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By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago born Augustinian friar, graduate of Villanova in Philadelphia, and former missionary in Peru, appeared on the loggia of St. Peter’s Square as Pope Leo XIV, the 267th successor of St. Peter, bishop of Rome, and head of the universal Church.
While some of the “papal handicappers” had floated his name in the run up to the Conclave, his election came as a surprise, if not a shock, to the millions awaiting the announcement of the new pontiff after the white smoke billowed above the roof of the Sistine Chapel.
Conventional wisdom had it that no American could be elected as Pope. The optics of a Pope from the world’s biggest (and richest) superpower, the pundits said, made the election of an American impossible – until it wasn’t.
But, of course, Pope Leo XIII was not a typical American cleric. He spent much of his priesthood as a missionary in Peru. And while he had a degree in canon law, his career path to the papacy was not typical either.
Nevertheless, he was a religious superior with advanced academic degrees and fluency in several languages, who worked as a vocation director (essentially a recruiter for potential priests), a seminary professor, a pastor, and a bishop in the mission fields of the Church, checking off many “boxes” that suggest his papacy will be competent in administration, innovative in strategy, and sensitive to the social, economic and cultural challenges of Catholics seeking to remain faithful to the gospel in a rapidly secularizing world. A world marked by intractable conflicts among nations and social groups.
The last Leo – Leo XIII, (d. 1903) – was the first of the modern popes. He wrote the milestone encyclical Rerum Novarum, which initiated a series of papal teachings on social concerns, including the rights to a just wage and rights of workers to organize into unions. Thus began a body of Catholic Social Teachings that each successive pope has expanded.
The first Leo – Leo the Great (d. 461) – is known as the “Hun whisperer” for having faced Attila the Hun and saving Rome from being sacked by him.
St. Paul, in writing to Titus, defines in these words a rule of conduct for all who share in the “hierarchical structures” of the Church: “Show yourself in all respects a model of good deeds, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity and sound speech that cannot be censured, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us.” (Titus 2: 7-8).
These words of St. Paul are good advice for Pope Leo XIV and for anyone else that holds responsibility in the Church.
As Pope, he will speak to the world as a pastor and a teacher; but he should not speak in the idiom of politics or polemics but in the language of the Gospel of Life.
We pray for him for it is not easy for anyone to fill the “Shoes of the Fisherman.”
Leo, of course, is Latin for lion. May Leo XIV be a gentle shepherd of souls but with the heart and courage of a lion. In the months and years to come, I am sure we will hear him roar.
