VATICAN CITY: That was Pope Leo XIV \u2018s matter-of-fact response when King Charles III asked about the swarms of televisions cameras documenting his historic visit to the Vatican last month.<\/p>\n
Charles is no stranger to paparazzi, so Leo wasn\u2019t telling the monarch anything he didn\u2019t already know. But Leo\u2019s blas\u00e9 comment seemed to confirm what Vatican observers have noticed recently: that Leo has indeed gotten used to being pope, and is finding his footing six months into the job.<\/p>\n
After his shock election in May and sharp learning curve over the summer, Leo\u2019s key priorities are coming into focus, especially where he dovetails with his predecessor, Pope Francis, and where he diverges.<\/p>\n
As his pontificate\u2019s six-month mark arrives on Nov. 8, here\u2019s a rundown of what we\u2019ve learned about the first American pope, his style, substance and where he might take the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n
Continuity with Francis on key social justice issues<\/p>\n
Leo showed himself in perfect lockstep with Francis when he published his first major teaching document last month, on the church\u2019s non-negotiable \u201cpreferential option for the poor.\u201d Francis began writing the text before he died; Leo took it over and made it his own.<\/p>\n
In it, Leo criticized how the wealthy live in a \u201cbubble of comfort and luxury\u201d while poor people suffer on the margins. He urged a renewed commitment to fixing the structural causes of poverty.<\/p>\n
Leo has also embraced Francis\u2019 ecological legacy, presiding over the first Mass using a new prayer formula \u201cfor the care of creation.\u201d He has given the go-ahead to Francis\u2019 ambitious plan to turn a Vatican-owned property north of Rome into a massive solar farm that could make Vatican City the world\u2019s first carbon-neutral state.<\/p>\n
Perhaps nowhere was Leo more Francis-like than on Oct. 23, when he met at the Vatican with Indigenous groups and representatives of popular movements who had been championed by the Argentine Jesuit.<\/p>\n
Francis had prioritized people on the margins, and exhorted the church to accompany them as they demanded the basic human necessities of \u201ctierra, techo, trabajo,\u201d \u2013 land, housing and work.<\/p>\n
Leo repeated Francis\u2019 mantra during his audience and put his own spin on it, noting that his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, took up the issue of workers rights at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cEchoing Francis\u2019 words, I say today: land, housing and work are sacred rights. It is worthwhile to fight for them, and I would like you to hear me say, \u2018I am here, I am with you!\u2019\u201d Leo said.<\/p>\n
Cardinal Michael Czerny, a top adviser to both popes, said Leo is in perfect continuity with Francis, implementing processes that Francis set in motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe transition from one Holy Father to another is not primarily a transition in policies,\u201d Czerny said in an interview. While a change in governments from one party to the next can signal a break, \u201chere it would be a mistake to look for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe stylistic differences are in the person, not in the teaching,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Leo\u2019s honeymoon with conservatives continues<\/p>\n
On style, it\u2019s now clear that Leo is happy to pope the old fashioned way, wearing the red mozzetta cape and embroidered stole for all but the most mundane occasions.<\/p>\n
He sticks to the script of his prepared texts, shows discipline in his liturgical observance and doesn\u2019t ad-lib with wisecracks the way Francis sometimes did.<\/p>\n
That has endeared him to many of the Catholic conservatives who bristled at Francis\u2019 informality. Even though Leo is echoing many of Francis\u2019 Gospel-mandated social justice preaching points, his style and gestures have generally won them over so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m hearing and sensing is a real joy in the maturity, the discipline and the tradition that he brings back to the papacy,\u201d said Patrick Reilly, founder and head of the conservative Cardinal Newman Society, which ranks Catholic colleges in the US on upholding traditional doctrine.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know of anyone who has any concerns or is disturbed or anything like we saw,\u201d with Francis, he said.<\/p>\n
The Latin Mass returns to St. Peter\u2019s<\/p>\n
Many credit Leo for allowing a traditional Latin Mass to be celebrated at the back altar of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica, presided over by none other than the figurehead of the American Catholic right, Cardinal Raymond Burke.<\/p>\n
Francis in 2021 cracked down on the spread of the ancient liturgy, saying it had become a source of division in dioceses. The crackdown fueled conservative and traditionalist opposition to Francis, leading to a new impasse in the age-old liturgical wars.<\/p>\n
But Leo has expressed a willingness to engage in dialogue with traditionalists, suggesting a detente is possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love our pope, we pray for him,\u201d said Christina Tignot, who attended the Latin Mass service during the traditionalists\u2019 annual pilgrimage. With her was her husband and homeschooled daughter, who joined her mother in wearing a lace veil over her head.<\/p>\n
A willingness to chart a new path<\/p>\n
For all his continuity with Francis, Leo has charted his own path and even corrected Francis when necessary.<\/p>\n
In one case of a reversal, Leo abrogated a 2022 law issued by Francis that concentrated financial power in the Vatican bank. Leo issued his own law allowing the Holy See\u2019s investment committee to use other banks, outside the Vatican, if it made better financial sense.<\/p>\n
Leo has also met with a group of activist survivors of clergy sexual abuse, who said he promised to engage in dialogue as they press the Vatican to adopt a zero-tolerance for abuse policy worldwide. Francis had met regularly with individual abuse survivors, but kept advocacy and activist groups at an arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n
A new routine elicits a comment about abortion<\/p>\n
At the six-month mark, Leo\u2019s personal routine is also showing a break from that of the workaholic homebody Francis.<\/p>\n
Leo has taken to spending Monday afternoons and Tuesdays at the papal country house in Castel Gandolfo, where he can take time off and get in a tennis game in the estate\u2019s court. (He plays with his secretary).<\/p>\n
To the news media\u2019s delight, Leo has agreed to field some questions each Tuesday evening as he leaves from a gaggle of reporters gathered outside, weighing in on everything from the Gaza ceasefire to immigration enforcement raids in Chicago. his hometown.<\/p>\n
His initially timid responses were noticed. They led to a biting television skit by Italian political satirist Maurizio Crozza, who suggested that the name \u201cLeo\u201d was perhaps a mismatch for a pope seemingly afraid of his own shadow.<\/p>\n
But with the passage of time, Leo seems to be getting into his groove. He sparked a brief but seemingly temporary alarm in conservative circles when, during one recent Tuesday evening Q&A, he chimed in on the US abortion debate by challenging abortion opponents about what it really means to be pro-life.<\/p>\n
In a more formal setting, he also showed some chutzpah when Queen Rania of Jordan asked him if it was really safe to travel to Lebanon. Leo plans to visit Lebanon and Turkiye on his first foreign trip at the end of the month.<\/p>\n
They were posing for a formal photo in Leo\u2019s library after an official state audience. Rania\u2019s question was picked up by the Vatican camera\u2019s hot mic, as was Leo\u2019s response.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, we\u2019re going,\u201d Leo said matter-of-factly, while smiling for the cameras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VATICAN CITY: That was Pope Leo XIV \u2018s matter-of-fact response when King Charles III asked about the swarms of televisions cameras documenting his historic visit to the Vatican last month. Charles is no stranger to paparazzi, so Leo wasn\u2019t telling the monarch anything he didn\u2019t already know. But Leo\u2019s blas\u00e9 comment seemed to confirm what …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":89347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89348,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89330\/revisions\/89348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}