Eight reasons why I like Leo
By Peter Wolfgang ( bio - articles - email ) | May 17, 2025
The College of Cardinals shocked the world by elevating to the papacy an American. Cardinal Robert Prevost is now Pope Leo XIV. Here are my initial thoughts, slightly more than a week out.
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First, searching for clues about his future by scouring his past, in old comments or Twitter history, strikes me as a worthless endeavor. It proved largely misleading in the case of Pope Francis in 2013. Better just to focus on what he says and does as Pope, of which there is already much.
Second, we often hear about “alienated” Catholics and how we must reach out to them. These are the usual categories of LGBT, pro-abortion feminists, the divorced-and-remarried, contracepting couples and so forth. Pope Francis tried to reach them, mightily. But to other segments of the laity Francis could be, as even Sohrab Ahmari said, “a mean dad.” This created a category of alienated Catholics who did not previously exist. Call them “the newly alienated.” Latin Mass Catholics, pro-life and pro-family activists who often felt undermined, homeschooling moms of big families who felt accused of “breeding like rabbits.” Pope Francis, however imperfectly, was right to reach out to the alienated. Now his successor must reach out to the newly alienated.
Third, Pope Leo is already accomplishing item #2 in just his first week. The Latin, the vestments, the liturgical sentiments, the patristics, that time he avoided what looked like a rainbow flag, and on and on. Winning back the newly alienated should be a lot easier than winning over the old alienated. Leo is showing this to be true just by being himself.
Fourth, someone needs to give Cardinal Dolan a medal for his role in healing the universal Church after an awkward pontificate. Dolan told a Sunday morning talk show, just before the Conclave, that he wanted a Pope who would combine the outreach of Francis with the clarity of John Paul II and Benedict. In some accounts of the Conclave it is claimed that he was the affable deal-maker who helped bring about Leo’s election. Forgive me my patriotism, if you must, but I think that was very American of him and that both that, and Leo himself, are our nation’s gifts to the universal Church at this moment in history.
Fifth, I mean, just look at this paragraph from Pope Leo the other day. As reported by Christine Niles:
Reaffirming marriage as between a man and a woman, condemning abortion and euthanasia, and calling for peace and an end to war, Pope Leo XIV also told the Diplomatic Corps today:
For her part, the Church can never be exempted from speaking the truth about humanity and the world, resorting whenever necessary to blunt language that may initially create misunderstanding. Yet truth can never be separated from charity, which always has at its root a concern for the life and well-being of every man and woman. Furthermore, from the Christian perspective, truth is not the affirmation of abstract and disembodied principles, but an encounter with the person of Christ himself, alive in the midst of the community of believers.
That is a thing of beauty. The very combination that Cardinal Dolan, and so many, were hoping to see.
Sixth, Pope Leo is already restoring unity following a pontificate that strained unity. Check out this Shameless Popery video beginning at about 11 minutes. Did you ever think you would see the day when Taylor Marshall and James Martin would both be cheering on the Pope? But isn’t that, in fact, the way it is supposed to be? In just one week this Pope is restoring not just unity but a sense of normalcy.
Seventh, beware of outside agitators. At the very dawn of the Roe v. Wade era, according to the late Bernard Nathanson in “Aborting America,” pro-abortion activists pursued a deliberate strategy of splitting the laity off from their bishops by claiming that they, the pro-abortionists, were the true voice of Catholics on abortion and contraception. From the moment Pope Leo stepped out on that balcony, some Trumpy media influencers tried something similar. Look, I’m pretty Trumpy myself. Leo’s pre-papal comments on gun control, climate change, and that unfortunate retweet of the NCR dig at Vice President Vance, are all to the left of my own politics. I will disagree with him on occasion and only where it is permissible to do so. But make no mistake. I’m Catholic. Leo is my Pope. Trumpy influencers are not.
Eighth, have you noticed how at ease Pope Leo is in his own skin? I have not seen a Pope so comfortable with the fact that he is the Pope since John Paul II. Benedict and Francis, each in very different ways, seemed ill at ease in the role. Leo, like John Paul, seems to know what is expected of him and is fine with it. Good for him.
Thank you, God, for giving us Pope Leo. A unifier, a Pope of peace, who leaves no doubt that he will guard “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Peter Wolfgang is president of Family Institute of Connecticut Action, a Hartford-based advocacy organization whose mission is to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society. His work has appeared in The Hartford Courant, the Waterbury Republican-American, Crisis Magazine, Columbia Magazine, the National Catholic Register, CatholicVote, Catholic World Report, the Stream and Ethika Politika. He lives in Waterbury, Conn., with his wife and their seven children. The views expressed on Catholic Culture are solely his own. See full bio.
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