The Common Sense Papacy? In First Month, Leo XIV Appears To Pluck From Both Francis And Benedict 

-Analysis-

ROME — He doesn’t like sudden decisions or sensational gestures and grand proclamations. Agostino Giovagnoli, a professor of Church history at Milan’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, described the more methodical approach that has emerged from the first month of the pontificate of Pope Leo XIV.

“He moves cautiously through the dossiers, looking for targeted interventions,” explains Giovagnoli. 

In the very first days of his pontificate, which began on May 8, Pope Leo was thrown into the middle of the complicated and very public negotiations surrounding the war in Ukraine. But, says Giovagnoli, the push for a Vatican-mediated truce between Moscow and Kyiv were damaged by Washington putting everything in the public eye. “The Holy See operates confidentially and any outside noise damages that approach,” he said. 

The historian adds: “Compared to Francis, Leo is inclined towards a governance based more on the institution of the Church.” An example from the past month is that the new pope indicated to the ambassadors to the Vatican that it wasn’t his office, but that of the Secretariat of State that would be their point of reference under his papacy.

For another experienced Vatican observer, sociologist Massimo Introvigne, it took only a few weeks to “witness the attacks on the (new) Throne, both by those who wanted to liquidate Pope Francis and those who wanted a clone of him.” 

Leo, instead, is busy “implementing the mandate of the Conclave: to mend the lacerations by reaffirming themes of Francis and recovering certain aspects from the papacy of Benedict XVI,” Introvigne said.

Latin mass openness 

The goal is to unite what is divided. “American traditionalists expected the liberalization of the traditional (Latin) mass, but Leo will not contradict his predecessor,” Introvigne points out. “If anything, he will gradually introduce greater tolerance into practice for traditional celebration. Without, however, documents that repudiate Bergoglio.” 

Introvigne also expects a subtle shift in how the new Pope will respond to the scourge of priest sex abuse. “As an expert on the Church’s canon law, he will temper zero tolerance to include more of a right to defense in light of cases of church sanctions denied by civil absolutions.”

Leo combines doctrinal rigor, pastoral compassion and a missionary vision of the Gospel. From a Conclave particularly rich in diverse profiles, the name of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, Augustinian, missionary, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, emerged. He was a pope already destined to make history, the first American and the first member of the order of Saint Augustine to ascend to the papal throne. His choice of name was also notable, apparently following in the path of Leo XIII who with the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum had pushed the Church for the first time to deal with social issues.

Since the evening of May 8, inside and outside the Church hierarchy, the questions continue to carry significant weight: in a difficult moment for the planet, between current and possible future wars, an economy in crisis, the difficulties of international dialogue and social conflicts, will this new Pontiff be able to open new paths of harmony and brotherhood?

Missionary man

Will he be able to act for the peace so much invoked in his first speech from the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square? Will he be able to reconcile the more progressive and the more traditionalist wings of the Church, avoiding a clash that threatens to end in schism? Leo embodies a figure of mediation between traditional sensibilities and the needs for renewal promoted by Francis.

His ministry has crossed borders and continents: from his formation in the United States to his mission in Peru, where he was bishop of Chiclayo for almost a decade, becoming a reference figure in Latin American pastoral care. He led the Augustinian Congregation worldwide as prior general for two terms.

Francis called him in January 2023 to lead one of the most strategic dicasteries of the Curia: the one that selects bishops. Prevost has shown all along to be a man of prayer and governance, discreet but determined. He is drawn more to the process of decision-making than he is to the spotlight. His missionary sensitivity brings him close to the peripheries, while he maintains a global vision of the Church, formed in the field. He is not considered a “revolutionary,” but neither is he a rigid conservative. 

Spiritual pragmatist

Some call him a “spiritual pragmatist”: he knows how to move between diplomacy and pastoral care, doctrine and discernment. Even on the political level, his profile is balanced: he is not close to Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric, but he is not instinctively hostile to that political side either.

“Stylistically, Leo XIV’s pontificate is the one of common sense.”

He maintains a prudent distance, preferring a pastoral approach centered on the person, not on polarization. In this first month he has shown himself attentive to continuity with Francis, and also to the commitment to reconcile the different souls of the Church in conflict with each other, trying to mend the divisions, without extremism. Leo is a Pope with a missionary heart, an organizational mind, a deep sense of tradition, and a voice that can speak to the North and the South of the world, Catholic and beyond. Free also in style.

“In the Vatican, form is content. Stylistically, Leo XIV’s pontificate is the one of common sense,” observes Gian Franco Svidercoschi, former deputy director of the Vatican’s main newspaper, Osservatore Romano and collaborator of John Paul II. “He immediately demonstrated that the substantial unity of the Church also requires formal continuity between pontificates. For this reason, he feels free to recover elements of tradition because the history of the Church and the world does not begin with a new pope. Maybe not the ermine-lined ones, but why deprive yourself of the formal vestments? Why a nurse instead of a doctor as papal chief physician? Leo has no need for continuous breaches of protocols, which sometimes risk turning into populism.”

In the Roman Curia, they recognize that Francis made a necessary effort at reform — but they appreciate the restoration of normality by Leo. Said one Church insider: “The lack of faith causes a loss of the meaning of life, oblivion of mercy, violation of dignity, crisis of the family.”