Pope Leo’s ‘calming’ start

Different way: A file photo of Leo touring St Peter’s Square at the Vatican prior to the inaugural Mass of his pontificate, on May 18, 2025. As Prevost marked his 100th day as the Pope, the contours of his pontificate have begun to come into relief, primarily where he shows continuity with Francis and where he signals change. — AP

WHEN Pope Leo XIV surprised tens of thousands of young people at a recent Holy Year celebration with an imp­romp­tu popemobile romp around St Peter’s Square, it almost seemed as if some of the informal spontaneity that characterised Pope Francis’ 12-year papacy had retur­ned to the Vatican.

But the message Leo delivered that night was all his own. In seamless English, Spanish and Italian, Leo told the young people that they were the “salt of the Earth, the light of the world”. He urged them to spread their hope, faith in Christ and cries of peace wherever they go.

As Robert Prevost marked his 100th day as Pope Leo at Vatican City yesterday, the contours of his pontificate have begun to come into relief, primarily where he shows continuity with Francis and where he signals change.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that after 12 sometimes turbulent years under Francis, a certain calm and reserve have returned to the papacy.

That seems exactly what many Catholic faithful want, and may respond to what today’s church needs.

“He’s been very direct and forthright, but he’s not doing spon­taneous press hits,” said Kevin Hughes, chair of theology and religious studies at Leo’s alma mater, Villanova University.

Leo has a different style compared to Francis, and that has brought relief to many, Hughes said in a telephone interview.

“Even those who really loved Pope Francis always kind of held their breath a little bit; you didn’t know what was going to come out next or what he was going to do,” he added.

Leo has certainly gone out of his way in his first 100 days to try to heal divisions that deepened during Francis’ pontificate, offering messages of unity and avoi­ding controversy at almost every turn.

Even his signature issue – confronting the promise and peril posed by artificial intelligence – is something that conservatives and progressives alike agree is important. Francis’ emphasis on caring for the environment and migrants often alienated conservatives.

Leo, though, has cemented Fran­cis’ environmental legacy by celebrating the first-ever ecologically-inspired Mass.

He has furthered that legacy by giving the go-ahead for the Vati­can to turn a 430ha field north of Rome into a vast solar farm that should generate enough electricity to meet Vatican City’s needs and turn it into the world’s first carbon-neutral state.

But he hasn’t granted any sit-down, tell-all interviews or made headline-grabbing, off-the-cuff comments like his predecessor did. He hasn’t made any major appointments, including to fill his old job, or taken any big trips.

In marking the 80th anniversary of the US atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki last week, he had a chance to match Francis’ novel declaration that the mere possession of nuclear weapons was “immoral”.

But he didn’t.

Compared to President Donald Trump, the other American world leader who took office in 2025 with a flurry of Sharpie-penned executive decrees, Leo has eased into his new job slowly, delibe­rately and quietly, almost trying not to draw attention to himself.

At 69, he seems to know that he has time on his side, and that after Francis’ revolutionary papacy, the church might need a bit of a breather. One Vatican official who knows Leo said he expects his papacy will have the effect of a “calming rain” on the church.

But Leo is also very much a product of the Francis papacy.

Francis named Prevost bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014 and then moved him to head one of the most important Vatican jobs in 2023 – vetting bishop nominations.

In retrospect, it seems as if Francis had had his eye on Prevost as a possible successor.

Given Francis’ stump speech before the 2013 conclave that elected him pope, the then-­Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio essentially described Prevost in identifying the church’s mission today. He said the church was “called to go outside of itself and go to the peripheries, not just geographic but also the existential peripheries”.

Prevost, who hails from Chicago, spent his adult life as a missionary in Peru, eventually becoming bishop of Chiclayo.

Emilce Cuda, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, said during a recent conference hosted by Georgetown University that Leo encapsulated in “word and gesture” the type of missionary church Francis promoted. — AP