Popes Francis and Leo

A Vision for Our Times

Since I am Catholic, many have asked what I think of the new pope. In a word, I am delighted. I am also surprised: bracing for a reactionary selection after Pope Francis, when I heard that an American pope was chosen, recalling the radical conservativism among American cardinals, I cannot deny I cringed. However, perhaps like Canada or Australia, they made a conscious decision to choose stability, inclusivity, and cooperation, over the Zeitgeist of this Trump era, which espouses competition, chaos, exclusivity, and division.

Why have a papacy at all? For Catholics, the pope signifies a direct succession from Saint Peter, whom Jesus the Christ named to be “the rock” of the Church. Whereas the rigid hierarchies of an antiquated tradition may be the most striking from the outside, “pope”, deriving from “papa”, is meant to signify the revolutionary personableness of God, as the Christ encouraged people not to think of themselves as slaves, but as children of God. “Catholic” in the classic sense means “universal”—and the all-embracing service of devotees, exactly in the most downtrodden, abandoned places of the world, is what drew me to it in my travels.

First, allow me to remember Pope Francis, deceased on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, with affection. His legacy profoundly echoes that of Francis of Assisi, the thirteenth-century saint after whom Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first Jesuit and first Latin American pope, named himself. Saint Francis was the son of a wealthy merchant who, upon spiritual awakening, renounced his worldly possessions and status for a life of poverty, humility, and service. In a dramatic renunciation after a public dispute with his father, Francis appeared before the bishop, removed all his clothes, handed them back to his father, and declared that from that moment on he had no father but God. The bishop, moved by his sincerity, covered him with his cloak, symbolizing the Church’s acceptance of him. Saint Francis then founded the Franciscan Order, which emphasizes simplicity, care for the marginalized, and love of nature, as in his “Canticle of the Creatures.”

Pope Francis similarly stunned the Church from the beginning of his papacy in 2013, when he embraced radical simplicity and refused to use the papal throne, chose simple cars over the lavish Popemobile, and lived in a modest guesthouse rather than the opulent Apostolic Palace. He called for a “poor Church for the poor” and emphasized humility, emphasis on God’s mercy, and concern for the poor, migrants, and refugees. He encouraged interreligious dialogue and washed the feet of Muslims on Holy Thursday. He made women full members of administrative divisions in the Holy See. He met with atheists and LGBTQ+ individuals in open dialogue. His Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) urged compassion, not condemnation. And his groundbreaking encyclical, Laudato Si’ (Praise be to You), struck at the moral and spiritual crisis behind consumerism, environmental degradation, and economic injustice. Tying ecological care to ethical integrity and our collective survival, he addressed the United Nations (UN) General Assembly shortly before the UN Climate Change Conference adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015. He reoriented the Church back toward the merciful and compassionate character of the Christ, just as Saint Francis did 800 years earlier.

Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, was elected to succeed Pope Francis on May 8, 2025. He is the first Augustinian and first American pope—second pope from the Americas—who was born in Chicago and raised near the city’s South Side. He engaged in extensive missionary work in Peru and spent most of his adult life abroad. Here is what he said about his choice of name:

I chose to take the name Leo XIV,… mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.

Pope Leo XIII, head of the Catholic Church in the late nineteenth century, was known for his concern for social justice and his openness to science and modern thought. His Rerum Novarum (Of New Things) addressed workers’ poor conditions, low wages, and few rights at the height of the Industrial Revolution, making him known as “the Social Pope” and “the Pope of the Workers.” His willingness to engage with contemporary socioeconomic problems, as well as his openness to reconciling faith and science, set him apart from other popes. He modernized the Vatican Observatory and sought to revive Thomism (the philosophy of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas that unified faith and reason). He showed diplomatic flexibility and promoted Catholic participation in democratic processes in countries like France and Italy. He concerned himself with the Church’s role outside of Europe, especially in the Americas and Asia.

Now, Pope Leo XIV commemorates his namesake predecessor for his commitment to social issues and brings our attention to the reality that the world now faces new hurdles to workers’ rights—and humanity more broadly—because of the rise of artificial intelligence. Prevost joined the Augustinians in 1977 and was ordained priest in 1982. His missionary work in Peru spanned from 1985 to 1998, where he served in various roles including parish pastor, diocesan official, and seminary teacher. Peru is the birthplace of liberation theology (sometimes called, “theology of the oppressed”), coined in 1971 by the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez. Prevost was elected prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013. In 2015, he was appointed bishop and served until 2023. That year, Pope Francis elevated him to the rank of cardinal.

His election to the papacy is inspiring in a turbulent world, where spiritual leadership in global peacemaking and bridge-building is vitally needed. He greeted Rome and the world in English, Italian, and Spanish:

Peace be with you!... A peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. A peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally.

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Dr. Lee is a forensic and social psychiatrist who became known to the public through her 2017 Yale conference and book that emphasized the importance of fit leadership. In 2019, she organized a major National Press Club Conference on the theme of, “The Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” In 2024, she followed up with another major Conference, “The More Dangerous State of the World and the Need for Fit Leadership.” She published another book on fit leadership (now privately expanded), in addition to a volume on how unfitness in a leader spreads and two critical statements on fit leadership. Dr. Lee warned that journalists and intellectuals are the first to be suppressed in times of unfit leadership, and it is happening here; she continues, however, to be interviewed or covered abroad, such as in France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Canada (with notable articles in Polish, Turkish, and Korean). She authored the internationally-acclaimed textbook, Violence; over 100 peer-reviewed articles and chapters; and 17 scholarly books and journal special issues, in addition to over 300 opinion editorials. Dr. Lee is also a master of divinity, currently developing a new curriculum for public education on “One World or None.”