 |
| Leo XIV blessing the Romans yesterday from the loggia of his Cathedral, the Lateran Basilica |
Peace: this was the leitmotif of Leo XIV's first public appearance, shortly after he was elected 266th successor of Peter, on May 8. "Peace be with you all! were his first words.
It was not one of those humanitarian appeals to lay down arms that always seem a little desperate, and hopeless, so much so that we know in advance that they will not be followed up. No, the peace of which the new pope was keen to speak is that which has its source in “the Risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the flock of God.” In his first speeches, the new pope called on Christians to draw strength from Christ as the source of their missionary drive -- a Christ he invites us not to restrict “to a kind of charismatic leader or superman,” at the risk of sacrificing ourselves to “a de facto atheism,” but to follow as “the Son of the living God.”
Only by anchoring it to this spiritual depth can the message of peace that Leo XIV wants the Church to carry acquire the power to transform the world. But there's another condition: Christians must first bring this peace to one another.
Divisions within the Church were one of the main concerns of the General Congregations, during which the cardinals discussed the situation of the Church and the priorities of the future pontificate.
Restoring peace to the Church: this was undoubtedly one of the main elements of the roadmap that the cardinals wanted to entrust to the new pope. And it was because his profile did not appear to be capable of calming conflicts, but rather of stirring them up, that Cardinal Parolin, widely considered by the media to be the favorite, was ultimately ruled out. While very few had actually included him in the list of papabili, it was precisely because he appeared to be the man capable of “holding both ends of the chain,” as Bossuet said, of reconciling contradictory points of view and pacifying the Church, that the man who chose to call himself Leo XIV was elected.
Leo XIV: This is obviously a reference to the last of that name, Leo XIII, considered, with the encyclical Rerum novarum, as the founder of the Church's social doctrine; but we can't help seeing it as a nod to Leo I, also known as the Great, who, through the sheer power of his words, not only dissuaded Attila from sacking Rome, but also, through his doctrinal clarity, put an end to many of the theological quarrels that divided the Church of his time.
Christ said, “From your love for one another you will be recognized as my disciples.” At a time when the world is in crisis and more than ever in need of guidance, pacifying the Church is the new pope's top priority. It is by paying this price, and this price alone, that the Church will find the credibility to preach to the world the peace it so desperately needs.
[Source, in French]
