Aldo Maria Valli, the former Vaticanist for Italian state broadcaster RAI (and very critical of the last pontificate, as every sensible Catholic), concluded his article today with these words:
It seems to me that with Leo we returned to a “normal” pope. What does that mean? I was thinking about it these days. A “normal” pope is a pope who does not obscure the Church with his own image, but enhances it. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis were, even with very different characteristics, figures who have definitely placed, at center stage, the pope more than the papacy, the person more than the function. With his discretion and low profile, Leo reminds me a little of Pope Luciani [John Paul I]. I think Peter should not occupy the whole stage, as was the case with the previous three popes. The helmsman is important, but more important still is the boat in which we are all in.
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I close with a thought for those friends who have accused me of harboring too much optimism about Leo. Well, I would not speak of optimism, but of hope. The good, old Christian hope that in the Bergoglian years was relegated to a crawl space because the “pope of mercy” had clipped its wings. The good, old Christian hope that couldn't wait to get back into the open and now again can flow through the veins of so many Catholics. And you wouldn't want to take that away from us, would you?
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Go Pope Leo! Confirm us in the faith!
