A few days after his election as pope in May, Leo XIV stepped into a chauffeur-driven black Volkswagen minivan with tinted windows and made a surprise visit to the international headquarters of the Augustinian order in Rome.<\/p>\n
Not only was he the first American pope, the tiny religious order that Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, ran for 12 years had also just produced its first pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic church. Still somewhat bewildered by his election, he had a yearning to see his fellow Augustinian brothers.<\/p>\n
Over lunch, Leo spoke about the sudden change to his life and how he would need to renounce his pleasure of driving or freely going for a walk.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe appeared very tense on TV so it was nice to see him more relaxed,\u201d said Pasquale Cormio, the rector of the Basilica of St Augustine in central Rome\u2019s Campo Marzio, who met Leo during their priesthood training. \u201cHe was aware of the weight of the role, but said: \u2018Look, I assure you, I will never give up being your brother\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pope Leo XIV leads prayer from the central balcony of St Peter\u2019s Basilica. Photograph: Francesco Sforza\/Reuters<\/p>\n
The new pope\u2019s first months \u2013 he marks three months as pontiff this week \u2013 have been relatively low-key despite hosting plenty of audiences, and the Augustinian emphasis on unity, listening widely, community and collaboration appear to have guided him. Leo\u2019s style starkly contrasts with his often divisive and hasty Jesuit predecessor, the late Pope Francis<\/a>, even though they shared similar progressive political views.<\/p>\n Francis, elected in 2013, snubbed the Vatican\u2019s traditional trappings by choosing to live in a room in a humble guesthouse rather than the Apostolic Palace, ditching its fancy cars for a modest Fiat and opting out<\/a> of spending his summers in the papal palace in Castel Gandolfo, a hilltop town close to Rome.<\/p>\n Francis also moved swiftly on making key appointments, travelled to Brazil on his first overseas trip after just a few months in office, and made several bold statements, including saying \u201cwho am I to judge?\u201d<\/a> when discussing homosexuality.<\/p>\n Leo, on the other hand, has restored some Vatican customs \u2013 using less modest means of travel, living in the Apostolic Palace and resuming papal holidays in Castel Gandolfo<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pope Leo arrives to lead mass at a church in Castel Gandolfo. The pontiff has revived the custom of holidaying in the hilltop town. Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Reuters<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the ways the world got to know Francis was through his gestures,\u201d said Christopher White, the author of the recently published book Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy. He described him as an extrovert who \u201cliked being around people\u201d.<\/p>\n Leo, 69, is an introvert. \u201cHe\u2019s very much a quiet manager, someone who likes to do his homework,\u201d added White. \u201cHe hasn\u2019t yet made any top appointments but he has held lots of audiences \u2013 as a way to listen. He\u2019s figuring out how he\u2019s going to run the show and is keeping his cards close to his chest.\u201d<\/p>\n One area where he has been quick to exert himself is geopolitics, White said. The pontiff has twice met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has spoken by phone to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and has repeatedly affirmed the Vatican\u2019s willingness to host Ukrainian-Russian peace talks.<\/p>\n He has also become more robust in his condemnation of Israel\u2019s war in Gaza, even more so after three people were killed by Israeli shelling of the strip\u2019s only Catholic church. The pontiff received a phone call<\/a> from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, after the strike, during which he pushed for an end to the conflict. Two days later, in his strongest words against the conflict yet, he condemned the \u201cbarbarity\u201d and Israel\u2019s \u201cindiscriminate use of force\u201d after 93 people were killed while waiting for food<\/a>.<\/p>\n Leo has twice met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photograph: Presidential Press Service \/EPA<\/p>\n \u201cLeo is moving cautiously but he is more clear in his denunciation of the Israeli government,\u201d said Marco Politi, a Vatican journalist and author of the book The Unfinished Revolution: The Church After Francis. \u201cThis represents a problem for Israel because, unlike Francis, who might have been considered a bit reckless and gaffe-prone, it proves that nothing has changed in the Vatican\u2019s continued support of Palestinian rights.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike the Jesuits, whose structure is more hierarchical, Politi said Leo clearly signalled how he would lead the church during his inauguration mass homily when he said the pope \u201cis not a lone leader or a leader placed above others\u201d. This approach was evident when he handed the microphone to Pietro Parolin, the Vatican\u2019s secretary of state, and Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Catholic Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, to initially speak out after the attack on the Gaza church. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t want to be like Francis who worked alone and who made decisions alone,\u201d added Politi.<\/p>\n Geopolitics aside, Leo\u2019s main initial task has been to foster unity in a church divided by some of Francis\u2019s policies. That said, his papacy is expected to more or less continue along the progressive path laid by his predecessor.<\/p>\n \u201cWe mustn\u2019t forget that during conclave, the ultra-conservatives wanted to put Francis\u2019s politics on trial,\u201d said Politi. \u201cBut they failed, and that\u2019s why Leo was chosen \u2013 to send a signal that the church is moving forward, not backward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few days after his election as pope in May, Leo XIV stepped into a chauffeur-driven black Volkswagen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-314826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114965438953541170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}