SUBTITLED Inside the conclave and the dawn of a new papacy, this book does what it says on the cover. Christopher White writes in an engagingly easy style, but this is not a simplistic or adulatory account of the beginnings of Leo XIV’s papacy. White is a serious journalist with many years’ experience in Vatican-watching and is now at Georgetown University. He has a respected track record of covering the Vatican for the highly respected National Catholic Reporter as well as the National Broadcasting Corporation in the United States. He accompanied Pope Francis on more than two dozen international visits.
White makes the observation that the Second Vatican Council under Popes John XXIII and Paul VI opened up the Roman Catholic Church to the world, other Churches, and other faiths. But this was narrowed under Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. White compares Francis and Leo to Popes John and Paul and summarises Francis’s papacy as the reforming of a self-referential Church.
The first third of this book is, in fact, about Francis and his concern for a Church for the poor, for refugees (Lampedusa), and a Church for the environment. There is excellent analysis of Catholic culture wars in the US. Clericalism, women, and LGBTQ+ issues are also well covered, as well as his reform of the Vatican itself. White also covers Francis’s funeral.
The size and diversity of the conclave are well described, as well as its “front-runners”. White had been following Bishop, and then Cardinal, Robert Prevost (as Pope Leo was before his election) since Pope Francis recruited the latter to run the Dicastery for Bishops with a view to appointments with less safeguarding taint and more open views than before. He interviewed the future Pope in the early days of his appointment.
White describes his previous career from Chicago to South America, including US Catholic opposition to Francis’s critique of unbridled capitalism, which has been similarly criticised by Prevost. With his election, his choice of name becomes important. Despite Anglican suspicion of Leo XIII (reigned 1878-1903) for his condemnation of Anglican Orders, he is rightly esteemed for Rerum Novarum.
The present Leo immediately responded to a call from President Zelensky and had already condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Leo also has a record for supporting a “synodal Church”. Sister Nathalie Becquart, the second in command of the Vatican synod office, has been a vocal supporter. White also analyses Leo’s rich Augustinian spirituality, while also touching on some negatives. Though praised by some leading abuse advocates, he has been accused of not doing enough in his diocese in Peru and perhaps before in Chicago.
Safeguarding remains on his agenda; nor has he yet taken a stand on women deacons. Nevertheless, he has clashed with Vice-President J. D. Vance on migrants, and Trump supporters have already branded him a Marxist. White is a Francis supporter who has seen real signs of hope in Leo. Is this optimistic? The former Irish President and canon lawyer Mary McAleese takes a more pessimistic view of Leo, but she was already highly critical of Pope Francis.
White’s book is not without a documented tracking of Leo’s positive record in many fields. At the end, he compares Leo to Paul VI, who, less spontaneous than John XXIII, nevertheless did pursue, and not undo, Vatican II, albeit cautiously.
The Rt Revd Christopher Hill is a former Bishop of Guildford
Pope Leo XIV: Inside the conclave and the dawn of a new papacy
Christopher White
Hodder & Stoughton £14.99
(978-1-399-83301-1)
Church Times Bookshop £13.49
