What’s in a name? That question is often pondered when a newborn needs a name or when a newly elected Pope selects his title.
Today, this question holds particular significance for Africa, following the decision of American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost to adopt the name Leo XIV as Pope.
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected Pope Leo XIV on May 8, 2025, in a conclave where predictions had highlighted many possible candidates, including three African cardinals.
“There is a common saying in Rome: Whoever enters the conclave as a pope emerges as a cardinal. So, I wasn’t surprised that some widely mentioned papabili did not make it,” said Very Rev. Fr. Patrick Alumuku, Director of Catholic Television Nigeria.
Cameroon cleric and researcher Fr. Humphrey Tatah Mbuy dismissed early predictions, calling them “newspaper popes who never get elected.”
Meanwhile, Bishop Michael Bibi of Cameroon’s Buea Diocese emphasized the balance between human agency and divine guidance in the selection of a pope. “Ultimately, the choice of a pope is God’s gift to the Church—a shepherd after the heart of Christ,” he said.
“The cardinal electors vote in secret, guided by conscience, responsibility, and attentiveness to the signs of the times, the needs of the Church, and the world,” Bibi explained. “They invoke the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, trusting in divine direction.”
“Therefore, the human and the divine collaborate, as is the case with every choice and decision within the Church,” he remarked. “God respects and ennobles our freedom.”
Bishop Eduardo Hiiboro Kussala of Tombura-Yambio diocese in South Sudan explained further that the Holy Spirit often moves through the unexpected.
“History teaches us that the papacy is not shaped by human calculations, but by divine purpose. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, may not have topped prediction lists, but he has always led hearts—with humility, deep missionary roots, and a Christ-centered pastoral presence. His election reminds us that God sees deeper and further than we ever could,” he told CWR.
Bibi recalled the biblical account of Samuel, who was sent to find the next king among Jesse’s sons. Samuel assumed the eldest, Eliab, was the right choice—but he was wrong. The same happened with the other sons until finally, the youngest, David, was chosen, even though he had been overlooked while tending sheep.
“While we might judge, and genuinely so, by what we see and consider as the most relevant traits of a ‘papabile,’ we might as well just be missing the point, for ‘The Lord does not look at the things people look at.’ (1 Sam 16:7),” Bibi said.
Prevost chooses Leo XIV
What has caught the attention of African clerics is the name Prevost chose as his Papal name: Pope Leo XIV.
“The fact that he takes the name Leo XIV is very important,” Mbuy told CWR.
“Leo XIII is known to have been the first person in the world and the first in the Church to have been worried about the situation of workers, their condition, their remuneration, and wrote what we call the first social encyclical of the Church, which means it gives the Church liberty to speak about the social, political, and economic life of the people,” Mbuy told CWR.
“So, in taking the name of Leo XIV, it’s a very serious reminder that he is going to follow in the footsteps of Leo XIII,” he added.
Bibi told CWR that he had prayed for a pope who would “wisely and compassionately” guide the Church through “these turbulent times,’ navigating a world fraught with cultural crises—from “secular humanism” and “agnostic scientism” to “the tyranny of relativism” shaping modern society. He also expressed concern about fracturing ideologies that pose challenges to the Church from within.
He believes Pope Leo XIV possesses both the keen intellect and the “compassionate heart of a pastor” needed to confront these pressing issues with wisdom and strength.
Fr. Moses Aondover Iorapuu, Vicar General Pastoral and Director of Communications and Parish Priest of Holy Ghost Parish Makurdi, Nigeria, says the choice of the name and the first words of the new Pope who spoke about the need for peace in the world means that “Pope Leo XIV will be a pope of social justice after Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII and he will be a crusader for peace in the world.”
The encyclical Rerum Novarum (translated as “Of Revolutionary Change”) was issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It is considered a foundational document of modern Catholic social teaching, addressing the rights and duties of capital and labor in response to the social challenges of industrialization.
The encyclical advocates for the rights of workers, including the right to form labor unions, while rejecting both socialism and unrestricted capitalism. It emphasizes the importance of private property, fair wages, and the role of the state in promoting justice.
African clerics are also happy with the fact that Pope Leo XIV has a multi-cultural heritage.
Mbuy said that he thinks Pope Leo XIV, as an American, will definitely espouse the values of democracy, but as a Peruvian, he would be “a powerful voice for the vulnerable, the voiceless, and the marginalized.”
“The election of the first American Pope, following the first Latin American Pope, is for us grace upon grace,” said Bishop Hiiboro Kussala of South Sudan.
“America holds a strong Catholic tradition and a vibrant community of faith. It is a power to be reckoned with—not only geopolitically but spiritually—and can now contribute anew to the re-evangelization of the world,” Hiiboro told CWR. “I am profoundly joyful about this!”
Hiiboro Kussala, who had met Prevost personally, further told CWR that Pope Leo XIV “carries the soul of a missionary, the tenderness of a pastor, and the clarity of a theologian.”
