Concerns and Surprises
The unexpected election of Robert Prevost – the first U.S. born North American, New Orleans Creole and Peruvian citizen – as Pope Leo XIV has captured the attention and imagination of the world. A major focus of most people’s concern, as they followed Pope Francis’ last illness and wondered about what might come next, was the tension among Catholics over the sometimes-controversial reforms the beloved and unrelenting Argentine Jesuit Pope had worked so hard to implement. Would Francis’ “Revolution of Mercy” be embraced and further advanced by his successor or would the Catholic Church sink back into a self-referential, traditionalist modus operandi of the past several centuries?
In Robert Prevost we appear to have gotten a clear, straightforward answer. Repeatedly Pope Leo has voiced his commitment to the pursuit of the synodal way which is Pope Francis’ signature legacy of his 12-year papal ministry. Synodality is about changing the church’s way of proceeding and style from one that came across to many as doctrinaire and condescending to one that seeks first to know and love others, to listen to and meet people where they are, especially the poor and those on the social and existential margins – migrants, refugees, LGBTQ, transgender persons, and of course, women. We got the added combination of an experienced Augustinian missionary, an experienced global player, and a biracial Chicago White Sox fan!
Daunting Challenges
Everything we know about Pope Leo suggests that he “gets it.” But, of course, he will certainly be his own man with gifts and limitations that come with humanity. At the top of his agenda, no doubt, is the need to “steady the ship” in both a Church experiencing considerable inner-tensions and in a world submerged in crises: war, ecological devastation, mounting socioeconomic inequality, the rise of authoritarian regimes, and disappearance of civil discourse.
New York Times writer David Brooks highlights the significance of the Catholic Church’s new leader in terms of how he contrasts with current global leadership. Pope Leo projects an altogether different set of values than the ones currently proposed by President Donald Trump and the rise of white Christian Nationalism of the MAGA Movement. How this will play out is anybody’s guess at this time. But one may speculate that Pope Leo is well aware of the fact that his election and rise to the world stage may hopefully make a difference for how world leaders respond to today’s daunting, global challenges. Almost every day we hear Pope Leo reminding us about the evil of war and the arms race, the challenge of nurturing life from conception to natural death, the degradation of our common home, the inherent dignity and rights of all human beings (whether authorized to migrate or not), and the need to properly regulate artificial intelligence lest it be manipulated against the common good and the dignity of work and workers.
Stirring the Pot, New Horizons
Curiously enough, we are now beginning to see an uptick of interest in Catholicism. In various places in the world the number of persons seeking baptism as young adults is growing. In our own Archdiocese of Los Angeles, for example, more than 5,000 were baptized this April at the Holy Saturday liturgies. The outgoing, extroverted ministry of Pope Francis has left something invaluable for Pope Leo to build on: a legacy of good will and the witness of serving people on the margins and faith doing justice, not just talking about it. This appeals to the faithful of all sorts as well to many people of no particular faith at all.
As a Catholic institution, consequently, Loyola Marymount University has a role to play in creatively responding to the unfolding of sad global and local events we have been witnessing. The outpouring of grief over Pope Francis’ death and the memory of his unflinching concern for human rights and the excluded, resonates powerfully at LMU where the Jesuit mission challenges students and faculty alike to be women and men for and with others. Pope Francis creatively showed us what that means; and Pope Leo XIV opens another enlivening chapter in leading those who listen to live meaningful, transformational lives of “setting the world on fire.”
For Catholics, of course, this empowering vision is ultimately rooted in the Gospel message of Jesus as expressed in his Parables and Sermon on the Mount. While some of these values correlate to ones found in influential ideologies and political agendas of left or right, conservatism or progressivism, for LMU’s founders these values were and are directly connected to personal encounters with God’s love as witnessed in the life of Jesus Christ. Pope Leo’s vision, similarly, cannot be understood simply as aligning with ideologies and political agendas of whatever stripe but rather as the ongoing response in faith to the lived experience of having come to know God through one’s encounter and friendship with the Lord in the community of faith and discipleship shepherded today by our Chicago White Sox fan!