Reading Francis

I am eager to hear more.

My first impressions of Pope Leo XIV, based on his “Urbi et Orbi” message, delivered at his introduction as the new pontiff, and the homily he gave at his first mass with the College of Cardinals after his election, are very encouraging. Two short addresses, given to different audiences in different contexts, are a very small sample size, though. I don’t know when he will have a chance to offer a longer programmatic document like Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, but I am eager to see it.

In the interim, let me highlight five things that come through loudly in these first impressions.

1. All. Among the lasting phrases of Francis’ evangelical papacy was his “Todos, todos, todos” to World Youth Day in Portugal. Everyone, everyone, everyone is welcome in the Church. Leo echoed that message of inclusion in his message from the Loggia of Blessings: “tutti” (everyone) shows up 15 times in his talk (and another time he refers to “al mondo intero”, the entire world). Whether this universality translates to the more political definitions of inclusion remains to be seen, but that emphasis on universality is clearly a significant theme that carries over from Francis.

2. We. It was not so long ago that popes used the (literal) “royal we”, invoking the first person plural in reference to themselves. Instead, Leo uses the first person plural a dozen times in the Urbi et Orbi, all to refer to a “we” that includes himself and the audience (and in most cases the entire world). (In his homily to his fellow cardinals, he also leans heavily into the first person plural.) I think this points to a profound humility, but also a continuation of Francis’ application of the Vatican II theme of the “priesthood of all believers,” the sense that the Church is a people whose primary invitation to participation is through baptism, not holy orders. Whether that translates into Francis’ commitment to promote laity into positions of leadership at all levels of the Church is too soon to say.

3. Peace. Not only is this the first thing Leo says, it’s a theme he repeats eight more times in his 500-word address. Some of the gestures Francis is famous for – kissing the feet of warring parties in Sudan, walking uninvited to the Russian embassy to plea for peace in Ukraine – underline the primacy of peace as a concern of his papacy. Leo recognizes that our world is desperate for peace.

4. Synodality. One of the open questions of the pre-conclave discussions was whether the cardinals would affirm Francis’ project to shift Church culture from a top-down hierarchy to a Church that listens to and accompanies all of its members. Given that most of the cardinals who led public events after Francis’ death omitted any mention of synodality, the prospects for this initiative weren’t looking so great. Not only did Leo use the term synodality (which, let’s face it, is a clunky one to weave into otherwise eloquent talk), but he also returned to the phrase “walking together” a half-dozen times. This phrase – camminare insieme, in Italian – was almost a mantra in the documents supporting the multiyear global synod on synodality. Using that phrase repeatedly in his first address sent a message that synodality isn’t going away as a concept.

5. Christology. OK, I get it. He’s the pope. You would expect him to talk about Jesus, and he does. Even so, I think it’s noteworthy that in his homily, which reflects on the passage in Matthew 16:13-19 when Jesus tells Peter “You are the rock on which I will build this Church,” Leo mostly skips over that part of the passage, despite it being the obvious point of a gospel chosen for a newly elected successor of Peter. Instead, Leo focuses on the first part of that passage, when Jesus asks the disciples “Who do people say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?” And it seems to me, in the way he connects the answers of that day to our modern experience of a world that only knows Jesus as good guy, if it cares about Him at all, Leo might be setting himself up to talk about what a world looks like that understands Jesus as the Christ. He encourages his fellow cardinals (and himself – again thinking from the first-person plural) to remember that the proper response to this belief “is to move aside so that Christ may remain, to make oneself small so that he may be known and glorified, to spend oneself to the utmost so that all may have the opportunity to know and love Him.”

I think there will likely be a temptation to jump straight to Pope Leo’s social program, and as someone who has already dug out my copy of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, I fight that temptation myself. I get the sense, though, that whatever the new pope’s big plan is, it will only make sense to the extent that it’s grounded in Christology. He has already told us that we are all included in Christ’s love. We are called together to walk with Christ. The peace with which he opens his papal message is inseparable from Christ. Seems like a theme.

Anyway, I am eager to hear more.