Pope Leo’s first 100 days: Leaning into his new role

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Stories about “the first 100 days” are standard fare at the beginning of a U.S. president’s four-year term; the articles usually focus on how much the new president was able to accomplish and how quickly.

But a pope is elected for life and without having promised voters anything or having presented a platform.

Pope Leo XIV was elected May 8, making Aug. 16 the 100th day since he stepped out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as the new pope. He will celebrate his 70th birthday Sept. 14.

While the first 100 days of a pontificate may hint at what is to come, the initial period of Pope Leo’s ministry as the successor of Peter and bishop of Rome seemed mostly about him getting used to the role, the crowds and the protocol.

According to canon law, the pope “possesses supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.”

In other words, he could have issued a slew of the canonical equivalent of executive orders in his first days in office. Instead, he lived up to his reputation as a person who listens before deciding — holding a meeting with the College of Cardinals and individual meetings with the heads of Vatican offices.

Like his predecessors, Pope Leo confirmed the heads of Curia offices on a temporary basis a few days after his election. Some major nominations are expected in September or early October, starting with his own replacement as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops.

His choices for members of his team, and whether he decides to have an international Council of Cardinals to advise him will send signals not only about what he wants to do but also how he wants to do it. (Pope Francis set up the Council of Cardinals early in his pontificate to help him with the reform of the Roman Curia and to advise him on other matters, but he did not make the council a formal body.) 

September also should bring an announcement about where Pope Leo will live. Several cardinals have said that in the days before the conclave they encouraged the future pope — whoever he would be — to move back into the papal apartment in the Apostolic Palace. The move would make security easier, saving the Vatican money and allowing the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis chose to live, to return to full operation as a guesthouse.

In his first public address, moments after his election, the new pope said: “We want to be a synodal church, a church that moves forward, a church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always seeks to be close above all to those who are suffering.”

Pope Leo went deeper when he spoke about the key objectives of his ministry — in a pontificate that easily could last 20 years — during a meeting with the College of Cardinals two days after his election.

He asked the cardinals to join him in renewing a “complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.”

That path had six fundamental points that, Pope Leo said, “Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth” in his first exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel.”

The six points highlighted by Pope Leo were: “the return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation; the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community; growth in collegiality and synodality; attention to the ‘sensus fidei’ (the people of God’s sense of the faith), especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as popular piety; loving care for the least and the rejected; (and) courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities.”

Those realities include the widespread media attention focused on the election of the first U.S.-born pope as well as the fact that people of all stripes feel free to use social media to proclaim what Pope Leo “should” do, “must” or “must not” do.

According to a Gallup Poll conducted in the United States July 7-21 and published Aug. 5, Pope Leo was the most favorably viewed of 14 world leaders and major newsmakers; 57 percent of Americans said they had a “favorable opinion” of him and 11 percent said they had an “unfavorable” opinion.

“These figures closely match Pope Francis’ ratings when he assumed the role in 2013, then viewed favorably by 58% and unfavorably by 10%, as well as Pope Benedict in 2005 — 55 percent favorable, 12 percent unfavorable,” Gallup said.

Among those surveyed, self-identified Catholics gave all three popes even higher ratings at the beginning of their pontificates, the polling group said, “with Leo viewed favorably by 76 percent, Francis by 80 percent and Benedict by 67 percent.”

As the weeks passed after his election, Pope Leo seemed to grow more comfortable with a crowd, spending more time blessing babies and enjoying his interactions with the thousands of people who came to St. Peter’s Square for his weekly general audiences.

At his general audience Aug. 6 — held outside on a very warm summer day — the pope finished his formal program in less than an hour, then spent another two and a half hours shaking hands, posing for photos with pilgrim groups and having unusually long conversations with dozens of newlywed couples before offering them his blessing.

As a Curia official, the future pope had a reputation of being somewhat reserved, but Pope Leo has shown he has a special tool for connecting with a crowd: speaking English and Spanish as well as Italian, the Vatican’s official working language.

His ability to switch between the three languages effortlessly was on full display at the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers July 28-29 and the related Jubilee of Youth July 28-Aug. 3. The young people roared with approval as he spoke to them in languages that most could understand.

While his U.S. roots and Peruvian missionary experience undoubtedly will impact his papacy, he has been very respectful of the Italian tradition of not making major announcements or changes during the summer holidays.

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