LEO XIV: The Upcoming Challenges for the New Pope

Rorate Caeli ^ | May 22, 2025 | Serre Verweij

[ebb tide]

LEO XIV: The Upcoming Challenges for the New Pope

 by Serre Verweij

for Rorate Cæli

We have a new Pope elected during a Jubilee year. He instantly faces many crucial tasks and dilemmas. This might seem obvious for any new Pope, but in 2013 Pope Francis primarily had to deal with curial reform, he did not have to deal with countless open questions, and even open wounds, left by his predecessors. Pope Leo XIV will have to deal with foreign policy debacles, a multiyear synod, and national churches that are in open rebellion against the faith.

Firstly, Cardinal Grech announced that Pope Francis had (allegedly) ordered a new series of synodal processes to last for several years and to culminate in an ecclesial assembly in Rome, in 2028, where there will roughly be an equal number of bishops and non-bishops voting, a revolutionary novelty that is similar to Protestant synods and meetings. This is the first time any such assembly would be held on the level of the universal Church. The guidelines for the new local synodal processes are to be published sometime this month according to the timeline Grech provided. And in June, the reports from the study groups based on the synod, and which deal with controversial topics, are supposed to be released. 

Meanwhile the African bishops have to come with clear pastoral guidelines on how to deal with polygamy, in cooperation with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (currently still headed by Cardinal Fernandez).

Furthermore, near the end of this year, the Irish bishops have to definitively set the stage for their synodal pathway in the coming years, while the Italian bishops will have to decide how to wrap up their synod and how to deal with radical demands by pro-LGBT and pro-female deacon synod participants. 

Then there are issues such as episcopal vacancies, unfinished curial reforms, financial troubles in the Vatican, and worldwide tensions within the Church. Pope Leo XIV has his hands full. He doesn’t have to luxury of slowly getting up the saddle. What he does and does not do this year, will say a lot about our new Pope and his ability and desire to restore unity and orthodoxy. What can be expected?

Synods, synods, and more synods

The new Pope faces a synodal dilemma, both on the worldwide and the regional level. The plans for the new ecclesial assembly and the aftermath implementation on the local level of the previous synod. Pope Leo XIV has expressed his support for Pope Francis’ legacy of synodality, but the subject was noticeably absent during his inauguration mass and seems subordinate to the unity message pushed by conservative cardinals during the conclave and now by our new Pope. The essential and unanswered question remains what synodality is and what it is not. Pope Leo XIV will have to decide this.

Will the Ecclesial Assembly still be held? If so, will it be a onetime event or become a regular occurrence? If it is held, will Pope Leo XIV ensure that most of the non-bishops who vote are orthodox? Will he limit both expectations for it and the topics it deals with? Will it be treated as strictly consultative with media weaponization being excluded? Furthermore, will the synod of bishops in Rome be displaced and if not, will a minority of non-bishops continue to be allowed to vote at that, too, as they were during the Synod on Synodality? It all comes down to one question, will synodality be subordinate to episcopal collegiality or the other way around?

Yet, there are even more synodal questions in Rome. Will he shelve all the reports by the study groups? Only publish moderate ones? Will he order radical reports to be rewritten or reworked? Francis kept deferring decisions on these matters. It appears the radical liberals who Francis left in charge of the secretariat of the synod are attempting to pressure the Pope by publicly releasing and promoting on social media a new letter on synodality. In this letter, they were explaining synodality to the new Pope, who was however present at both sessions of the Synod on Synodality in Rome, when he was still a cardinal. This attempt to unilaterally define synodality for the new Pope, and to pressure him to implement this version of synodality, seems especially odd, since the General Secretary of the synod and chief signatory of the letter, Cardinal Mario Grech, from Malta, was a rival ultraliberal papabile at the recent conclave, far more radical than Pope Francis’ himself during the final years of his pontificate, and pushed a radical interpretation of synodality that got defeated during the final synod session in 2024. Grech spoke of a ‘rainbow church,' where German bishops could be heretics and African bishops orthodox based on the (failed) Anglican model. Francis (whatever his fault) never adopted this vision on synodality. He never clearly defined synodality at all, even after a nearly four yearlong synod on the topic. 

Cardinals during the pre-conclave General Congregations mentioned this issue of an undefined synodality. Apparently Grech thought that, in spite of doing rather badly during the conclave (if the general consensus of inside sources is to be believed), he still had a mandate to define synodality for the new Pope and to publicly confront him with this new definition (and to even have his letter published in multiple languages). This could pose an additional obstacle for the Pope: how to deal with radical modernist clergy appointed by Pope Francis (yet kept at arm’s length by him). Paglia was the first radical prelate to be replaced, but he had recently turned 80. How can the new Pope best deal with significantly younger modernists?

