Traditions and modernity. Unity and diversity. Evangelization not proselytization.
In an outdoor Mass on Sunday formally inaugurating Pope Leo XIV as the 267th leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the new pontiff sought to chart a path that included as many people in the church as possible.
In a homily delivered to a crowd in St. Peter’s Square, he said that the cardinals who elected him had sought a “shepherd capable of preserving the rich heritage of the Christian faith and, at the same time, looking to the future, in order to confront the questions, concerns and challenges of today’s world.”
The pope said that he “was chosen, without any merit of my own, and now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother.” He added that he wanted “us all to be united in one family.”
Framing his mission by echoing Jesus’ role as a “fisher of humanity in order to draw it up from the waters of evil and death,” he returned to the priority of Pope Francis, his predecessor, that the church keep to its evangelizing mission. But, he said, it “is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda or by means of power,” but through love.
The new pope added that a pastor, like Peter, the first pope, needed to be close to “the flock without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat, lording it over those entrusted to him.”
But Pope Leo emphasized the idea of a “coexistence of diversity” within the church. It was an idea central to Saint Augustine, whose name was given to the order that the new pope once led, and in which he has spent his ecclesiastical life. “Brothers and sisters,” he stressed, “I would like that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion.”
This was a message many of the cardinals wanted to hear, after periods of division in the church. But they wanted to make sure Leo’s view of unity did not mean going backward, and that the new pope’s vision included Francis’ inclusive spirit.
“In this our time,” the pope added, expanding his message outside the church, “we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalizes the poorest.” He said he sought a “unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people.”
The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics stood before his cardinals, dignitaries from around the world, and thousands of faithful in the square and said that the healing for those wounds rested in Jesus. “Listen to his offer of love and become his one family,” he said. But he added that it was a path to peace that he hoped to walk “with those who follow other religious paths, with those who are searching for God, with all women and men of good will.”
He concluded, “This is the missionary spirit that must animate us; not closing ourselves off in our small groups, nor feeling superior to the world.”
Jason Horowitz is the Rome bureau chief for The Times, covering Italy, the Vatican, Greece and other parts of Southern Europe.
The post Pope Leo evokes his predecessor with a message of inclusivity and unity. appeared first on New York Times.
