Leo XIV Prefers a U.N. Job To Being Pope
Leo XIV's Angelus reflection today illustrates a recurring problem of the post-conciliar Church: the tendency to focus on the world's wounds while remaining largely silent about the Church's own wounds.
Certainly, poverty, violence, family breakdown, and moral confusion are real problems.
Yet the greatest crisis facing humanity is not social but spiritual: the loss of the Catholic Faith, the collapse of religious practice, doctrinal confusion, and the weakening of belief among clergy and laity alike. Leo XIV’s constant speaking about the troubles of the sheepfold's surroundings while rarely addressing the wolves already inside the fold leaves Catholics uneasy.
Leo XIV’s reading of the Gospel also follows a familiar leftist pattern. Christ sees the crowds "like sheep without a shepherd," yet Leo XIV’s primary emphasis is placed on social suffering, exclusion, poverty, and injustice. But God Our Lord Jesus Christ’s first concern was the salvation of souls. He came above all to call sinners to repentance, to teach the truth, and to lead men to eternal life. Material misery matters, but spiritual misery matters infinitely more.
One searches in vain for a direct acknowledgment of the crisis of faith, liturgical abuses, doctrinal ambiguities, collapsing vocations, or the widespread loss of belief among Catholics. These are not secondary issues. They are precisely the problems that a pope should address with clarity and urgency.
The Church's mission certainly includes charity and mercy. Yet charity detached from truth becomes mere humanitarianism. Christ did not send the Apostles principally to reform society; He sent them to convert the world. When that priority is reversed, even subtly, the Gospel begins to sound less like the proclamation of salvation and more like a program for social improvement.
The world has countless voices speaking about poverty, injustice, and human suffering. The Pope's unique duty is to speak first about sin, truth, salvation, and the Catholic Faith. That is the mission no one else can fulfill.