One of my grandmother’s favourite expressions was “God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform”.
We will never really know what the cardinals were thinking when they elected an American as pope. But I can say with great faith and assurance that the election of an American pope would qualify as God working in a mysterious way. For about the past 100 days the world has been held hostage to the whims of the occupant of the White House, who told a reporter a week ago: “I not only run the country, I run the world.”
Well, the Holy Spirit seems to have offered a response to such hubris less than a week later, with the election of a new pope. Let the record show that the world’s most powerful American does not reside in Washington DC but in the Vatican City. Talk about a reality check.
While we don’t know how the new pope’s reign will ultimately be judged or remembered, his choice to be known as Leo XIV offers some clues about what he might do. When we look to his namesake, Pope Leo XIII, also known as the “Social Pope” and “Pope of the Workers”, we find some important clues on what we might expect from Pope Leo.
Pope Leo XIII believed in the right of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, as well as affirmed property rights and free enterprise. Pope Leo XIII also opposed socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. He embraced all of this as being consistent with church doctrine. Taking that name is a signal of where Pope Leo XIV might stand and with whom he most likely will stand.
In his first words to his church and the world from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV provided yet another clue of what his papacy might mean. He started by saying he wanted to “follow up” on the Easter blessing of a weakened, weary Pope Francis. In that Easter homily, Pope Francis called the church and all of us to “unite hand in hand to be bridge builders” and embrace our commonality as one people and to identify with those that suffer. That Pope Leo quoted Pope Francis suggests that he is prepared to be a counterweight to those that prey upon the weak and make life hard for the lowly.
If there was ever a time when we needed a word about justice, grace and mercy from an American with a megaphone large enough for the world to hear, it is now. This election is cause for hope on so many levels.
Unlike Donald Trump, Pope Leo’s power doesn’t stem from military might or economic muscle, but a moral authority that outweighs bullets, bombs, or big bucks. His constituency is not defined by an electorate of 154-million people in one country, but a constituency of 1.4-billion Catholics worldwide and hundreds of millions more people that are likely to be inspired by his example.
The ascendance of this American to the papacy is a cogent reminder that it’s not “powers and principalities” that will have the final word. The determinate in how our world turns is grace. It is justice and mercy. It is about reaching out to the world, not turning on the world.
Pope Leo’s tenure could be one of the most consequential in the history of the church given how fractured and fearful the world seems to be.
If Pope Leo’s introduction to the world is an indicator of what is to come, it seems as if he might be the right man at precisely the right time. On May 8, a conclave of Catholic cardinals elected the head of the Holy See and the Catholic church but he might well be someone that is a guiding light for us all. Habemus Papam. We have a new pope. We all might have a new pope. Thank God for that.
Stith is a former US ambassador to Tanzania and an ordained United Methodist minister.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.