Because the world welcomes Pope Leo XIV, many are discovering hope within the promise of increasing the legacy of Pope Francis — a shepherd who reshaped the Catholic Church by drawing it nearer to the poor, the excluded and the wounded. This second of transition is not only ceremonial. It’s a religious and ethical inflection level.
In his first public phrases as pope, Leo XIV proclaimed: “We’ve to hunt collectively to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue.” That single sentence alerts continuity with the soul of Francis’ papacy — and likewise expenses us with one thing pressing: to construct.
However even earlier than these phrases have been uttered, Catholics worldwide ought to perceive the deep significance of the title, Leo. Pope Leo XIV now carries a reputation steeped in social custom. Leo XIII first framed staff’ rights and financial dignity as sacred floor in “Rerum Novarum.” This 1891 encyclical revolutionized Catholic engagement with the fashionable world. It emerged throughout an period of huge industrial upheaval, as staff confronted unparalleled exploitation and basic assaults on human dignity — a time not not like at present. The selection of the title Leo is a really particular act, signaling the presents of the brand new pope.
The values that animated Francis — mercy, justice, human dignity and look after creation — have been championed by his predecessors, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. However Francis lived them with placing readability, embodying them not simply in educating, however in motion and encounter.
Over the previous decade, I had the privilege of working alongside Francis by means of a Vatican workplace for human rights and social and financial justice. I additionally served as a delegate to worldwide gatherings of grassroots organizers that Francis convened to middle the voices of the poor. Via that work, I witnessed firsthand the imaginative and prescient that outlined his papacy.
In 2015, on the church’s World Assembly of In style Actions, I heard Francis decry “the unfettered pursuit of cash” as a “new colonialism” and lifted up the sacred rights of housing, labor and land. “The way forward for humanity,” he mentioned, “is within the fingers of peoples and of their means to prepare.”
4 years later, I met him once more and gave him a picture from Dolores Mission in Los Angeles depicting Mary and Jesus as migrants. I requested what message I may convey residence. He smiled, pointed to my coronary heart, and mentioned: “Quédate con el pueblo.” Stick with the folks.
That’s the name the church inherits. Pope Leo XIV honored its spirit when he mentioned, “Allow us to hold in our hearts the weak voice of Pope Francis that blesses Rome. … God loves us. God loves everybody. Evil is not going to prevail.”
At this second of change and chance, 4 ideas that Francis lived, and that Leo XIV has begun to echo, should information the church.
Cultivating encounter In a time of social fragmentation and loneliness, the church should turn out to be a house for relationships. One in 5 Individuals experiences having no shut confidant. Loneliness is now thought of as harmful to well being as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Francis reminded us: “We don’t love ideas or concepts; we love folks.” Catholic parishes are among the many final locations the place folks of various races, courses and generations collect. However they have to turn out to be areas of belonging and mission, not simply Sunday obligation.
Group organizing gives one path ahead. Via small-group listening and storytelling, parishes can turn out to be faculties of shared function. Because the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been paraphrased, “Church just isn’t the place you come to — it’s the place you go from.”
Integral human improvement That is the title of the Vatican workplace I collaborated with. Its work with migrants, struggle refugees, peacemakers, the poor and staff is predicated on the assumption that religious formation and social transformation go hand in hand. We want contemplative observe and emotional and religious resilience to navigate this age of uncertainty.
Integral human improvement means resisting the binary pondering so widespread in politics and the media, in search of reality past ideology, and main with mercy. In a world of concern and division, these aren’t luxuries, they’re necessities.
Civic management Francis challenged the church to turn out to be “bruised, hurting and soiled as a result of it has been out on the streets,” relatively than trapped in self-preservation. In the meantime, inequality, local weather collapse and democratic erosion threaten the widespread good. Within the 2024 election, California alone noticed 1.7 million fewer ballots than in 2020. Too many individuals really feel invisible or discarded.
The church should comply with Jesus’ name to be the salt of the Earth and lightweight of the world. Salt preserves. Gentle reveals. A Salt and Gentle Motion would assist Catholics set up relationships throughout distinction, manage domestically and convey Gospel values to public life. As one priest instructed me of marching within the 1963 March on Washington: “It perpetually modified my understanding of who God is.”
Ethical management We face a disaster of braveness. Francis warned that “worry leads us to really feel trapped” and paralyzed. His reply was pleasure, creativeness, and public witness. Leo XIV appears able to proceed that witness, by “all the time in search of peace and justice. In search of to work with women and men who’re devoted to Jesus Christ with out worry to proclaim the gospel.”
The world wants us to not be detached or hopeless within the midst of darkness. The world wants folks of religion and goodwill who select to come across their neighbors, broaden their circle of human concern and summon the braveness to behave in civic life for peace, justice and the care of our widespread residence. Pope Leo XIV is a spark of sunshine that offers us religion {that a} extra compassionate and inclusive church and world are potential. Might he information, as Francis mentioned, “with humility and conviction this strategy of change.”
Joseph Tomás Mckellar is government director of PICO California, a statewide faith-based organizing community. He collaborated with Pope Francis by means of the Vatican Dicastery for Selling Integral Human Growth and served as a delegate to a number of World Conferences of In style Actions.
