For the past twelve years, Catholics have been subjected to an awful lot of “innovation.” The late Pope Francis frequently derided Catholic traditions — especially those pre-dating the Second Vatican Council — and introduced a number of new theories and ideas. In most of his writing, he not only quoted from his own previous work but quoted himself extensively. Whether it was adjusting the Catholic Church’s teachings on the moral permissibility of capital punishment, eschewing more formal papal customs and styles of dress, mitigating the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, or introducing blessings for individuals in same-sex relationships, Pope Francis clearly identified himself as an innovator.
That may be no surprise. The late pontiff was, in many ways, a product of the Second Vatican Council, even though he was not involved in the Council’s construction. Pope St. John XXIII first convened the council, and its work was continued by Pope St. Paul VI. Karol Wojtyła (later Pope St. John Paul II) served as one of the Council fathers, and Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) contributed to a substantial sum of the Council’s documents. All of these pontiffs may then, in some respect, be considered “innovators,” although Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI both worked hard during their pontificates to preserve and defend Catholic moral teaching, doctrine, and tradition. (RELATED: Catholicism on the Decline in the US)
Pope Francis, as the only recent pontiff not actually involved in the Council, may have felt as though he were left out of this long line of “innovators,” and thus overcompensated over the course of his pontificate. He may also, seeing the label “innovator” as a badge to be worn proudly, have viewed the orthodoxy evinced by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI and the “reform of the reforms” that they attempted with a hint of scorn. (RELATED: Don’t Canonize Pope Francis — Yet)
It may be too much to hope that Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate will herald a “return to tradition,” but this at least seems a hopeful prospect: the new pontiff may put an end to “innovation.” Already, social media is ablaze with quotes from Pope Leo XIV during his time as a priest and bishop. In one homily delivered to the Dicastery for Bishops, of which the new Holy Father used to serve as prefect, he is reported to have said, “A bishop is not called to reinvent the Gospel, but to guard and transmit it whole and entire.” This indeed would seem to herald an end to “innovation.”
Pope Leo XIV chose to appear on the loggia decked in the traditional papal garb, the same regalia worn by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI and spurned by Francis. On his way to celebrate his first Mass as pontiff, the new pope carried a crozier used by Pope Benedict XVI. Even his name — Leo XIV — hearkens not to the division and factionalism which has wormed its way into the Church in recent years, but a deep love and respect for the mission, purpose, and history of the 2,000-year-old papacy. John Paul III, Benedict XVII, Francis II, or even John XXIV or Paul VII would have been difficult to interpret as anything other than “choosing a side,” aligning oneself with a particular faction within the Church, and risking further disrupting and damaging the unity of the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.
Instead, Leo XIV pays homage to Pope St. Leo the Great, the champion of the Church who boldly confronted the warlord Atilla the Hun and — with no sword, no spear, with only words and grace — drove him back from Rome. Leo XIV continues the tradition of Pope Leo XIII, the pontiff who, just as Pope Leo the Great confronted the Huns, confronted the burgeoning evil of communism and definitively established Catholic social teaching, who wrote the St. Michael prayer, which so many Catholics across the globe pray faithfully to this day.
The great Catholic convert and author G.K. Chesterton once wrote, “We do not want, as the newspapers say, a Church that will move with the world. We want a Church that will move the world.” For too long, too many Catholics have been concerned with winning the applause and acceptance of the degenerating modern world and have even attempted to remake the Church — if not in the world’s image, then at least in terms, categories, and dichotomies that the world itself has established. What a joy, then, to have a new pope who boldly declared, echoing Chesterton, “We must be careful not to make the Church a mirror of the world. She is called to be a sign of contradiction.”
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