What the World Needs From Pope Leo

The name alone often speaks volumes. In choosing to reign as Francis, first of that name, Jorge Bergoglio signaled clearly the style of his pontificate, which aspired to the simplicity of the saint of Assisi while offering all sorts of ruptures with tradition.

A successor who chose Francis II or, for that matter, John XXIV or Paul VII (after the popes of the Second Vatican Council) would have signaled a further push for liberalization; a successor who opted for Benedict XVII or Pius XIII would have been promising a traditionalist swing.

Whereas the name Leo XIV promises, perhaps, some version of the “peace” that the former Cardinal Robert Prevost invoked in his first words from the papal loggia — peace between the church’s contending factions as well as in the wider world. The last Leo was long reigning and popular and remembered fondly by Catholics of varying theological stripes. He’s famous for his interventions in 19th-century debates over capitalism and socialism and his support for the revival of Thomist philosophy, a legacy that’s neither “left” nor “right” but simply Catholic in a way that a divided church struggles to achieve today.

Perhaps no pope can achieve it, and certainly there is an interpretation of Leo XIV’s election that just emphasizes continuities with the Francis era: He’s a Francis appointee who entered the conclave as a favored candidate of some of the previous pope’s allies; he’s an American who’s also a critic, lately, of the Catholic vice president of the United States. One can tell a story where the last point was crucial to his election — where at least some cardinals wanted an anti-Trump American as pope — and where his name promises a less destabilizing but still liberal-leaning papacy.

But honestly, after the Francis years, conservative Catholics might welcome even that kind of shift, with a pope who isn’t exactly on their side but who also doesn’t present himself as their scourge and critic, who doesn’t push doctrinal change so hard as to risk schism and who avoids petty wars like Francis’ attempt to snuff out the Latin Mass. A pope who tries to rise above the fray and give the church’s different factions breathing space, instead of threatening chaos or conflict with every appointment, every synod and every papal interview.

That breathing space would be especially useful because the questions liberal and conservative Catholics have been fighting over since the 1960s, while enduringly important, may not be the territory that matters most to the Christian future.