100 days of Pope Leo XIV: A quiet papacy is rising who avoids controversy

Vatican Town – When Leo XIV shocked tens of 1000’s of younger other people in a contemporary birthday celebration of the Holy Yr with an impromptu stroll within the Papamóvil during the Plaza de San Pedro, it nearly appeared as though one thing of the casual spontaneity that characterised the 12 years of Francisco's preach had returned to the Vatican.

However the message that transmitted that night time used to be completely his: in an English, Spanish and Italian fluids, he advised younger folks that they have been the “salt of the earth, the sunshine of the sector” and recommended them to unfold their hope, their religion in Christ and their voices of peace anyplace they pass.

Whilst Robert Prevost turns his first 100 days as a pontiff this weekend, his papacy's contours have begun to be outlined, particularly in regard to continuity and adjustments with admire to his predecessor. Most likely a very powerful conclusion is that when 12 years, on occasion turbulent underneath Francisco's mandate, the Vatican has recovered a undeniable calm and reserve.

León turns out fearful, above all, to keep away from controversies or center of attention the papacy on his particular person, and needs, as an alternative, center of attention on Christ and peace.

That appears to be precisely what many trustworthy Catholics need and will reply to the desires of the Church nowadays.

“He has been very direct and Franco … however he isn’t making spontaneous statements to the click,” mentioned Kevin Hughes, director of theology and non secular research on the Alma Mater de León XIV, the College of Villanova. He has a distinct taste from Francisco's and that has relieved many, Hughes mentioned in a phone interview.

“Even those that actually sought after Pope Francis all the time contained respiring: you didn't know what he used to be going to mention or do subsequent,” he added.

An effort to keep away from controversies

In his first 100 days, León has labored arduous to take a look at to unravel the divisions that have been exacerbated right through Francisco's preach, providing messages of harmony and fending off controversy at nearly all occasions. Even its unique theme – to make stronger the promise and the risk posed by way of synthetic intelligence – is one thing that each conservative and modern agree that it will be significant. Francisco's emphasis on taking care of the surroundings and migrants frequently alienated conservatives.

As well as, he presented a reassuring and conciliatory message to the forms of the Holy See after Francisco's every now and then authoritarian taste hassle some within the Vatican.

“The potatoes come and van, however the curia stays,” Leo XIV advised Vatican officers in a while after his election on Would possibly 8.

Continuity with Francisco is simple

The Pope has cemented Francisco's environmental legacy by way of celebrating the primary ecological inspiration mass of historical past. He has pushed that legacy by way of giving inexperienced gentle to develop into a land of 430 hectares (1,000 acres) north of Rome into an unlimited sun farm that are meant to generate enough electrical energy to satisfy the desires of town of the Vatican and switch it into the primary impartial state in carbon on the planet.

He has delicate the monetary transparency rules that Francisco started, he adjusted any other decrees to provide them consistency and common sense and reiterated the Argentine's choice to claim “physician” of the Church to one of the vital influential saints of the 19th century, John Henry Newman.

However he has now not granted in -depth interviews or made improvised statements that monopolize holders as his predecessor did. Nor has he made necessary appointments – like that of his change in his previous place – nor has he made nice journeys.

At the instance of the eightieth anniversary of the USA atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki remaining week, he had the chance to copy Francisco's novel observation that the mere ownership of nuclear guns used to be “immoral.” However he didn't.

In comparison to President Donald Trump, the opposite American global chief who assumed the placement in 2025 with a chain of government decrees signed with a marker, León has assumed his new paintings slowly, mindful and silently, nearly attempting now not to draw consideration.

At 69, it kind of feels to grasp that he has the time on his aspect and that, after Francisco's progressive papacy, the Church might want a wreck. A Vatican professional who is aware of León mentioned that he hopes that his preach has a “soothing” impact at the establishment.

María Isabel Ibarcena Cuarite, a Peruvian of a charismatic Catholic team, mentioned that it used to be exactly the discreet emphasis of León within the traditions of the Church, her sacraments and the affection of Christ, which took her to her and multiple million younger other people to Rome for a unique week of the jubilee this month.

In keeping with Ibarcena, Francisco had at a loss for words younger other people like her together with her option to LGBTQ+ Catholics and the approval of blessings to identical -sex {couples}. He concept that those gestures went past what a Pope will have to do and what the Church taught.

León, he added, has emphasised that marriage is a sacrament between women and men. “Francisco used to be ambiguous, however he's company,” he mentioned.

An Augustinian Pope

Since his first look within the Resort of the Basilica of San Pedro, León has insisted that, above all, he’s a “son of St. Augustine.” He referred to the theological and devotee colossus of early Christianity of the fifth century, San Agustín de Hipona, who impressed the Augustinian spiritual order of the 13th century as a group of “Mendicant” friars.

Archive – The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left), and Pope Leo XIV greet reporters right through his assembly at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on July 9, 2025.

(Gregorio Borgia/AP)

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Like the opposite nice Mendicant orders of the primitive Church – as Franciscans, Dominicans and Carmelites – the Augustinians prolonged thru Christian Europe right through the centuries. Lately, Augustinian spirituality is rooted in a deep interior lifetime of prayer, group lifestyles and team journeys looking for fact in God.

In nearly all speeches or homilies since his election, he has summoned Agustín in a method or some other.

“I see a undeniable Augustinian aftertaste in the best way he’s presenting most of these issues,” mentioned Hughes, the theology professor who’s an Agustín pupil.

León joined the Augustinians after graduating from Villanova, directed by way of Agustinos, at the outskirts of Philadelphia, and used to be elected two times his prior basic. He has visited his headquarters to the outskirts of San Pedro a couple of occasions from his selection and a few wonder whether he’s going to invite some brothers to are living with him within the Apostolic Palace to recreate the spirit of group lifestyles there.

A missionary pope within the symbol of Francisco

León may be in large part a product from Francisco's papacy. The Argentine appointed Prevost Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014 and in 2023 he transferred him to one of the vital necessary positions of the Vatican: review the appointments of bishops. Looking back, it kind of feels that I had it in thoughts as a imaginable successor.

Within the speech he delivered earlier than the 2013 conclave that Pope selected him, then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio necessarily described Prevost by way of figuring out the venture of the Church nowadays. He mentioned that the establishment used to be “referred to as out of itself and pass to the peripheries, now not most effective geographical but additionally existential peripheries.”

Prevost, born in Chicago, spent his grownup lifestyles as a missionary in Peru and the place years later he would transform a bishop of Chiclayo.

“It’s the incarnation of the 'Unit in Distinction', as it comes from the middle, however lives within the peripheries,” mentioned Emilce Cuda, secretary of the Pontifical Fee for Latin The united states.

Cuda affirmed at a contemporary convention arranged by way of the College of Georgetown that Leon encapsulated in “phrases and gestures” the kind of missionary church that Francisco promoted.

That mentioned, in spite of the entirety Leon owes Bergoglio, the 2 didn’t essentially get alongside.

Prevost has mentioned that at one time, when he used to be the Augustinian awesome, the then archbishop of Buenos Aires confirmed hobby in assigning an Augustinian priest to a selected paintings in his archdiocese.

“And I, as a previous basic, I mentioned 'I perceive, his eminence, however he has to do one thing else' and transferred it to some other position,” Premost advised the parishioners in his local state of Illinois in 2024.

Prevost mentioned that “naively” he concept that Francisco would now not have in mind after his selection in 2013 and that, finally, “he’s going to by no means title me bishop” because of war of words.

Bergoglio now not most effective did it, however he laid the principles for him to be successful him as Pope, the primary American after the primary South American.