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 isn’t just ceremonial. It’s a religious and ethical inflection level.
In his first public phrases as pope, Leo XIV proclaimed: “We’ve got 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 in addition expenses us with one thing pressing: to construct.
For the report:
12:58 p.m. Might 9, 2025An earlier model of this piece dropped phrases from the quote of Pope Leo’s balcony speech. He characterised Pope Francis’ voice not solely as “weak,” but additionally “all the time brave.”
However even earlier than these phrases had been uttered, Catholics worldwide ought to perceive the deep significance of the identify, Leo. Pope Leo XIV now carries a reputation steeped in social custom. Leo XIII first framed employees’ rights and financial dignity as sacred floor in “Rerum Novarum.” This 1891 encyclical revolutionized Catholic engagement with the trendy world. It emerged throughout an period of huge industrial upheaval, as employees confronted unparalleled exploitation and basic assaults on human dignity — a time not not like at present. The selection of the identify Leo is a really particular act, signaling the presents of the brand new pope.
The values that animated Francis — mercy, justice, human dignity and take care of creation — had been championed by his predecessors, Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. However Francis lived them with hanging readability, embodying them not simply in instructing, however in motion and encounter.
Over the previous decade, I had the privilege of working alongside Francis by way 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. By that work, I witnessed firsthand the imaginative and prescient that outlined his papacy.
In 2015, on the church’s World Assembly of Well-liked 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 stated, “is within the arms of peoples and of their potential to arrange.”
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 might deliver residence. He smiled, pointed to my coronary heart, and stated: “Quédate con el pueblo.” Stick with the individuals.
That’s the name the church inherits. Pope Leo XIV honored its spirit when he stated, “Allow us to preserve in our hearts the weak however all the time brave voice of Pope Francis that blesses Rome. … God loves us. God loves everybody. Evil won’t prevail.”
At this second of change and chance, 4 rules 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 develop into a house for relationships. One in 5 People studies 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 individuals.” Catholic parishes are among the many final locations the place individuals of various races, courses and generations collect. However they need to develop into areas of belonging and mission, not simply Sunday obligation.
Neighborhood organizing provides one path ahead. By small-group listening and storytelling, parishes can develop into faculties of shared goal. 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 growth That is the identify of the Vatican workplace I collaborated with. Its work with migrants, struggle refugees, peacemakers, the poor and employees relies on the idea that religious formation and social transformation go hand in hand. We’d like contemplative observe and emotional and religious resilience to navigate this age of uncertainty.
Integral human growth means resisting the binary considering so frequent in politics and the media, in search of reality past ideology, and main with mercy. In a world of concern and division, these usually are not luxuries, they’re necessities.
Civic management Francis challenged the church to develop into “bruised, hurting and soiled as a result of it has been out on the streets,” fairly than trapped in self-preservation. In the meantime, inequality, local weather collapse and democratic erosion threaten the frequent 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 light-weight of the world. Salt preserves. Mild reveals. A Salt and Mild Motion would assist Catholics set up relationships throughout distinction, manage regionally and convey Gospel values to public life. As one priest informed me of marching within the 1963 March on Washington: “It endlessly 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 trustworthy 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 individuals of religion and goodwill who select to come across their neighbors, increase their circle of human concern and summon the braveness to behave in civic life for peace, justice and the care of our frequent residence. Pope Leo XIV is a spark of sunshine that offers us religion {that a} extra compassionate and inclusive church and world are attainable. Might he information, as Francis stated, “with humility and conviction this technique of change.”
Joseph Tomás Mckellar is govt director of PICO California, a statewide faith-based organizing community. He collaborated with Pope Francis by way of the Vatican Dicastery for Selling Integral Human Improvement and served as a delegate to a number of World Conferences of Well-liked Actions.
