by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann
Habemus papam! We have a pope! I was surprised at how quickly the College of Cardinals discerned the one chosen to be the next successor of Peter.
I was even more surprised that the new pope was born in Chicago, attended a parochial school, was ordained an Augustinian priest, spent much of his priesthood in Peru as a missionary priest and eventually a bishop, also served many years in Rome as the general superior of the Augustinian order and, most recently, as the cardinal prefect for the Discastery for Bishops. Pope Leo XIV is the eighth pope during my lifetime and the first who is younger than me.
I was consoled when I learned that Pope Leo is a White Sox rather than a Cubs fan. As a native St. Louisan, it just would not have been right for Cardinals to elect a Cub.
The election of a new pope serves to remind us of the words we profess in the Nicene Creed: “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.”
The pope is a symbol of the church’s unity, our oneness. All 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide look to the pope as our spiritual father. We all call him Holy Father.
The process of the selection of a new pope is unlike the choosing of leaders for other organizations. The entire process is bathed in prayer. First, we prayerfully mourned for several days the death of Pope Francis, followed by several more days of prayer by the entire church that the cardinals would allow themselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit.
Before the conclave, the cardinals take an oath of confidentiality. They are sheltered from media and other outside forces. During the conclave, red vestments, symbols of the Holy Spirit, are worn during the more than half million daily Masses celebrated in the world. The process is designed not to be political but rather prayerful and holy.
The church is catholic — universal. The national and ethnic diversity of the College of Cardinals epitomized the universality of the church. Similarly, after the appearance of the white smoke, the couple hundred thousand faithful who filled St. Peter’s Square waving flags of diverse countries, served as a visual reminder that we have brothers and sisters in Christ on every continent of the world.
Most importantly, the selection of the pope was a powerful expression of the apostolic nature of the church. The fact that we can name every bishop of Rome from Peter to Pope Leo XIV makes clear that the authority of the pope, as the Prince of the Apostles, goes back to Our Lord’s designation of Peter as the rock upon which he built the church.
Every Catholic bishop is a successor of the apostles. I cannot tell you of which of the other 11 apostles I am a successor. The church was not as meticulous in its recordkeeping with the other apostles as it was with Peter. I can tell you my lineage goes back through St. John Paul II.
Peter and the other apostles were not the best and brightest. They were not well-educated. They were not wealthy. They were not influential in Jewish society. St. Paul, who became an apostle himself, described the apostles as not powerful, not of nobility, not learned, not considered important or influential. Paul asserted that God chose the foolish to shame the wise; the weak to shame the strong; the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who in the world’s eyes count for something.
The Bible is precious to all Christians. It is a book where God used human authors to reveal himself to us, as well as reveal to us our true identity as beloved daughters and sons of God. As Catholics, we should read the Bible and pray over the Bible every day.
Yet, it is important to know that Jesus did not give the apostles copies of the New Testament. The books of the New Testament were written during the first century after the Lord’s death and resurrection. It was not until the 300s that the New Testament, as we know it, was approved by a council of bishops.
Through most of Christian history, the vast majority of Christians could not read the Bible because they were illiterate. Even for those who were literate, copies of the Bible were very rare until the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Thus, the Bible cannot be the sole means where we find the truths of Christianity.
What Jesus did give the first Christians was the apostles. The apostles did not have money, programs and buildings. They did not have the printing press, much less the internet to spread the faith. Nor did they have trains, planes and automobiles to travel the world. Our Lord had given them an impossible mission — to make disciples of the entire world. What the apostles did have was their own experience of Jesus. They testified to what they had seen and heard.
Remarkably, they spread the Christian Gospel in one direction as far as India and in the other direction as far as Spain. Even while under harsh persecutions, the apostles established a network of churches in many cities and towns. When they moved on to the next town, they appointed a man to lead the Christian community. These were the first bishops. Amazingly, the apostles laid the foundation for what became the Catholic Church that transformed a pagan Roman culture into a Christian one in a relatively short time.
In his first address to the cardinals, Pope Leo XIV challenged them to see the death of Pope Francis and the conclave as a paschal event. Our faith as Catholics is not in the person of the pope. It is the church of Jesus Christ and each pope is a servant leader of the church for a season. Popes are not called to be innovators who make up a new Gospel. The principal responsibility of the Holy Father is to pass on the faith that was originally articulated by the apostles to the next generation. The pope helps Catholics understand how to apply the ancient truths of our apostolic faith to the unique circumstances of the present moment.
Pope Leo reminded the cardinals: “Beginning with Saint Peter and up to myself, his unworthy successor, the pope has been a humble servant of God and of his brothers and sisters, and nothing more than this. . . . It is the risen Lord, present among us, who protects and guides the church and continues to fill her with hope through the love poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). It is up to us to be docile listeners to his voice and faithful ministers of his plan of salvation, mindful that God loves to communicate himself — not in the roar of thunder and earthquakes but in the whisper of a gentle breeze (1 Kgs 19:12). . . . It is this essential and important encounter to which we must guide and accompany all the holy people of God entrusted to our care.”
I urge all of us to pray daily for Pope Leo XIV as he takes up the mantle of Peter for the church in our time. Pray for strength and wisdom for our Holy Father as he embraces this humanly impossible responsibility. Pope Leo must rely upon the same truth that sustained Peter — that with God, all things are possible (Mt 19:26).
