The Catholic Church has a brand new pope, and for the primary time, he’s an American.
Pope Leo XIV was elected on Thursday, succeeding Pope Francis, who died in April. Leo, a 69-year-old native of Chicago, has held a number of roles within the Church, together with serving as a bishop in Peru and main the Order of St. Augustine. Most not too long ago, he was the top of a board tasked with selecting new bishops. And based on his brother, Leo is a longtime White Sox fan.
Whereas these biographical particulars are vital and supply some perception into the person behind the title, they can not inform us a lot in regards to the largest questions raised by Leo’s ascension: The place will he lead his Church? Will he usher in reforms? And the way will he method the various challenges going through the establishment?
To reply these questions, and others, I turned to Michele Dillon, dean of the School of Liberal Arts on the College of New Hampshire, and a scholar on the Catholic Church.
Our dialog, edited for size and readability, is beneath.
What do individuals must know in regards to the new pope?
What’s very spectacular is the vary of experiences that Pope Leo XIV brings to the function.
He has been a missionary on the bottom in Peru for 20 years, and so is aware of firsthand the wants of the native church buildings in poor peripheral areas which might be a key concern and of nice significance to the Church.
It’s additionally essential that he has, most not too long ago, been head of the Dicastery — the division on the Vatican in control of bishops — so, he actually has been very strongly concerned in vetting and making new appointments of bishops, in addition to recommending bishop appointments throughout the entire world. The community of bishops [he developed] might be vital, not simply formally, but additionally informally. Presumably, he can actually get on the telephone and ask a selected bishop in a selected diocese [for advice or information].
And it’s vital to know that he’s an Augustinian, and was the top of the Augustinian order, so he brings that Augustinian custom, which is a really vital a part of the church — theologically, and by way of the world right this moment.
After all, the actual fact that he’s American is clearly a giant shock, however there’s at all times the uncertainty that each cardinal who goes in there, any one in all them, can emerge because the pope. We’re at all times shocked who the following pope is.
Partially, what tipped the steadiness in favor of his papacy is just not solely is he an American, however he’s so deeply rooted in South America. I think about that the South American and Central American cardinals would have a variety of respect for him, as would the cardinals from Africa and Asia, who actually do admire that missionary custom and expertise.
He actually is a good American from Chicago, which has a really proud historical past and nonetheless right this moment a really vibrant Catholicism on the bottom in all these parishes throughout Chicago, however he additionally brings his different expertise outdoors of America to this job.
General, he brings actually deep pastoral expertise, plus govt administration expertise.
He understands the work of the Vatican, the interior workings of the Vatican paperwork, and might be pretty adept at navigating its complexities.
What are a few of the challenges — and a few of the large selections — Pope Leo will face?
It’s not as if there’s some looming determination on his desk. However definitely there are a variety of ongoing, urgent points within the Church.
A kind of are the Vatican funds, which have been a recurring subject. Francis himself made a variety of efforts to convey reform to the Vatican Financial institution and to its accounting practices. He had some success in making it just a little bit extra clear; he introduced in some outdoors specialists, though that wasn’t essentially very profitable, as a result of lots of these ended up leaving for one purpose or one other, typically beneath the cloud of scandal.
And naturally, throughout Francis’s time period, we had embezzlement costs towards Cardinal Becciu, who couldn’t vote on this most up-to-date conclave. These embezzlement costs are reminiscent ones that we’ve had each decade, definitely in my life, going again to the Banco Ambrosiano corruption scandal that made its approach into The Godfather Half III.
It’s a significant downside as a result of — clearly, you don’t need mismanagement — but additionally, although the Vatican has a variety of belongings; it has a variety of bills. And the expansion space of Catholicism right this moment is within the poorest areas of the world, in Africa and elements of Asia. It depends on cash from America to a big extent, which provides disproportionately to its share of the Catholic inhabitants globally.
[Another issue will likely be] persevering with the Vatican’s diplomacy. Within the Israel and Palestine state of affairs and the Russia-Ukraine state of affairs, the Vatican has been actively concerned in making diplomatic interventions and attempting to work behind the scenes, because it at all times does in these conditions. Pope Leo XIV talked about peace a number of occasions in his opening feedback. And clearly, that’s one thing that he’s going to be weighing — one thing that most likely has lengthy been weighing on his thoughts, and as pope, I’d think about that will be a urgent precedence for him.
Then, you must cope with all the assorted debates throughout the Catholic Church. Many of those are very Euro- and American-centric debates that need to do with sexual morality and the function of ladies. These are issues which might be extra salient right here within the Northern Hemisphere and to some extent, in South America, however much less so in Africa and Asia. That’s form of a rigidity throughout the international church, and it’s definitely one thing that he’ll must be taking note of.