When all this is addressed, the local churches will still need to be looked after. The moderate bishops in both Ireland and Italy will likely look to Rome for guidance in how to deal with local synodal developments. How Rome responds and how synodality develops (or does not develop) in both countries will likely impact the legacy (or lack thereof) of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality and also how isolated the radical German Synodal Path will be. 

Our new Pope has the chance to destroy new dissident and schismatic tendencies at their place of origin, to ensure Ireland and Italy don’t become another Belgium; and to show Rome can once again ensure unity and stability, as it largely did in the days of John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger. At the same time, he might want to do so as subtly as possible to limit backlash. He could instruct the Italian bishops to include radical proposals in their final synod document but with subtle disclaimers emphasizing its purely consultative character, ensuring nothing happens with them. The Irish synod is in such an early stage that he can clandestinely inform the bishops they should focus on the new evangelization and better catechesis. 

The implications of pastoral policy on polygamy

The response to polygamy will demonstrate to what extent unity of doctrine, ethics, and core discipline are preserved (and restored) in the Church, while the synodal study groups could impact doctrinal unity as well, but also doctrine more generally, canon law, the appointment of bishops, and the functioning of seminaries.

The moderate conservative Cardinal Ambongo from Congo has signaled that he wants to affirm Catholic doctrine against polygamy, yet, at the same time provide pastoral accompaniment. The exact balance between these two things will prove decisive and precedent-setting. Older cardinals from the boomer generation such as Turkson from Ghana and Njue from Kenya (ironically not appointed by Francis) have taken a rather soft stance on the practice of polygamy. Turkson even suggested it would be cruel to deprive concubines of satisfaction. Younger bishops tend to be stronger in their stance against it, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bemend in Cameroon even called it witchcraft, and said polygamists, like the homosexuals, are called to conversion. So far Ambongo does not seem to have fully shown his cards, however.

A distinction between polygamous unions entered before and after conversion seems like something that could happen. The decisive question will be whether a gradualist approach is taken similar to what was promoted by Amoris Laetitia. Will the sinfulness of polygamous acts be downplayed? Will excuses be made to remain in such relationships (allegedly temporarily)? Will priest refrain from telling people to abandon such relationships, or will they cease to be impediments to participation in the sacraments?

If the answer to any of these questions is ‘yes’, the African bishops will de facto justify the German and Belgian heresies. They will show they are no more orthodox than the likes of Reinhard Marx when dealing with sins popular in their own cultures. They will have followed the example of the Russian Orthodox who will attack Western liberalism and its approval of homosexuality, while approving the desecration of marriage through artificial contraception and second and third marriages (adultery). 

If the Africans settle on a regionally varied approach, the same problem of relativism still creeps in. What is necessary is a clear affirmation of the Catholic doctrine that calls sinners to conversion as the early Church did. Polish Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś praised African bishops in 2018 who were attending the Synod on Youth, for taking a clear countercultural stance against polygamy and argued for a similar (yet pastoral) attitude towards those who identify as homosexuals. Pope Leo XIV could force Fernandez and the DDF to guide the African bishops towards a pastoral response that reflects this strong, yet pastoral, stance praised by Ryś.

Currently, the African bishops are indeed dealing with the topic in unity, getting input from different regions to form a consensus to then be discussed with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith. Therefore, the resulting document could serve as a test case for what proper inculturation looks like, for collaboration of bishops on the continental level to deal with current challenges, and for the ability of Rome, specifically the DDF, to ensure that any local response, whether national or continental, does not water down doctrine, but instead clearly reaffirms the universal and timeless faith in its specific context. 

Conclusion

For many conservatives, Francis did not fully put his cards on the table until 2016, when he released Amoris Laetitia. Pope Leo XIV has to show his cards this year. He might not do so through grand public statements or interviews, nor by deposing bishops he dislikes, but he will inevitably do so through the guidance Rome does or does not give to the world’s bishops. 

Pope Leo XIV will show soon whether his references to unity have real meaning or are largely rhetoric. Therefore, this year could serve as a preview for the next 15 to 30 years of the Church. 

Let’s pray for the Pope!

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TOPICS: Apologetics; Current Events; Moral Issues; Theology
KEYWORDS: frankensinnods; heretics; popebob; popeleo

[ebb tide]

Ping

[NorthMountain]

Synods, synods, and more synods

Would it be blasphemous or sacrilegious if I said: "To HELL with 'synods'?"

[cowboyusa]

Defumegating the stink of marxism from the Vatican.