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What the World Needs From Pope Leo

What the World Needs From Pope Leo

New York Times09-05-2025

The name alone often speaks volumes. In choosing to reign as Francis, first of that name, Jorge Bergoglio signaled clearly the style of his pontificate, which aspired to the simplicity of the saint of Assisi while offering all sorts of ruptures with tradition.
A successor who chose Francis II or, for that matter, John XXIV or Paul VII (after the popes of the Second Vatican Council) would have signaled a further push for liberalization; a successor who opted for Benedict XVII or Pius XIII would have been promising a traditionalist swing.
Whereas the name Leo XIV promises, perhaps, some version of the 'peace' that the former Cardinal Robert Prevost invoked in his first words from the papal loggia — peace between the church's contending factions as well as in the wider world. The last Leo was long reigning and popular and remembered fondly by Catholics of varying theological stripes. He's famous for his interventions in 19th-century debates over capitalism and socialism and his support for the revival of Thomist philosophy, a legacy that's neither 'left' nor 'right" but simply Catholic in a way that a divided church struggles to achieve today.
Perhaps no pope can achieve it, and certainly there is an interpretation of Leo XIV's election that just emphasizes continuities with the Francis era: He's a Francis appointee who entered the conclave as a favored candidate of some of the previous pope's allies; he's an American who's also a critic, lately, of the Catholic vice president of the United States. One can tell a story where the last point was crucial to his election — where at least some cardinals wanted an anti-Trump American as pope — and where his name promises a less destabilizing but still liberal-leaning papacy.
But honestly, after the Francis years, conservative Catholics might welcome even that kind of shift, with a pope who isn't exactly on their side but who also doesn't present himself as their scourge and critic, who doesn't push doctrinal change so hard as to risk schism and who avoids petty wars like Francis' attempt to snuff out the Latin Mass. A pope who tries to rise above the fray and give the church's different factions breathing space, instead of threatening chaos or conflict with every appointment, every synod and every papal interview.
That breathing space would be especially useful because the questions liberal and conservative Catholics have been fighting over since the 1960s, while enduringly important, may not be the territory that matters most to the Christian future.
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VATICAN CITY -- VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV made his first appointment of a Chinese bishop under the Vatican's 2018 agreement with Beijing, signalling he is continuing one of Pope Francis' most controversial foreign policy decisions. The Vatican expressed satisfaction that Leo's June 5 nomination of Bishop Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou was recognized Wednesday by Chinese authorities. The Vatican said in a statement that Lin taking possession of the diocese and the civic recognition of his appointment 'constitutes a further fruit of the dialogue between the Holy See and the Chinese authorities and is a significant step in the diocese's communal journey.' Francis had riled conservatives when he approved a deal in 2018 over bishop nominations, which had been the most divisive issue in Vatican-China relations since diplomatic ties were severed when the Communists came to power. China had insisted on an exclusive right to name bishops as a matter of national sovereignty, while the Vatican asserted the pope's exclusive right to name the successors of the original Apostles. China's estimated 12 million Catholics have been divided between an official, state-controlled church that didn't recognize papal authority and an underground church that remained loyal to Rome through decades of persecution. The Vatican tried for decades to unify the flock and the 2018 deal was aimed at healing that division, regularizing the status of seven bishops who weren't recognized by Rome and thawing decades of estrangement between China and the Vatican. The details of the 2018 deal were never released, but it affords the state-controlled church a say in its church leaders, though Francis insisted he retained veto power over the ultimate choice. The deal has been criticized by some, especially on the Catholic right, for having caved to Beijing's demands and sold out the underground faithful in China. The Vatican has said it was the best deal it could get and has been renewed periodically since then. One of the big foreign policy questions facing Leo, history's first American pope, was whether he would continue renewing the accord or heed conservative demands and make some changes. There have been apparent violations on the Beijing side with some unilateral appointments that occurred without papal consent. The issue came to a head just before the conclave that elected Leo pope, when the Chinese church proceeded with the preliminary election of two bishops, a step that comes before official consecration.

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