In Pope Leo XIV’s first sermon on Friday, he stood exactly on the side of “normal people” and against the rich and powerful – a not insignificant statement for the first Pope from the richest and most powerful country in the world.
It also seemed that in a church between those who want to emphasize the defense of the doctrine and those who want to prioritize mission work, the Pope born in Chicago primarily defined as a missionary, and made it clear that he wanted a mission church. This is what supported many cardinals from his predecessor, Pope Francis, to go to the conclave this week, and it seems as if they had found it in Leo.
During his break during a trade fair with cardinals in the Sistine chapel, the Pope called the story of Jesus and said that rich people had released him as an uncomfortable fanatic, ordinary people “not as a charlatner, but an upright man who has courage who speaks well and says the right things”.
But he noticed that they had left him when it got tough. Even for the first successors of Jesus, he was “only one man,” said the Pope, and when he was crucified, they were disappointed and left him.
Leo argued that this was exactly what was going on today with many bullets – read: mass media, pop culture, government elites, science, silicon valley – Christianity as “absurd, intended for the weak and unpleasant”.
He is a former leader of the international and intellectually strict medals, named after St. Augustine, the bishop of the fourth century and the writer, whose vision of central faith centrality has redefined the Church and Western culture by burrowing, and Tar, the once influential Greek philosophy of epicureism. This worldview, which had a follower in some old Roman circles, prioritized luck through a moderate pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain.
The new Pope seemed to reproduce Augustine when he complained about these environments, in which other securities are preferred, such as technology, money, success, power or pleasure.
By talking about all of this in his first sermon in his first sermon, he signaled that he would make the gospel in this enemy territory a priority of his pontificate in strong continuity with Francis.
Part of the break sounded like a mission statement: “These are contexts in which it is not easy to preach the gospel and to endure their truth, in which believers mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and cozy. The human dignity, the family crisis and so many other wounds that operate our society.”
He added that nominal believers also occupy these attitudes, people who treat Jesus as a superhero rather than someone who was guided by his actions and whose actions have to imitate true believers. He said these Christians live as de facto atheine.
The Pope, born in Chicago, went to Peru as a missionary, and his mission ethos impressed Francis, who enabled him and sags him in A position to become a Pope. He ended the cardinals that, like Francis, he saw himself as a simple missionary with the task of spreading the gospel through his actions. Francis made it a habit to clear out cardinals because she was lying over her herds, lived and forgot what they were there. Leo also recalled the cardinals that they had gotten before him in less tougher, but no less dubious terms that their task should also be simple missionaries.
In order to emphasize this, the Pope spoke of an old saint who welcomed his upcoming martyrdom – which was devoured by wild animals in a Roman arena – because he removed his body from the picture and let his mission member shine through.
“His words apply more generally to an indispensable commitment to everyone in the church who exercises a ministry of authority,” said Leo. He argued that the duty of the cardinals was not the focus of being the focus, but to “pull aside” and “make themselves small” so that faith could grow and spread.
“Above all, I say that to me,” he added.