Lastly, all individuals who have gone up the hierarchy of the Church have, in a method or one other, have turn out to be implicated in numerous clerical intercourse abuse scandals — not that they themselves dedicated intercourse abuse, however usually [had some] regard as to how the problems have been handled, whether or not that’s inside an order, such because the Augustinian order that present Pope Leo headed, or whether or not it’s of their function as a bishop. These are issues which might be a urgent subject internationally.
Do now we have any sense of how Pope Leo may method a few of these points?
The Church has made actually vital advances by way of safeguarding youngsters from intercourse abuse, and so it’s a matter of creating certain that [these safeguards are] enforced and are [meeting] the objectives that they’re supposed to serve. That’s one thing he would want to concentrate to.
The fee [on sexual assault] that was arrange within the Vatican by Pope Francis — he might want to revitalize that fee. Most of the members have spoken out over time that they really feel that they weren’t being absolutely supported by different church officers throughout the Vatican, or that, in numerous methods, their work was being hindered. That’s one factor that he may decide on pretty early to essentially empower that group and provides them the assets that they want.
I feel the problem of ladies within the church might be on the again burner. I don’t suppose he’s going to say an excessive amount of about that within the early days, [to avoid] being seen as nodding in a selected technique to anybody’s so-called faction throughout the church.
I is likely to be fallacious, and I could also be effectively shocked. There have been a number of commissions taking a look at ladies deacons, for instance; he may decide in that regard, however these commissions themselves have been so controversial, and through Francis’s tenure, he didn’t even launch the names of individuals on the fee, so I’d be shocked if this new pope have been to out of the blue make {that a} prime precedence.
You talked about that completely different factions exist. Are there factions which might be possibly extra heartened by the elevation of this pope than others?
I’d say that each one the individuals who have been very supportive of Francis’s papacy will definitely be very proud of this selection. I additionally suppose that those that had sure reservations about Francis might be open to giving this new pope an opportunity, recognizing that he appears to be a person of nice character and of expertise.
Catholicism has at all times been a pluralistic custom, with a lot of geographical range, doctrinal range, and social range. And Pope Leo XIV emphasised unity in his early remarks, recognizing that in Catholicism, you possibly can have range and nonetheless have group. You don’t need to agree about all the pieces, however you possibly can nonetheless be a unified group in a optimistic dynamic approach.
I’d suppose individuals would wish to give him no matter help they will to see how he strikes the church ahead on this second of the place there’s factionalism. Oftentimes, that factionism is exaggerated as a result of it makes information.
I don’t like utilizing the phrases “liberal” and “conservative” and “progressive” as a result of they don’t absolutely align with how we consider liberal, conservative, progressive politically. However most American Catholics are reasonable Catholics, and that they’ve lengthy been reasonable Catholics. They admire and wish to be members within the full sacramental lifetime of the Church, and so they’re very happy with their Catholic identification, however they’ve disagreed for years. A number of American Catholics do go their very own approach on a few of these problems with sexual morality, however they’re nonetheless proud Catholics and dedicated to the custom.
What does the truth that the cardinals selected Pope Leo inform us about the place the Church is likely to be going?
The truth that he selected the identify Pope Leo [is telling].
Leo XIII was actually the start pope for the Catholic social justice custom, as we name it right this moment. He was the pope within the latter years of the nineteenth century, into the very first years of the twentieth century — a time of super social and financial change, enlargement of industrialization, enlargement of manufacturing facility life, urbanization.
He was very delicate to the impacts of all these structural adjustments on the bizarre lives of individuals, significantly manufacturing facility employees and different workers. And he wrote what turned possibly the primary social encyclical, Rerum novarum, the place he actually emphasised the significance of concern for workers, for simply wages, and full inclusion of everybody in society — even because the race for for revenue may usually imply that individuals get marginalized and pushed apart.
That actually has been, in numerous guises, the constant message of Catholic social educating within the many years since. The selection of Leo, to me, was extraordinarily vital, as a result of that basically is one factor that will sign Pope Leo XIV’s dedication to additional amplifying the church’s social justice custom.
That’s one thing which Pope Francis did, and different popes did earlier than him, however definitely Pope Francis amplified it and elevated it extra.
Now, he didn’t name himself Francis II, which I feel is an effective factor. It’s good to have a brand new identify. However that he selected Leo reveals that he desires to convey the church — in [a way] that’s absolutely in tune with the earliest gospel — into all these large points right this moment, whether or not it’s local weather change, financial inequality, refugees and asylum seekers, all these complicated points, [in a manner that] comes from a few of the core ideas articulated by Leo XIII.
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