Pope Leo XIV was born and raised in Chicago, but most of his life’s work was devoted to working to ameliorate the misery of the poor in overwhelmingly Catholic Peru, to being a devoted missionary in accord with Christ’s mandate.
He has been a humble labourer in the vineyard of Jesus Christ.
His humility is perhaps his greatest Christian virtue.
He now is called upon to bridge spiritually the huge gap between the poor South and the rich and deeply ideologically divided faithful of the North, mainly the US, with its rapid dismantling of any remaining vestiges of the social state, with the paramount aim of putting riches above justice.
There are many different Americas. One, very old one, is that of Emma Lazarus, as inscribed since 1903 inside the base of the Statue of Liberty, the first, hopeful image immigrants saw as they arrived on America’s shores.
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
These are the immigrants whose toil truly made America great.
That is the vision for his native country in the heart of the first American pope, one of inclusion and social justice.
Not the MAGA masses deluded by the populism of an authoritarian leader, intent upon building an isolated fortress America
The other is Trump’s America, that is diametrically opposed to all that Leo XIV stands for. Leo has already spoken out critically against the treatment of refugees and migrants by Trump.
What’s in a name? A lot.
Pope Leo XIV highly symbolically chose to take the name of a man who spoke out forcefully for the rights of labor and the downtrodden in the face of exploitation by capitalism, attempting to outline the obligations of both.
In his revolutionary encyclical Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII (pontificate 1878-1903), articulated a class-based analysis, referred to the “the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class,” and supported the right of labor to form unions.
Though the encyclical rejected socialism, this manifesto came as close to it as a Catholic pontiff might get.
His successor and namesake lived and worked body and soul to ameliorate the suffering of the poor and downtrodden in predominantly Catholic Peru, and he understands well the ills of untrammeled capitalism.
Though he is unlikely to speak in those terms, he will work to promote the vision of his predecessor, whose name he chose in a highly symbolic gesture.
It is, not coincidentally, much like the vision of the late Pope Francis, who some believe groomed with gradual and discreet steps the new pope to succeed him.
There will be no honeymoon here between the pope and the American leader one may safely say.
Trump said it was an honor to have an American pope, but spoke no word of praise for him.
Yet, one may expect a diplomatic approach, and the Vatican has over a millennium of experience in that area.
One one level the conclave of cardinals may well have intended to send a clear message to the leader of the most powerful country in the world: That the universal Catholic Church cannot tolerate racism and a hateful socio-political ideology spreading around the world, undermining basic Christian values and the Vatican’s. global moral authority.
This may well lead to stern, indirect criticism of Trump’s approach to immigration. climate change, and social inclusion. There may be diplomatic tensions that both sides, however, have no interest in becoming disruptive.
Something more than a quarter of US voters are Catholics. Trump cannot risk openly alienating them.
All this is part of the divide between America’s conservative and liberal Catholics. and Leo must try to bridge the gap delicately.
That Pope Leo XIV might have a good chance of succeeding in accomplishing bridge-building on several fronts, as a humble man deeply influenced by both Peru and America, surely must have been a strong consideration when his fellow cardinals elected him to be the successor of Saint Peter.
