Pope Leo has enough Peeps. Since his brother John revealed that the marshmallow chicks and bunnies are the pope’s favourite sweets, he has been given enough to fill two cupboards. That does not include a large crocheted yellow peep, complete with a white papal mitre, that American students made and presented to him as he whirled past in the Popemobile on St Peter’s Square. What has the Pope accomplished in his first year – other than a lifetime supply of yellow marshmallows?
Having been elected in May, commentators were confidently declaring by September that his honeymoon was over. Conservative US Catholics were apparently not happy with the pope speaking about immigration as a crucial moral challenge that demands a humane and compassionate response.
In fact, his honeymoon had not properly begun. Even though the quiet American had been saying the same things since the earliest moments of his papacy, people did not pay full attention until relatively recently.
Significantly, his first words to the crowd when he stepped out on to the balcony as pope were “peace be with you all”. For him, peace is impossible without integral development for everyone and the planet, hence his trip to four African countries.
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Pope Leo has never lacked courage. In his address for the World Day of Peace in December, he said it was increasingly common (and reprehensible) to drag the language of faith into political battles, to bless nationalism, and to justify violence and armed struggle in the name of religion. He told the Vatican diplomatic corps in January that “war is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading”.
But it was only when Trump turned on him after the pope declared the threat against the entire civilisation of Iran unacceptable that, suddenly, Leo was declared to be the voice of peace that the world badly needed.
Right now, the measured, calm, reflective Pope is rightly seen as an authoritative moral voice in a world sorely lacking such role models. His fluency in several languages helps but it is noticeable that he has begun to speak more in English too. At the beginning, it was almost as if he were emphasising that he is not an American pope but a pope for the whole world.
It also helps that Pope Leo has an easy manner and is just as comfortable tucking a baby into the crook of his arm (where some have fallen asleep) as he is navigating political minefields.
Although he has somewhat ruefully mused that he had been planning to retire, he is also the most physically vigorous pope since John Paul’s early days. He has installed gym equipment in the Vatican apartments and plays tennis regularly in Castel Gandolfo.
He plays Wordle and Words with Friends every day with his brother John and chats about once a week with his brother Louis.
A pope’s household reveals a great deal. As Pope Leo is an Augustinian, it is normal for him to live in community and to follow the rhythms of prayer and liturgy together.
Although the Vatican has not named the members of his community living with him in the Vatican apartments, it has been reported that they include his secretaries, the Peruvian priest and biblical scholar Msgr Edgard Rimaycuna and Italian canon lawyer Fr Marco Billeri, along with the vice regent of the papal household, Fr Edward Daniang Daleng, a fellow Augustinian from Nigeria who holds a doctorate in moral theology.
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Pope Benedict lived with his secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein and four laywomen, who were members of the Memores Domini, which is part of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation. Pope Francis chose to avoid the papal apartments entirely and stay in Santa Marta to be readily accessible, a modest decision but also an expensive headache for his security team.
Pope Leo’s priorities include artificial intelligence, and his first social encyclical is widely expected to address the challenge “not to stop digital innovation, but to guide it, to be aware of its ambivalent nature”. Traditionally, encyclicals on social issues are published on the anniversary of the publication of Rerum Novarum, published by Pope Leo XIII on May 15th, 1891. Rerum Novarum was groundbreaking in addressing human dignity amid the challenges of the industrial revolution. Pope Leo believes that even more is at stake in the age of AI.
Ultimately, of course, the current media honeymoon will end because the pope’s role is not to act as a counterweight to Donald Trump. It is to bring people to a faith in God that has the potential to alter every aspect of their lives.
When the Pope continues to prioritise building a human community that aims to protect human life whenever it is most vulnerable, whether that be a child in a war zone or a baby before birth, inevitably his priorities will clash with current culture. Just as he said that he was not afraid of Donald Trump, the Pope will also not be afraid to continue to prioritise veritas, unitas and caritas (truth, unity and love), the mottos of the Augustinian Order, whether that makes him popular or not.
