Amazing all these trads who tell me Pope Leo is a demonic apostate. Please! Have you tried comparing his record so far with all the horrible things Francis did in his first year: the beginnings of the crackdown on the TLM, the sinister kitchen cabinet that was already hanging around Santa Marta, the insults to the Roman Curia, the crazy interviews subtly trashing traditional teaching? It’s like you guys are desperately looking for evidence of ‘heresy’ in his public pronouncements. Sure, you can find the odd line that, if you insist on interpreting it as ‘the mask slipping’, you can have fun with. But Leo’s addresses have been overwhelmingly Christ-centred and he’s been uncompromising in his defence of human life. His celebration of Mass exhibits a special reverence not displayed by Francis, who gave up saying it in public long before it could be justified by ill health. Of course there are things we might not like – the political stuff grates occasionally, but find me a pope who didn’t embrace a naive consensus on migration. And, finally, quite a few of Leo’s critics were notably slow to focus on Francis’s outrageous collusion in sex abuse scandals. So give us, and him, a break. Take a Xanax or something.
Pope Leo VIV is indeed emerging as a powerfully eloquent, Christ-centred pontiff whose beguiling charm appeals to hundreds of millions of people. And he has restored the dignity of the papal office. Bravo!