for peace outside of it. Pope Francis often made scabrous criticisms of younger, more tradition-minded priests and faithful. With Leo XIV beginning his reign at the relatively spritely age of 69, it occasions a serious question: With a potential 20- or 30-year pontificate ahead of him, does Pope Leo XIV stiffly resist or gently accommodate the generational turnover and geographic shift that is turning the Catholic Church in a more traditional direction? We pray that even as he calls our consciences to love the poor, he does not scold those who, imitating Mary of Bethany, pour out expensive oil, honoring Jesus, our Savior, with the finest liturgical instruments at hand.
Our Kathryn Jean Lopez — who’s been on top of every twist and turn of the transition from Pope Francis to Pope Leo XIV — notes that the new pope sounds like a man who wants to reach out to those who consider themselves “spiritual, but not religious.”
Before the selection of Leo XIV, over at the New York Times, NR’s Ross Douthat and Michael Brendan Dougherty had a fascinating discussion with Dan Hitchens, a senior editor at First Things, about American conservatives, their relationship with the Vatican, and their hopes and expectations for the next pope. A prescient assessment from Ross:
But for all the talk about the conclave’s unpredictability, with so many cardinals appointed by Francis, the safest guess is still that the candidates being mentioned who embody continuity — Parolin, Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, perhaps Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost (an American with Latin American experience) — represent where the votes are likeliest to go.
And note MBD’s thoughts on the papacy and the era of the Internet:
A pope will matter again if he’s a great saint or a great scoundrel or a great anything — theologian or philosopher. But the world is on the internet now, and I think most seekers are seeking out the great sources of religion, the Scriptures, the saints online. And each religion is producing a variety of popular internet influencers who cater to niche audiences. Populist, elitist, crunchy, vibes-based apologetics. God has picked a thousand weirdos to influence you on Instagram; you’ll run into your guardian influencer someday.
Finally, over at the Washington Post, Ramesh lays out how the new pope is required to “be a teacher, a reformer, a pacifier and a fighter all at once.”
ADDENDUM: Think about how many Chicago deep-dish pizza joints can now post signs declaring, “The Pope Ate Here.”