LEON XIV AND THE CHALLENGES IN THE NEW ECCLESIAL CONTEXT

Pax Romana Webinar June 14, 2025

By Cecilia Tovar

THE LEGACY OF POPE FRANCISCO

The first Latin American Pope brought to the universal Church the contributions forged in our continent in the midst of “poverty and persecution”. He has not let us down.

– He returned to the essential: Jesus and the Gospel. He lived the option for the poor in powerful gestures and words. Evangelii Gaudium.

– World moral leader, for peace and justice. Fratelli tutti.  Political commitment

– Warned about the environmental emergency: Laudato si and laudate deum.  Lifestyle reForma of the curia (Praedicate evangelium) and finances.  Combating sexual abuse, abuse of power and abuse of conscience. Solidarity with victims

– Promotion of synodality as constitutive of the Church, returning to the Second Vatican Council – People of God.  Participation.

LEON XIV: CONTINUATOR AND REALIZATOR

– Second “Latin American” pope. What was thought impossible happened. The impact of Francis generated a will of continuity and he was elected Prevost.

– First words: “We still keep in our ears that weak but always courageous voice of Pope Francis that blessed Rome and the whole world that Easter morning. Allow me to continue that same blessing”.

– Missionary and bishop in Peru 1983-2023, Became a Peruvian national in 2015.

– 12 years Prior General of the Augustinians (2001-2013);

– Entrusted by Pope Francis in 2023 of the dicastery of bishops, as one of his closest collaborators. Great knowledge and experience.

– As elected

– (crux 12 May 2025) Japanese Cardinal Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo says Pope Leo XIV’s previous work as a missionary and as a Vatican official were important reasons…Many expressed the need for a pastorally minded pope to continue the path of Pope Francis and deepen the path of synodality…Many expressed the need for a pastorally minded pope to continue the path of Pope Francis and deepen the path of synodality….

– (Editor of the Tablet 15 May 2025) They wanted a minimalist interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, with a renewed emphasis on obedience to authority and less mention of participation and consultation with clergy and laity. They did not want greater engagement with social justice issues such as immigration and climate change. What they got was the man personally chosen by Francis to keep them in line and continue his own trajectory of progress and reform, first as the man responsible for appointing bishops around the world and then as his successor. It was a defeat

ACTS AND WORDS

At the first meeting with the Cardinals: “I would like us to renew together, today, our full adherence to the Second Vatican Council”, which “Pope Francis has masterfully recalled and updated in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium”.

His name: “Pope Leo XIII, with the historic Encyclical Rerum novarum, addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution and today the Church offers to all, her patrimony of social doctrine to respond to another industrial revolution and to the developments of artificial intelligence, which bring new challenges in the defense of human dignity, justice and work”.

Meeting with Opus Dei: The “moderator” of Opus Dei, Ocáriz, and his deputy, the Argentine Mariano Fazio, sent a very clear message: the reform that Bergoglio had ordered in 2022 after demoting the ultra-Catholic group – and which was suspended after the death of the Argentine – must be carried out as soon as possible.

Meeting with the Curia, with the Repam, with the commission for abuses, with Becciu.

Words after the Regina Coeli (May 11 and 18).  In today’s dramatic scenario of a third world war in pieces, as Pope Francis has affirmed, I refer to the great ones of the world, repeating the ever timely appeal, Never again war!  Calls for peace in Ukraine and Gaza.

Homily at the beginning of his pontificate on May 18: Unity and love. I was elected without merit and, with fear and trepidation, I come to you as a brother who wants to become a servant of your faith and your joy, walking with you … In our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, fear of what is different, by an economic paradigm that exploits the earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest. And we want to be, within this mass, a small leaven of unity, communion and fraternity.

It knows how to listen, the Church must not believe itself to be the owner of the truth, it must dialogue, every generation is different.

It will not rush, but it will make decisions without fear.

CHALLENGES FOR THE MOVEMENT

– Synodality: this is the great reform made concrete by the Second Vatican Council, the Church as the people of God where everyone participates since baptism. To promote it in parishes, dioceses, countries, continents and the world, in the implementation of the synod of synodality, which has already begun and culminates in 2028 with an ecclesial assembly.

– Pax Romana: peace with justice in the face of wars and conflicts: Gaza, Ukraine, South Sudan and others. what can we do for peace? how to CONTRIBUTE at all levels, from local to global?

– CARE OF CREATION: IT IS ALREADY A CLIMATIC EMERGENCY THAT REQUIRES LISTENING TO THE CRY OF THE EARTH AND THE POOR AND DEFENDING NATURE AND THE LIFE OF THE MOST AFFECTED PEOPLES IN SOLIDARITY.

– Intellectuals and professionals: in a change of epoch, it is necessary to think and practice new ways of producing and living in society, from the cracks that the system shows, to look for alternatives of life that are not based on the exclusion of others.

– Because witnessing is fundamental: To translate these clues into sustainable and supportive personal and community lifestyles.