When Pope Francis passed away the Monday following Easter, Catholics all over the world immediately began to worry about the man who would take his place. Would he follow in Francis’s footsteps and be more liberal-minded or even further to the left? Or would he be a dedicated conservative-leaning Catholic who sticks to the Church’s teachings and upholds a biblical worldview?
Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope in the history of the Church, made it clear on Friday that he’s definitely not woke, outlining solid Catholic teaching concerning marriage and abortion, saying that family is based on the “stable union between a man and a woman,” and that pre-born children are God’s creations and thus possess dignity.
As the kids say today, Pope Leo is based.
“Leo, the first American pope, made the comments in his first meeting with the Vatican diplomatic corps. The audience was private, but the Vatican released Leo’s prepared text and that of the dean of the diplomatic corps. The meeting is one of the requirements after a conclave, allowing a new pope to greet representatives of world governments ahead of his formal installation Mass this Sunday,” Fox reported.
Leo, a member of the Augustinian religious order, also called for reviving multilateral diplomacy and promoting dialogue between religions in the search for peace. Vatican City is a sovereign state under international law, has diplomatic relations with over 180 countries and enjoys observer status at the United Nations. Leo has emphasized peace as a priority of his pontificate, from the first words he uttered on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica after his May 8 election, “Peace be with you all.”
Pope Leo explained that peace isn’t about the absence of conflict. It’s a “gift” and it calls for a lot of work, including the end of weapons production and speaking carefully with one another.
“For words too, not only weapons, can wound and even kill,” he wisely spoke.
He said it was up to governments to build peaceful societies “above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman.”
“In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike,” he continued.
Are the words of the new American pope all that different than those spoken by Pope Francis? In some respects, no. Francis staunchly supported and reaffirmed Catholic teaching on abortion and euthanasia, stating they were both evidence of the modern era’s “throwaway culture.”
However, he was also a bit more accommodating for the LGBTQ+ community.
But he also made reaching out to LGBTQ+ Catholics a hallmark, insisting they are welcome in the church. He never changed church doctrine defining marriage as a union between man and woman and homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered.”
“As the then-head of the Augustinian order, Leo in 2012 criticized the ‘homosexual lifestyle’ and the role of mass media in promoting acceptance of same-sex relationships that conflicted with Catholic doctrine. A decade later, during Francis’ pontificate, he acknowledged Francis’ call for a more inclusive church, and said he didn’t want people excluded just on the basis of their lifestyle,” Fox concluded.
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