Hopes for a new pontificate

Within a few hours of the election of Pope Leo XIV and his masterful presentation of himself to the Church and the world from the central loggia of the Vatican basilica, I received an email from an old friend, a member of a prominent Catholic family in Nicaragua:

Dear George: Praise God for Pope Leo XIV, Papa León! He [visited us several years ago.] There is a sense of renewed hope. May God bless him and bless us. I hope you are well. Sending much love — *****.

I can’t name my correspondent; doing so would put my friend’s family at greater risk from the odious Ortega/Murillo regime, which is viciously persecuting the Catholic Church in long-suffering Nicaragua. My friend is a realist who knows that popes in the twenty-first century lack power, as the world understands power. Thanks to the example of John Paul II, however, this devout Catholic and Nicaraguan patriot also knows that popes can wield immense moral power, summoning oppressed people to fearlessness and forming new coalitions of conscience to resist tyranny.

That is what my friend and many others hope for from Pope Leo—that and, I imagine, a more vigorous defense of the persecuted Nicaraguan Church and its people than was forthcoming from the Vatican over the past dozen years. Such a vocal, public defense of the persecuted may not produce immediate results, but it shines the light of international publicity on cruelties that tyrants would prefer to leave in the dark. And that illumination provides a measure of protection for those determined to defend religious freedom and other basic human rights. As a former missionary in some tough situations, Pope Leo knows that.

Nicaragua is not, of course, the only venue where the Vatican should step up its game in the face of persecution. There is Venezuela. There is Cuba. There is Nigeria. And there is China, where the Xi Jinping regime marked the death of Pope Francis with a blatant violation of the accord the late pope made in 2018, by “electing” and “installing” a new bishop without a papal mandate—there being no pope to issue such a mandate. There was less discussion of current Vatican China policy than I had expected in the General Congregations of cardinals preceding the conclave. But since it is now pluperfectly obvious that the policy is a failure, I wouldn’t be surprised if a complete reassessment of it were ordered up by the new pope. There certainly should be.

Despite a lot of silly media and internet speculations about the effects of a U.S.-born pope on the world political scene, Pope Leo XIV’s immediate priorities will likely be ecclesiastical rather than geopolitical. He has to get to grips, and quickly, with the Vatican’s eroding financial situation. Contributions to the Holy See from the United States have been declining in recent years, and that isn’t going to change significantly unless there is a massive overhaul of Vatican finance, including transparency in budgeting and accounting, fiscal and personnel reforms to deal with structural budget deficits, and a realistic plan for addressing a multibillion-euro unfunded pension liability. The United States can and will help, but only when major donors are confident that the current administrative chaos and financial sleaze have been addressed and corrected.

Just as urgent, though, is the need to strengthen the keel of the Barque of Peter by restoring clarity and stability in teaching and pastoral practice.

There was a lot of discussion of “synodality” in the cardinals’ pre-conclave General Congregations, but without that murky term being defined with any more precision. If “synodality” means that the newer local Churches are heard in Rome more than in the past, well and good. But on this 1700^th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, which settled the question of the divinity of Christ and gave us the Creed we still recite, Pope Leo will be very aware that “synodality” cannot mean that everything is up for grabs in a Church misconceived as an ongoing discussion group. There are settled matters of belief and practice in the Catholic Church. And those matters were—and are and will be—settled by the Church’s authoritative teachers, the bishops.

As the great Chesterton once noted, “An open mind, like an open mouth, should close on something.” Pope Leo is an experienced man of governance, so he knows that. And it is entirely reasonable to hope that he will govern in such a way that Catholics are reminded of a basic truth: solidity, not liquidity, is the hallmark of “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).