One in Christ / Daniel Conway

New column on Pope Leo XIV starts with continued focus on joy of the Gospel

(En Espanol)
 

This is my first monthly column on the teaching of Pope Leo XIV. As was the case with my reflections on the teaching of Pope Francis, my objectives are simply to call attention to what the Holy Father proposes to us as important to daily life in Christ, and to convey the pope’s messages as clearly and accurately as I can.

Pope Leo’s first address to the cardinals the day after his election as the successor of St. Peter provides a clear agenda for his papacy.

“I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council,” the Holy Father said. “Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium [“The Joy of the Gospel”] from which I would like to highlight several fundamental points.”

The “fundamental points” that Pope Leo listed included:

—“The return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation.” In his apostolic exhortation “The Joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis wrote, “A renewal of preaching can offer believers, as well as the lukewarm and the non-practicing, new joy in the faith and fruitfulness in the work of evangelization” (#11).

Pope Leo affirms that the heart of Christian preaching must always be the God who revealed his immense love in the crucified and risen Christ.

—“The missionary conversion of the entire Christian community.” Pope Francis wrote that, “If we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we have to reach out to others and seek their good.”

Our new pope, a former Augustinian missionary, knows from personal experience that we are all missionary disciples of Jesus Christ and that “the love of Christ urges us on” (2 Cor 5:14).

—“Growth in collegiality and synodality.” Pope Francis reminded us that “the important thing is to not walk alone, but to rely on each other as brothers and sisters, and especially under the leadership of the bishops, in a wise and realistic pastoral discernment.”

Pope Leo’s papal motto In illo uno unum (In the One Christ we are one) makes clear his commitment to unity in Christ as a priority for Christian life and ministry.

—“Attention to the sensus fidei [“the people’s instinct of faith”], especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as popular piety.”

“The Joy of the Gospel” states explicitly that “All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients” (#120).

Pope Leo understands that faith and devotion are frequently demonstrated most powerfully in the piety of God’s people and in the diverse cultural forms in which the people’s instinct of faith is expressed.

—“Loving care for the least and the rejected.” Pope Francis never ceased to call attention to the scandalous truth that “masses of people today find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.”

Pope Leo insists that his pontificate will continue to advocate for all those who are on the fringes of society and, therefore, are especially deserving of the Church’s pastoral care.

—“Courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities.”

Finally, Pope Leo joins with all his predecessors since the Second Vatican Council in proclaiming in the words of the pastoral constitution, “Gaudium et Spes” (“Joy and Hope”). “The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts” (#1).

The agenda proposed by Pope Leo is nothing more, or less, than a continued proclamation of the joy of the Gospel.

May our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, succeed in carrying out this agenda in the spirit of Vatican II and in continuity with the popes who have gone before him.

And may his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary give him the courage and the patience he needs to serve all the people of God, the flock entrusted to his care.
 

(Daniel Conway is a member of The Criterion’s editorial committee.) †