Pope Leo's first words forecast a profound shift in the papacy
Pope Leo XIV is not just the first American pope, he's the first Augustinian one.
The former Rev. Robert Prevost studied at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Friars. The order, which dates back to the 13th century, takes its inspiration from St. Augustine of Hippo, a rebel, a bishop and influential theologian. The Augustinian ethos includes a contemplative spirituality, communal living and service to others.
The choice of the name 'Leo XIV' is a clear indication of the importance the pope will place on service to others. Pope Leo XIII — whose spirit the pope has invoked — left a legacy that centered on service to the poor, migrants, workers, families and community.
So it is no surprise that in his first public moment, as Pope Leo offered his Urbi et Orbi Blessing (to the city of Rome and to the world) as he stood on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, his very first words, 'Peace be with you all,' reflected a subtle shift in the papacy.
While this is a common greeting in the Catholic Church, his choice here contrasted with his two predecessors. Pope Francis began with the request to 'pray to the Lord that he will bless me,' while Pope Benedict noted that 'the cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord.' While humble, their words referred first to themselves.
Leo's words immediately emphasized the importance of the crowd in front of him as well as the 1.4 billion Roman Catholics around the world. For this Augustinian pope, the moment was not about him but rather the people he would serve. A close reading of his inaugural Mass as pope today will show the same themes.
That Augustinian charism is not unfamiliar to me. Long before I served as lieutenant governor of Maryland or chairman of the Republican National Committee, I was an Augustinian seminarian. I began my journey towards the Catholic priesthood at the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University, the pope's alma mater.
I was drawn to the Augustinian order because the men who educated me at Archbishop John Carroll High School in Washington, D.C., prioritized direct engagement with the world, finding Christ in service to others. Augustinians teach, run parishes and serve as missionaries, and you will find them everywhere from Los Angeles to the Philly suburbs, connecting directly to the community around them.
Although I left the order before being ordained, I carried with me into my public life as an elected official and party chairman what I learned about service to others. Politicians too often lose sight of that. As the Augustinians will tell you, you are the least important part of the work you do; rather how you serve others — whether you are a pope or a politician — is what matters.
As Pope, Leo will likely engage the world through an Augustinian lens, encouraging spiritual depth over outward displays of power, as well as a profound commitment to social justice.
Which is why this papacy will serve as a sharp contrast to the other powerful American on the world stage: President Donald Trump, who posted an AI-generated image of himself as the Vicar of Christ on social media, offending Catholics around the world.
But this papacy will not be about the power struggles between the president and the pope. As his first words showed, his papacy will be about each and every one of us. I predict Leo will challenge the world — not just Trump or Vice President JD Vance, who was infamously rebuked by Pope Francis.
As much as our polarized country will try to put the new pope in a political box — especially because he is an American — Leo will confound the petty partisan attempts to distract from his mission to extend the Peace of Christ to the world so that each one of us will see Christ in those we serve.
For more thought-provoking insights from Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez and Symone Sanders-Townsend, watch 'The Weeknight' every Monday-Friday at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
In White Sox stadium broadcast, Pope Leo XIV sends message of hope to Chicago and the US
In his first words directed specifically to Americans, Pope Leo XIV told young people on Saturday how to find hope and meaning in their lives through God and in service to others.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
My DNA Test Revealed Something So Shocking, It Changed My Life Forever
Journalist Heather Buckner was connected to Kimberly Moore Francis and other subjects through 'DNA Identity Surprise and This NPE Life,' a Facebook group that supports people who've discovered unexpected family connections through DNA testing. The community, founded by Army veteran and retired RN Alesia Weiss, who uncovered her own DNA surprise in 2014, is now 4,100 members strong. It's funny how some moments get seared into your brain. I was getting tires put on my car when I got my DNA results. I had always been told that my twin brothers and I had the same father, but according to my results, I had a different father and was half Italian. I was distraught. I called my brother, crying, and he said, 'You're still my sister.' Originally, it was my mom who wanted to learn our history. She had grown up in foster care, so we decided to work on her family tree. When she found out her mother had died, she lost interest. Then, in October of 2021, my mom died; I sent off my own test at the end of December. In February of 2022 I got a close match, but when I messaged the person, I never heard back. Then in February 2023 I got another close match on MyHeritage: my biological dad's cousin. I messaged his son, who managed his MyHeritage profile, and said, Hey, I don't know how we match. He didn't either. I am from Florida and live in Kentucky, while they live in Rome. But the next April, his father went to Sicily to meet with my Italian dad. One day he messaged me, We have confirmation on who your father is. After that, an aunt on my father's side found me on social media and started video-calling me. I don't speak Italian — I was at lunch, sitting in my car, and I thought, I can't answer this. I don't even know how we would communicate. I think she was just super excited. I learned about my mom's relationship with my dad through conversations with my aunt. She had photo albums and sent me pictures of my dad and my mom on an Italian ship with the Italian flag in the back. When she was younger, my mom had lived in Florida, and my dad had been an Italian soldier