Man of Three Worlds – “Leo XIV presented himself to the world, visibly moved, reading a text he had prepared full of cross-references, explaining who he is and some, at least, of what he wants to do.” Leo XIV, the Pope, called to bring unity (Monday Vatican)
A Calm Pope Amid the Ecclesial Storm – “So far, Pope Leo’s style is relatively low-key. He is joyful but calm. He seems intent upon intentionally disarming a church that has become terribly polarized.” Analysis: Quietly, without flashiness, a disarming Pope Leo strives toward unity (Our Sunday Visitor)
English Poetry – “A poet reviews three essential guides to the history and craft of writing poetry in English, which point to a bright future for versification.” To Rhyme Is Human (Plough)
Warnings in Scripture – “God forbid that any one of us in his own station and according to his own opportunity should have in any degree helped on the diminution and wasting away of those things which Christ and his Apostles have bequeathed to us!” Newman, Augustine, and Leo XIV (First Things)
Expressions of Continuity – “Popes are, well, successors of their predecessors. By definition. And in that sense, they are followers.” Pope Leo XIV: Follower and Leader (Earthly City – Substack)
Pope Leo XIV on Homosexuality – “Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks. This week, we look at the media reaction to Pope Leo’s past comments on the ‘homosexual lifestyle,’ and cover more media misses.” Journalists Shocked to Learn the Pope Is Catholic (National Review)
Hard Power, Soft Power – “There is little without precedent in the Catholic Church, but it is fair to say nothing exactly like this has happened before and safe to say it took Church watchers quite by surprise.” Pope Leo XIV: What we know already (and what we can expect) (Crux Now)
Who Got Played? – “Both orthodox Catholics and modernists have been celebrating, while there have been naysayers on both sides, too.” Leo XIV: the Man, the Priest, and the Bishop – Who is He? (RORATE CÆLI)
The Stendhal Syndrome – “As Stendhal knew, the reason for art is to make you feel. Do not try to grasp the artwork: allow it to grasp you instead.” The ecstatic swoon (aeon)
Craving the Real and Deep – “The Catholic church is seeking to change the world again, rather than the other way around.” I’m praying that the 60s cultural revolution is finally over (The Telegraph)
Solidarity with Journalists – “Peace begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others. In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: we must say “no” to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war.” Meeting with Media Representatives in Rome for the Conclave, 12.05.2025 (Holy See Press Office)
Exuding Calmness and Reassurance – “He has already said that he chose his regnal name in honour of Leo XIII, out of admiration for his teachings on modern social doctrine expressed in Rerum Novarum of 1891.” Signs of the times: what can we already discern about the pontificate of Leo XIV? (Catholic Herald)
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I refuse to allow all these “analysts” to explain to me exactly who Pope Leo is. I’ll allow Pope Leo’s words and actions to explicate his own papacy. Then I’ll make a judgment. After the last papacy, this is a time for fewer words from the Pope. But when he does speak, let it be with care, much prior thought, clarity, charity and orthodoxy.
Re #10 Craving the real and deep.
Yes! Can we move on now?
We read: “[Pope Leo XIV] has already said that he chose his regnal name in honour of Leo XIII, out of admiration for his teachings on modern social doctrine expressed in Rerum Novarum of 1891.”
Three comments:
FIRST, Pope Leo XVI’s “immediate priorities” surely include the Vatican financial crisis, the der Synodale Weg ecclesial crisis, and the counter-crisis appointment of new faces within the Vatican. And for the long term—following two centuries of ideology—to clearly reaffirm the centrality of the historical Incarnation into universal human history and, therefore, the transcendent dignity of the human person. How for the sacramental Church to simply be what it is, while at the same time proposing enduring principles for today’s global cacophony of crises?
SECOND, which brings us back to Leo XIII who, in his time and in Rerum Novarum (1891), responded to the Industrial Revolution and how it was dissolving all familiar reference points about the person and the family, and human rights and responsibilities.
For perspective, the industrial 20th century gave us a clash of non-civilizations….In Russia, a modern Genghis khan with railroads and the gulag. In Germany, racial fascism with blitzkrieg and incinerators. In Japan, the traditional warrior code with aircraft carriers. In China, the Great Leap Forward and colossal peasant starvation. But, in Pope Leo XIV’s United States, a more complex and kneaded history, and a “liberal” institutional model earlier atop a common moral foundation (but also the Civil War and atom bombs).
As an snapshot, does this very oversimplified lens (from Barrington Moore, Jr.) still help point us to the middle of our followup 21st century? And, to the next decades with the American-born and then broadly experienced (Peru, Rome) Pope Leo XIV…
THIRD, on the heels of the ideological last century, including the Industrial Revolution (and Leo XIII) and the spawned Sexual Revolution, what can we hope for from Leo XIV?
On the transcendent dignity of the human person and, therefore, on the non-ideological (!) Catholic Social Teaching, these hints from St. John Paul II: The CST “belongs to the field…of theology and particularly moral theology” (Centesimus Annus, CA, 1991, n. 55; citing Rerum Novarum, n. 143). And, “Man receives from God [not ideology] his essential dignity and with it the capacity to transcend every social order [!] so as to move toward truth and goodness” (CA, n. 38); and “to destroy such structures [‘of sin’] and replace them with more authentic forms of living in community is a task which demands courage and patience” (CA, n. 38).
SUMMARY: We can look forward to “calmness and reassurance,” and to courage and especially patience from the seasoned and Augustinian Pope Leo XIV—who has a grip on both the moral absolutes and the message of Rerum Novarum and CST. As with his 5th-century St. Augustine, our “modern” times are also about real human nature and supernatural grace.
Re Fr. Imbelli’s Newman, Augustine, and Leo XIV (First Things)
God bless St. John Newman, St. Augustine, Fr. Imbelli, and our new Pope Leo. May God bless our new pope as he and we reflect and act in consonance with these words:
“God forbid that any one of us in his own station and according to his own opportunity should have in any degree helped on the diminution and wasting away of those things which Christ and his Apostles have bequeathed to us!”