While the world welcomes Pope Leo XIV, many find hope in the promise to widen the heritage of Pope Francis – a shepherd who reshaped the Catholic Church by bringing him closer to the poor, the injured excluded and the wounded. This transition moment is not only ceremonial. It is a point of spiritual and moral inflection.
In his first public words as Pope, Leo XIV proclaimed: “We must seek together to be a mission church. A church that builds bridges and a dialogue. ” This unique sentence signals continuity with the soul of Francis's papacy – and also takes care of something emergency: building.
But even before these words are pronounced, the Catholics of the world should understand the deep meaning of the name, Leo. Pope Leo XIV now has a name imbued with social tradition. Leo XIII first supervised workers' rights and economic dignity as sacred soil in “Revolutionary. “This 1891 encyclical revolutionized Catholic engagement with the modern world.
The values that animated François – Mercy, Justice, Human Dignity and Care for Creation – were defended by his predecessors, the John Paul II and Benoît XVI popes. But Francis lived them with striking clarity, embodying them not only in teaching, but in action and meeting.
Over the past decade, I have had the privilege of working alongside François through a Vatican office for human rights and social and economic justice. I was also delegated to the international rallies of basic organizers that Francis summoned to center the votes of the poor. Thanks to this work, I witnessed the vision that defined its papacy.
In 2015, during the global meeting of the Church of popular movements, I heard Francis denounce “the unhindered pursuit of money” as “new colonialism” and raised the sacred rights of housing, work and land. “The future of humanity,” he said, “is in the hands of peoples and in their ability to organize.”
Four years later, I met him again and I gave him an image of the Mission of Dolores in Los Angeles representing Mary and Jesus as migrants. I asked what message I could bring home. He smiled, showed my heart and said: “Stay with people.“” Stay with people.
It is the call that the Church inherits. Pope Leo XIV honored his mind when he said: “Let us keep in our hearts the weak voice of Pope Francis who blesses Rome. … God loves us. God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail. “
At this moment of change and possibility, four principles that Francis lived and that Leo XIV began to echo, must guide the church.
Cultivate the meeting In an era of social fragmentation and loneliness, the Church must become a home for relations. One in five Americans reports without close confidant. Loneliness is now considered dangerous for health than smoking 15 cigarettes per day.
Francis reminded us: “We don't like concepts or ideas; we love people.” The Catholic parishes are among the last places where people of races, classes and different generations meet. But they must become spaces of belonging and mission, not just Sunday obligation.
Community organization offers a way to follow. Thanks to listening and narration in small groups, parishes can become shared goal schools. Like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was paraphrased, “the church is not the place you come from – this is where you are going.”
Full human development This is the name of the Vatican office with which I collaborated. His work with migrants, war refugees, peacemakers, poor and workers are based on belief that spiritual formation and social transformation go hand in hand. We need a contemplative practice and emotional and spiritual resilience to navigate this age of uncertainty.
Integral human development means resisting binary thought so common in politics and the media, seeking truth beyond ideology and leading with mercy. In a world of indignation and division, they are not luxuries, they are essential elements.
Civic leadership Francis challenged the church to become “bruised, injured and dirty because he was on the street”, rather than trapped in self-preservation. Meanwhile, inequality, climate collapse and democratic erosion threaten the common good. In the 2024 elections, California alone saw 1.7 million voting bulletins that in 2020. Too many people feel invisible or thrown away.
The Church must follow the call of Jesus to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Canned salt. Light reveals. A movement of salt and light would help Catholics to establish relationships through difference, to organize locally and to bring the values of the Gospel to public life. As a priest told me to walk in the March of 1963 in Washington: “It has forever changed my understanding from who is God.”
Moral leadership We are faced with a crisis of courage. Francis warned that “fear leads us to feel trapped” and to paralyze. His answer was joy, imagination and the public witness. Leo XIV seems ready to continue this witness, “always seeking peace and justice. Seeking to work with men and women faithful to Jesus Christ without fear of proclaiming the Gospel ”.
The world needs that we are not indifferent or desperate in the midst of darkness. The world needs people of faith and good will who choose to meet their neighbors, to expand their circle of human concern and to summon the courage to act in civic life for peace, justice and care of our common house. Pope Leo XIV is a spark of light which gives us faith that a more compassionate and inclusive church is possible. That he guides, as Francis said, “with humility and conviction this process of change.”
Joseph Tomás McKellar is Executive Director of Pico California, a state -of -scale confessional organizing network. He collaborated with Pope Francis through the Vatican Dicastery for the promotion of full human development and served as a delegate for several global meetings of popular movements.