training in Jacksonville, though he was there for only a few months. He still has pictures of my mom and him together. After I was born, she wrote him a letter and told him about me, including my name, Kimberly Ann. He was all over the place once he left Jacksonville — back then, how would she have found him? Then my mother met my stepfather. I think she just got into taking care of kids and moved on. My dad looked for me, but we'd moved too, so he was never able to find me. I didn't hear his voice until September 2023; that was our first video chat, and everybody was on it: my aunt and uncle and he were together and had my other aunt on another phone, a different video chat. It was crazy. In November, two of my three sons and I went to see the relatives in Sicily. When we got there, they were all in my dad's apartment, waiting. When I walked in, it was as if time were standing still. In seeing people who looked like me — with my hands, my eye color — I felt at home. Now I knew why I had curly hair! His first words to me were, 'Where have you been?' One day we were out for a walk and my aunts were behind us, laughing because we were both walking with our right feet pointed inward. I feel as if my identity is concrete now. It was a lot to process, a lot of crying. My kids just think it's cool. Their father is Jamaican, so they're Jamaican, Italian, American — a hodgepodge of everything. My father is a feisty little man who likes to joke. He's the king of Italian hand gestures. He drives a 1980s Panda at about 10 miles an hour. I'm his only child, as far as we know. My dad speaks English, but a lot of people in Italy don't, so thank goodness for translation apps. I've been trying to learn Italian. We went back last year, and I'm planning on going this year. It's as if we're trying to cram 50 years into a week. He does not like my nose ring, but when he sees my face, he lights up like a Christmas tree. When we visit, he takes me around to see all his friends. I know it makes him so happy. He is just proud of me, proud that I'm in his life. He's 81, so I don't know how long we'll have, and it's not as if he lives down the street. He's not on my birth certificate, so Italian citizenship is not something I can obtain; I would love to move there and spend an extended amount of time with him, but it doesn't seem possible. I struggle with that — what I missed out on culturally. My Italian relatives are very connected — everything is about family, and I never had that. What would my life have been like if I'd had this man around? He is loving and caring; my mom was a provider, but she was not a huggy, kissy, I-love-you–type of person. I struggle with her decision not to tell me about my father, because I could have been looking for him earlier had I known about him. She was a strong woman to be able to do what she did on her own, but I had a right to know my history, and I'm so glad I finally do. You Might Also Like 67 Best Gifts for Women That'll Make Her Smile The Best Pillows for Every Type of Sleeper
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Sacred Mysteries: The Holy Trinity –three persons in one God
We are surrounded by references to the Trinity. There's a Trinity College in Oxford, Dublin, even Cambridge, which also has a Trinity Hall for good measure. Trinity House is in charge of lighthouses. A triplet of Trinity hospitals founded by Henry Howard, the good Earl of Northampton, four centuries ago, thrive as almshouses at Clun, Castle Rising and Greenwich. And tomorrow is Trinity Sunday. If you're unlucky a clergyman will say in his sermon that the doctrine of the Trinity is too hard to understand and so he'll talk about something else. I suppose that is better than saying things about the Trinity that are untrue. Yet Christianity regards the Trinity as the very making of Christians – at Baptism, when water is poured over them with the words: 'I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' There are big differences between Catholics and Orthodox and Anglicans and Lutherans, but they agree about Baptism, and no one who moves from one communion to another has to be baptised anew. Yet the words are important. There was an incident resolved in 2008 in which people – babies mostly, in Australia – had been baptised 'in the name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer'. When asked, the Vatican ruled that the baptisms were invalid and would jolly well have to be done from scratch. There is a grammatical point about the formula that is meant to throw light on the doctrine of the Trinity. It is the fact that the words say 'in the name' and not 'in the names'. The name is held to refer to the essence of God, not to the three personal names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The same invocation, 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' accompanies the Sign of the Cross, at the start of a prayer, at grace before meals, on entering a church or when taking a penalty kick. I don't think people imagine that God the Father is connected to the forehead, which is touched when his name is spoken, or that the Son is connected to the heart or the Holy Spirit to the shoulders. The form of the devotion marks out the shape of a cross. It feels different making it by touching the right shoulder before the left, as Eastern rite churches do, but one soon gets the hang of it, so often is the gesture used in their worship. Even without the Sign of the Cross, the Holy Trinity is often invoked in liturgy by the doxology: 'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.' Some people apparently got confused by the phrase 'world without end' when we all know that the world will have an end (and pretty soon, the way things are going). It is surprising the confusion wasn't untangled when they were little children, for 'world' here refers to the world of eternity, translating the Latin saecula saeculorum, which itself follows the pattern of Hebrew superlatives such as holy of holies, Song of Songs. Anyway, some English forms of prayer have changed the end of the doxology to 'is now, and will be forever. Amen'. The change must have seemed a good idea at the time.I'm not suggesting these habitual prayers contain the whole doctrine of the Trinity (any more than does its adumbration in the Sanctus prayer, 'Holy, holy, holy'), but if worshippers follow the way these are employed in the liturgy, they should gain some intuition of God the Holy Trinity. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
