Article“We are often worried about teaching doctrine, but we risk forgetting that our first duty is to communicate the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus.”
The man who spoke those words in a 2023 interview, Cardinal Robert Prevost, is now leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
The church has chosen to follow its first Latin American pope, a former head of the Jesuit religious order, with a semi-Latin American pope, and former head of the Augustinian religious order. I say “semi” because, although American, Pope Leo XIV spent years in Peru and two thirds of his life in service outside the US. This has allowed him to overcome what was usually considered an insuperable obstacle for potential popes who are a citizen of the world’s chief superpower.
Many – including me – admired Francis’ strengths of humility, openness, emphasis on a pastoral church for the weak and the poor, and (to quote Pope John XXIII) on mercy rather than severity. For us, Leo is likely to prove an excellent successor, with a similar pastoral heart.
Francis, whom Australia’s Cardinal George Pell excoriated from beyond the grave in a famous anonymous letter, was actually not a theological liberal – for example he talked about women deacons but never introduced them. He just had different priorities. Leo looks as though he will take a similar stance and, if he lacks Francis’s personal charisma (yet to be seen), he brings other strengths in curial experience of governance.
Vatican watchers speculated that as Francis had appointed 80 per cent of the voting cardinals his successor was likely to share most of his priorities, but they were also aware that the most diverse and far-flung conclave in history might be unpredictable. Many cardinals were so little known to each other before the pre-conclave meetings that the church had to set up a website introducing them.
The speed with which they elected Leo – just the fifth ballot – suggests the first vote on Wednesday ruled out early favourites in Italian Pietro Parolin and the Philippines’ Luis Antonio Tagle and moved quickly to compromise candidates.
Leo is a strong supporter of synodality, a code word for following Francis’ agenda of making the church more inclusive and empowering lay people, rather than an emphasis on doctrine and purity (identified among conservatives by the code word “unity”). Francis knew and accepted that life is usually messy; he loved people. In his 2023 interview, Leo said synodality was the way to heal the polarisation in the church.
Nevertheless, there is much in Leo to reassure the conservative wing. Francis’ main weakness, perhaps, was governance. Leo has spent the past two years as head of one of the key Vatican departments, appointing and managing the world’s bishops, and has a background in canon law that means he is unlikely to be rash.
He was also clearly acceptable to cardinals from Latin America (now representing 47 per cent of the world’s Catholics) and Africans (20 per cent but the fastest growing). It helps that he is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, French and Portuguese.
If Francis was elected in 2013 into a church facing many challenges, like almost all the 265 popes before him, it is far more the case for Leo. In an unstable and uncertain world in which political leaders’ unpredictable egos make an extra complication, he will have to tread carefully to negotiate conflicting but legitimate requirements and to protect Catholics in countries where they are under pressure.
Many challenges relate to the external world, such as global conflicts, polarisation, refugees, the rise of extremism, and the perennial problems of poverty, persecution, and climate. Muslim interaction is vital – Francis tried hard here – with sub-Saharan Africans facing an under-reported genocide by Muslim fundamentalists.
Within the church too there are long-standing and intractable divisions that will require Leo to walk a tightrope. These include the role of women, the Latin Mass, and blessings for same-sex unions, the latter because it reflects on Catholic identity. Traditionalists rightly want to hold firm against the transitory convulsions of cultural trends – one Catholic motto, though not quite accurate, is semper eadam, “ever the same” – while progressives rightly want the church to be welcoming, accessible and merciful.
Clergy sex abuse is the biggest catastrophe for the Roman Catholic Church since the 16th century Reformation and, despite undeniable progress, the church’s response is still far too often weak and compromised. Francis was indecisive here, and there have been allegations that Leo did not follow through on complaints in Peru.
Leo will have enormous moral influence, so the world will be watching carefully.
Stalin famously asked, “how many divisions has the pope?” He wouldn’t have been so dismissive had he lived to the 1980s and seen the enormous role of Christians led by Pope John Paul II in the collapse of communism.
The church continues to grow rapidly in the global south, and there are strong hints of regeneration among young people in the West. Leo has his work cut out but he will begin with considerable good will. Good luck, Leo.
Barney Zwartz, religion editor of The Age from 2002 to 2013, covered the 2005 and 2013 conclaves. He is now a Senior Fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity. This article was first published in The Age.