Pope Leo XIV in the footsteps of Francis: inclusion without revolution, between peace, environment and missing rights

Bradyseism. This is the term that best describes the pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio . An inconspicuous geological phenomenon, which indicates the slow raising or lowering of the ground in very specific areas of the planet. Invisible in the space of a day, very fast and inexorable in the long term. Pope Francis was this. A series of small chisel strokes on a rough statue that still has much, too much to reveal. During his pontificate he chiseled several times a block of stone that, although thousand years old, still has edges that are decidedly too sharp, capable of hurting not only those who try to touch it without due caution, but also those who look at it from afar.

The Vatican, after all, is an inseparable presence in the daily lives of millions of people around the world. It is no coincidence that Michele de Certau, a Jesuit and philosopher, defined the Church as “a collective memory, which shapes even those who contest it.” Francis had fully grasped this universality of the ecclesiastical apparatus , addressing himself – sometimes controversially – to anyone who interfaced with the Roman Curia. From the sporadic openings towards the LGBT community to the extreme propensity for the least, it is undeniable that Francis’s pontificate has been full of meaning, marked by a legacy that his successor would not seem to consider cumbersome.

In the footsteps of Francis

The white smoke that appointed Robert Francis Prevost as pontiff left many followers of one of the most whispered conclaves of recent decades stunned. While the most influential voices in the ecclesiastical panorama hoped for opposing identities, corresponding – for example – to the profiles of Matteo Zuppi and Péter Erdo, the contemporary international framework , complex and full of pain, required a profile capable of inserting itself into a balance that many now consider lost.

It is no coincidence that Robert Francis Prevost perfectly corresponds to this identikit, made of moderation but, above all, of continuity. Certainly not as progressive as Zuppi, nor as conservative as Erdo or Sarah, considered excessively faithful to the line held by the most influential and conservative spheres of Catholicism . Pope Leo XIV, evocative already starting from the choice of his name, inserted himself from the very beginning in an extremely complex framework, entering on tiptoe and taking on the legacy of Pope Francis. Of course, it is not easy to imagine the way in which the nominal heir of the author of Rerum Novarum will decline his personality, but it is possible to hypothesize its course.

On the Threshold of the Sacred: The Rejection of Female Priesthood

“When women are in charge, things work out,” Pope Francis said after being discharged from the Gemelli Hospital. A clear opening, certainly not supported by facts. An exit that, in the political arena, would certainly have been defined as populist. But the Church, as we know, is something completely different. And Francis has always known this, relaunching in words what, in fact, cannot and will never be done, under penalty of a complete distortion of the ecclesiastical architecture. The declarations remain, a symbol of an ephemeral opening but, at the same time, an indication of a path undertaken with firmness and that only a conservative pontiff would have closed with a resounding double lock.

To date, Prevost has never left much room for maneuver that, as anticipated, would be largely nullified by one of the dogmatic pillars of the entire ecosystem. As reported by CNA, the Catholic News Agency, less than two years ago it was Leo XIV himself who declared that “clericalizing women” would certainly not solve the long-standing problems affecting the Roman Curia, “at most it would create others,” adding that “the apostolic tradition is something very clear.” A position, ultimately, much more in line with the guidelines dictated by the sacred texts within which every pontiff is called to operate, and which introduces one of the key characteristics of the new Pope: the propensity for the pragmatic resolution of controversies. A pragmatism that, once again, in order to be understood and judged, must be observed within the conservative lens of the entire Catholic Church.

Abortion, an insurmountable dogma

“The Catholic Church is not a mirror of society and must be different. It is not easy to decide to change something that has been like this for two thousand years,” Prevost himself had stressed during the same interview. A self-evident reference to some of the cardinal principles of dogmatism that hails from Rome, such as, for example, the right to abortion. In this case too, it is possible to inscribe Leo XIV in the wake of Francis. A wake that, this time, is composed of the deprivation of a fundamental right for millions of women in the world. It would have been impossible, at the same time, to expect anything different.

While Francis, who called doctors who perform abortions “hit men,” has used poisonous words during his pontificate against the professionals involved in the practices, Prevost has never expressed himself in such an offensive way on the subject, while claiming a position of absolute hardness and linearity with tradition. A pragmatism that, once again, will presumably keep him safe from divisive positions that could increase the media outcry in Vatican circles, even on the subject of end-of-life.

Children of the same God, inclusion without revolution

It is possible to hypothesize, therefore, a pontificate marked by sobriety and attention to the main social issues, abandoning a controversial opening that occurred during the previous papacy to civil issues. In fact, if in the last decade Leo XIV has come closer - according to Vatican sources relaunched by the generalist media - to the open positions expressed at alternating stages by Bergoglio, certainly the declarations uttered regarding the LGBT community during his cardinal path cannot be forgotten.

As reported by the New York Times, the new pontiff's particularly controversial statements date back to 2012 regarding the "homosexual lifestyle" , "beliefs and practices in contrast with the Gospel" and "alternative families". An archetype of the family structure, the one relaunched in the past by the now former Augustinian cardinal, only partially dismantled by Francis. The Argentine pontiff, over time, had expressed himself with an enviable openness, given his precedents, regarding the issue of laws that, in the world, criminalize anyone who belongs to the LGBT community. It is up to the new pontiff, now, to take up a witness capable of not repudiating and throwing thousands of rainbow believers into oblivion of faith.

Nine times peace

“This is the peace of the Risen Christ, a disarmed peace and a disarming, humble and persevering peace ,” declared Prevost from the central Loggia of the Vatican Basilica, in a speech full of references to the previous pontificate. Linear declarations, well-considered and never outside the references dictated by his order, the Augustinian one, plus a particular reference: that of the word peace, mentioned nine times.

A peace hoped for in theaters of war, in societies in conflict, within the meshes of an increasingly frayed social fabric capable of exploding at any moment. This will probably be the cornerstone of the pontificate of Leo XIV, in the name of the one who preceded him not in time, but in name: Leo XIII, the Pope of Rerum Novarum. The encyclical, published in 1891, is still a milestone in the social doctrine of the Church, which expresses itself on the rights of workers, on the issue of fair wages and on the mediating role of the Church between capital and labor.

Grounds already trodden by Francis who, on several occasions, has touched on the theme of social justice, of the last, of the marginalized and of workers, but also of migrants and prisoners, in a peace hoped for on several occasions for those who, daily, live hours of difficulty. But that of Pope Francis was also a desire for peace addressed to the theaters of war throughout the world , with calls, every evening, to Gaza, thoughts turned to Ukraine and to all the conflicts that daily tear apart the lives of thousands of innocent people.

Francis's "Green Gospel"

Finally, Prevost's nationality may have played a significant role in the white smoke of the past few days. His star-spangled passport, not by chance, places him in profound opposition to one of the most powerful people on earth, if not the most powerful person on earth par excellence : Donald Trump. An emperor's profile, demonstrated by his total contempt for the role he is called to preside over. From today, in the United States, power has two heads, and the environment will soon be called upon to represent the decisive battleground for this heated debate.

In the wake of Francis, Leo XIV has already repeatedly demonstrated his commitment to the environment, hoping for a reciprocal relationship with the soil and the abolition of tyranny as a “regime of domination” over nature . Positions firmly opposed to those of Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, who have always been committed to not listening to the desperate cry of a planet that can no longer stomach coexistence with the human race.

Now, it will be up to Leo XIV to pick up the baton of a slow but inexorable movement, started in the past decade by Bergoglio. The path has been traced, it is up to the first American Pope ever to ascend to the throne of Peter to take care of it.