Pope Leo’s First Days and Inaugural Mass
The signs have been hopeful in this first week of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate – full regalia, clear teaching, warm demeanour, pastoral yet doctrinal.
On Monday, May 12th, he addressed journalists, advocating for a charitable and peaceful presentation of truth, to ‘dis-arm’ words:
Let us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; let us free it from aggression. We do not need loud, forceful communication, but rather communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice
He added, in a phrase that speaks to this middling soul, never give in to mediocrity.
He followed these words up yesterday, May 16th, in an address to the Diplomatic Corps, (ambassadors to the Vatican, representing 184 countries):
from the Christian perspective, truth is not the affirmation of abstract and disembodied principles, but an encounter with the person of Christ himself, alive in the midst of the community of believers. Truth, then, does not create division, but rather enables us to confront all the more resolutely the challenges of our time…
Yet, just before this, the Pope was clear that truth must be founded on what Christ has revealed about the human person:
the Church can never be exempted from speaking the truth about humanity and the world, resorting whenever necessary to blunt language that may initially create misunderstanding. Yet truth can never be separated from charity, which always has at its root a concern for the life and well-being of every man and woman.
Leo clarified in no uncertain terms that there could be no just society without a proper understanding marriage and the family, and dignity for all human life, not least the unborn:
It is the responsibility of government leaders to work to build harmonious and peaceful civil societies. This can be achieved above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman, “a small but genuine society, and prior to all civil society.” [2] In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.
Tomorrow, Sunday, May 18th, Pope Leo will celebrate his official inaugural Mass. A propitious day, for it marks not only the memorial of Pope Saint John I – a martyr for the truth of Christ’s divinity – but is also the birthday of Pope Saint John Paul II in 1920. Government leaders across the world will attend – Catholic and not – including our own Prime Minister, Mark Carney. One hopes he takes the words and warnings of the Pope to enlighten his own darkened conscience, as we hope the same for so many others, including ourselves, who, although professing the truth, don’t do enough to live it.
We live in hope, that God’s grace prevails, in our souls, in the world, in the Church. May that same God bless Pope Leo XIV, and grant him many years, and the strength to continue to preach the truth, without stint or compromise.
Ad veritatem, in caritate! +
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