How Pope Leo is Softly Signaling His Upcoming Moves
Pope Francis was great for those who work in media. You never knew what his next move was. He was guided –absolutely not by the normal administrative means the Vatican had developed over the centuries—and by the charism of love for those who felt unwanted. It’s important to note that one of the thousands of things Pope Francis did in his 12 years was appoint Robert Prevost to lead the office that helps the pope select bishops– the American who became a missionary bishop in Peru. Still, it was a surprise to most that the Cardinals selected him as the next successor to Peter.
The question over the past six months has been what will the new pope do? Will he undo the legacy of Pope Francis? He has certainly brought back a lot of traditional vestments to papal liturgy, which was a major change from Pope Francis who preferred simplicity. But what about his style of leadership?
What you may not know is that the Vatican has ways of taking temperatures or signaling changes in ways that don’t use the pope’s voice (so as not to confuse it as official teaching). For example, the Italian Catholic Bishops official news site Avvenire has served as a testing ground for seismic changes. But recent headlines have suggested that Pope Leo is moving to cement what Pope Francis did on “synodality” (a style of governance best described as “walking together”).
By placing laypeople and women religious like Sr. Raffaella Petrini and Maria Lia Zervino directly into the Dicastery for Bishops, the Church is making a real statement that governance is no longer tied to ordination. When I was an intern 15 years ago at the Vatican embassy in Switzerland, I remember many competent laypeople working there. But they were not considered diplomats. “To be a true diplomat you must be ordained.”
But why? If you have been commissioned to speak on behalf of the Holy Father or your archbishop, why should I trust you less? Why does the change that happens during ordination also signal your ability to manage conflict greater than a classically trained diplomat?
To explain this change, Cardinal Ouellet published an op-ed in Vatican News. This is a powerful way of signaling the Holy Father’s intentions without actually changing any Vatican documents. He said, “Specialists recognise that our sacramental theology suffers from a pneumatological deficit that goes hand in hand with a one-sided Christological vision. While it is true that the seven sacraments are acts of Christ, they are also acts of the Church resulting from the action of the Holy Spirit.”
In plain English, that means the Church has been operating with one eye closed.
The first Vatican Council (which happened shortly after the end of the American Civil War) emphasized the authority of the Pope. The Second Vatican Council (much more recent) emphasized the unity of the bishops with the pope. It was a balancing out.
And as you can see, Pope Leo is intending to carryout that mission by leveraging the dignity and talents of lay people as well.
The “wait and see” period is officially closed. Pope Francis’ style of synodality will be implemented. The appointment of figures like Cardinal Cupich and Cardinal Tobin to the Dicastery of Bishops (which helps Pope Leo select bishops) is the final hard signal. We’re done discerning whether the Church should walk all together and now it’s time to do it.
I predict that Pope Leo’s papacy in the coming years will be calmer and with fewer clickbait headlines resulting from his press conferences. For Francis, his style was in the streets. For Pope Leo, the Church is in the statutes… trying to encode the legacy of Francis into the DNA of the Vatican.