“I was moved by his Franciscan warmth—though not a Franciscan himself— his listening heart and his gentle attentiveness toward the poor and wounded. Like Pope Francis, he walks with the lowly, not above them.”
Mbuy expects Leo to be “a wonderful pope, a prayerful man, a man who has to face the situation of the world.”
The new Pope and Africa
African clerics believe Leo XIV will continue in the footsteps of his predecessor, Francis, who stood up to the continued exploitation of Africa by the unfettered capitalism of the West.
Mbuy referenced Pope Francis’ dictum when he visited the DRC in 2023—”Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa! Stop choking Africa: it is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered”—to explain that Leo will toe the same line.
“Pope Leo XIV’s missionary experience in Latin America has equipped him with a deep understanding of the joys and wounds of the Global South. I trust that he will prioritize listening to African voices, not merely speaking to them,” said Bishop Hiiboro.
“I hope his papacy will walk with us as a partner in peacebuilding and justice, wherever conflict and inequality persist; a promoter of African vocations, cultures, and theological insights, affirming that Africa is not a mission field, but a missionary force; a supporter of synodal inclusion, giving space to African youth, women, elders, and lay movements—like our Peace Makers of Christo—to shape the universal Church,” the South Sudanese Bishop said.
“His policy must be one of accompaniment, not administration; recognition, not replacement,” he added.
And while there are expectations that the new Pope could play a significant part in the economic decolonization of Africa, which Francis was already advocating, Fr. Tatah Mbuy notes that Africa’s salvation will ultimately be an African affair.
“Unfortunately, many people are interested in getting Africa out of its underdevelopment, but Africans don’t seem to want to get themselves out of it,” Mbuy told CWR.
“We have been so used to being dictated to by foreign powers and our colonial masters that it looks like most African leaders just want the status quo. Because when you look at what’s happening, for example, in Burkina Faso, where a young man wants to change, there are people wanting to kill him. It just makes me feel that we Africans are not sorry for ourselves. And I think part of what the Pope will be trying to do is to help open the eyes of Africans to see what is happening to them.”
Still, Fr Patrick Alumuku believes that the trends in the Catholic Church globally would make any pope take Africa very seriously.
“I think that any serious-minded Pope today will not take lightly the importance of the continent of Africa in the Catholic Church, because this is where the Church is growing, this is where the enthusiasm of the faith is alive, this is where the Church is shaping new ideas even for the future,” he told CWR.
Africa recorded the largest increase in Catholic followers in 2021 compared to other regions, adding 8.3 million new Catholics. By 2023, the continent accounted for 20% of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
“The vivacity of the Church here shows anyone who is a Pope that you cannot neglect Africa. This is where missionaries are being raised even for the world right now,” Alumuku noted.
More globally, Bibi hopes for a Pope who will “hold together the great traditions of the Church while embracing the gifts and opportunities of the modern era, that is, a hermeneutic of continuity that represents the ancient wisdom of the Church in a manner that renders it meaningful and relevant even today.”
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The name Leo is never accidental. Leo the Great, the first to bear it, was the Pope who stood firm against the spiritual encroachments of the Eastern Roman Empire. He asserted the primacy of the Roman See not through worldly power, but by a humility rooted in divine authority. He confronted Attila the Hun—not with an army, but with faith—and sent him back across the Alps. His courage did what the Empire could no longer do: defend a vulnerable people when politics had failed them.
Leo XIII, the last to bear the name before now, was likewise no ordinary pontiff. A theologian of immense depth, he gave the Church Rerum Novarum, defending workers from the brutalities of liberal economic exploitation. He unmasked the ideological roots of modern errors with piercing clarity: in Humanum Genus, he exposed the alliance between secular liberalism, Freemasonry, and the rising spectre of communism. In Arcanum Divinae, he laid the foundations for the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of Christian marriage and family life—truths now often under siege.
Now comes Leo XIV, greeting the world with the words of the Risen Lord and calling Rome—and with it the whole Church—back to evangelization, placing Our Lord at the center, not himself. Under the mantle of the Virgin, invoking her help with the Ave Maria, he speaks with strength and gentleness: it is Christ who must increase, while those who govern in his name must decrease. Praeesse becomes prodesse: to preside is to serve.
There is more than symbolism here. In choosing this name, the new Pope gestures—perhaps gently but unmistakably—toward resistance to a new kind of empire: not forged by legions, but by cultural impositions and ideological colonization. Many in Africa have already seen through this pattern. Their joy in this new pontificate is telling. Just as Pope Leo I stood before Attila, and Leo XIII confronted the hidden ideologies of his age, so too might Leo XIV be called to defend the Church from those powers that would reshape her in their own image.
And so, is there a greater joy than this? A Pope who places Christ at the center, who speaks as a servant under Mary’s mantle, and whose very name evokes fidelity, courage, and truth. May he be a shepherd after the heart of the Good Shepherd.
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