Will Pope Leo XIV follow Pope Francis' lead when it comes to interfaith dialogue?

Australia Broadcast Center

12-05-2025

Pope Leo XIV used his first address as pontiff, spoken from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica on May 8, to call for "a peace that is unarmed and disarming".
Three days later, he reiterated the message during his first Sunday blessing, appealing to the world's major powers for "no more war" and referencing the conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, India and Pakistan.
It's a strong message that echoes the values of his predecessor, the "progressive" Pope Francis.
Indeed, Francis was known as "the people's pope", visiting conflict zones, ministering to refugees and reaching out to leaders of all faiths.
So, will the first American pope embrace Francis' legacy or tread a little more cautiously?
During his 12-year papacy, Pope Francis made extraordinary strides in interfaith dialogue.
Just three months after his papal election in 2013, he visited the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, a major entry point for refugees trying to enter Europe.
On an altar made of a painted boat, the pope delivered a penitential Mass to mourn migrants lost at sea and lambasted the world's "globalised indifference" to the suffering of asylum-seekers of all faiths.
"Right away, he showed his adeptness at intercultural [dialogue], saying, 'This is a church for everyone'," says Kristy Nabhan-Warren, an author and professor in Catholic Studies at the University of Iowa, USA.
"He said, 'If we're Christian, we have to prioritise the poor and we have to bridge whatever religious differences we have', whether someone's Muslim, Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Sikh … He really showed true leadership."
Pope Francis' engagement with refugees became a key part of his pontificate, from washing the feet of Muslim women at an Italian refugee camp to inviting Syrian families fleeing violence to fly with him from Greece to Rome.
"[Francis] was really pushing people not just to have mere dialogue, but to meet with people, to spend time with people, to break bread with people and to forge stronger bonds," says Craig Considine, senior lecturer in the department of sociology at Rice University, USA.
In 2019, Pope Francis visited the United Arab Emirates and co-signed a document on human fraternity with the grand imam of Al-Azhar and highest authority in Sunni Islamic thought, Ahmed Al-Tayyeb.
"It led to the Abrahamic Family House, which is a groundbreaking interfaith initiative in Abu Dhabi that has a synagogue, a mosque and a church all in one space," Dr Considine says.
"It wasn't mere words with Pope Francis; it was actually leading to concrete initiatives, and, in this case, an actual building."
The pontiff also developed friendships with other faith leaders, including controversially, the spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I. The two churches have historically been deeply divided.
After Francis' death, the Ecumenical Patriarch referred to their deep and abiding friendship, calling the pontiff "a true friend of Orthodoxy".
Pope Francis also facilitated the first ever meeting between a pope and a Patriarch of Moscow in Cuba in 2016, though that relationship later soured with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In 2020, Pope Francis released his third encyclical — or papal letter — called "Fratelli tutti", in which he urged fraternity and friendship among all people and institutions.
Pope Francis was known for travelling to places where Catholicism is in the minority, including Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Mongolia.
"In Mongolia, for example, Catholicism is a very small minority, but [the visit] was a sense of pride for the entire nation," Professor Nabhan-Warren says.
"It was incredibly legitimating and it was also a great opportunity for interfaith dialogue.
"I think that one of the big reasons why Pope Francis was so beloved was that he wasn't trying to force-feed Catholicism on anyone.
Through his addresses and encyclicals, Pope Francis also distanced the Church from its historical support of "just war" theory, which argues that war can be morally defensible in certain contexts.
He called for peace in Ukraine, Sudan and particularly Gaza.
"The people of Gaza have been in his prayers, but he was also calling his Catholic parish in Gaza daily," says Sara Silvestri, a senior lecturer in religion and international politics at City University, London.
"His last wish was to actually visit Gaza, if he was [able] to get better. And he donated his Popemobile to be used as a sort of ambulance in Gaza."
The new pontiff is said to be more circumspect than his predecessor, but that doesn't mean he'll shy away from intercultural dialogue, Dr Considine says.
"I think we're going to see a continuation of Pope Francis' approach," he says.
"Just because he's historically been a little bit more reserved does not mean he will necessarily be a reserved pope. He's in a new position with a much bigger platform, a lot more responsibilities, and he's also the head of state.
His ethnic background — including his recently uncovered Creole family history — and youth in Chicago may inform this, too.
His alma mater, the Catholic Theological Union, is known for its interfaith teaching, including courses on feminist theology, Catholic-Jewish and Catholic-Muslim studies.
"When he was at the Chicago seminary, one of his professors was a leading Jewish scholar on Jewish-Catholic relations, and I would surmise that this professor had a big impact on Pope Leo," Dr Considine says.
That professor, Rev John T. Pawlikowski, told The Jewish Chronicle: "My experience of him was he's a very open-minded person who's very much in the context of Vatican II".
Dr Silvestri agrees that the new pope is "a cosmopolitan citizen of the world".
"He's an American citizen, educated in America, but also has worked in South America and has Hispanic, French and Italian origins," she says.
"He embodies this sense of 'Fratelli tutti' [fraternity] almost automatically. He has worked not only as an Archbishop in Peru, but also has done some pastoral work among the poor areas.
"So this attention to the peripheries of the world, which was there in Francis' [papacy], is going to be there [for Leo's]. This attention to the southern hemisphere, to the confrontation between the rich north and the poor south, is going to be there."
Pope Leo's background as a member of the Augustinian order is also likely to be a factor, Professor Nabhan-Warren says.
"The Augustinians are missionary priests and, as a missionary, you have to be really good at encountering other faiths and you have to be good at interfaith dialogue," she says.
Though the Augustinian order began in the 13th century, its central figure, St Augustine, lived in the fourth century and "is recognised as a saint by all the Christian denominations", Dr Silvestri says.
"Augustine, the saint who inspires the tradition, was an African Bishop, so that shows [how] the lens of Christianity might change, not just because of where the Pope is from but also in terms of where his perspective is centred."
Though Pope Leo XIV has years of pastoral and administrative experience, he has never worked as a diplomat in an official capacity, unlike many of the reported frontrunners during the conclave.
Dr Considine says this is unlikely to negatively affect his papacy, however.
"He's a newcomer to the Vatican bureaucracy, [being] made a cardinal just two years ago, but he also was the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, so he was in charge of essentially appointing bishops throughout the church," he says.
"I think he has strong diplomatic ties … He's been received quite well around the world and I think he's got the right demeanour to make interfaith work successful for the church."
Dr Silvestri agrees and says it may be beneficial for the new pope not to be "tangled in diplomacy".
"In this very moment, where there is a lot of political division, you need someone who centres the Catholic Church back to its essence and brings in people around the central issues, not the doctrinal or political divisions," she says.
Commentators agree that while Pope Leo may emulate Pope Francis to some degree, he will bring his own flavour to his papacy.
"I think it's right not to expect a duplicate," Dr Silvestri says.
How Pope Leo's values play out on the world stage remains to be seen.
"We just don't know. We don't know how to pin him down," Professor Nabhan-Warren says.
"And that could be the very best person to have."