Posted on 06/09/2025 4:53:12 PM PDT by ebb tide
The presentation of the new Pope Leo XIV brought to mind more glorious times of the Church. He appeared on the loggia dressed in papal vestments, and the name he chose refers to Leo XIII, the pope of Rerum Novarum, the initial document of an updated exposition of the Catholic social teaching.
From 1903 to 1958, within a history full of contrasts, a period of strong Catholic identity took place in which the overbearing presence of communism, which took over Holy Russia in 1917, stood out. The pontificate of Pius XII marked the 20th century with exceptional prestige. The succession was puzzling. The patriarch of Venice, Angelo Roncalli, chose the unusual name of John. Was it the XXIII or the XXIV? The first of these two designated a presumed antipope, hence the confusion over the number, which was to be distinguished from the series of Pius. He hastened to protest against the “prophets of calamities” – and there were a lot of them! He immediately announced that he would convene a council; he did so and presided over its first session, since death took him away soon after. He created Giovanni Montini, archbishop of Milan, a cardinal, who succeeded him as Paul VI and continued the council. He soon noticed that “through a crack, the smoke of hell” had seeped into the temple of God.
In 1968 a crucial change took place. Pope Montini understood that, in effect, the age of calamities had been unleashed by progressive theology and its pastoral consequences. It was the year of the encyclical Humanae Vitae, just cited in a homily by Pope Leo XIV. The document contradicted the illusions of those who dreamed about a change in Tradition on the meaning of marriage and the family. The Creed of the Catholic Church and the publication of the Catechism completed a reaction against a presumed Vatican II, in reality alien to the council itself, whose documents were approved almost unanimously. The opposition of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre erupted, who led an alternative a few years later that spread to several nations.
The situation changed dramatically with the long pontificate of John Paul II, who replaced Pope Albino Luciani (John Paul I), who died 33 days into his papal mission. Pope Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II), who came from Krakow in Poland, enlightened the Church and achieved a worldwide popularity that accompanied him with sorrow during his final illness. He was succeeded by the distinguished theologian Joseph Ratzinger, who was called Benedict XVI. From the following conclave came the strange promotion of the Argentinean archbishop of Buenos Aires and Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who chose to call himself Francis – an unusual name among papal names, perhaps aspiring to be a reformer of the Church, when the saint of Assisi, as well as his contemporary Dominic de Guzmán, led an era of inner holiness and mission (nothing to do with alleged reform of ecclesial institutions).
Francis’ long pontificate will be left behind, his witticisms forgotten. The Church always faces her mission according to the Lord’s command: to make all peoples, nations, and races – pánta tà ethne – receive the Gospel and become Christians. History will unfold until the Lord returns according to His promise: “et iterum venturus est, iudicare vivos et mortuos” (“and he will come again to judge the living and the dead”), as stated in the Creed of the Council of Nicaea, which is 1,700 years old here in 2025.
Ping
This sounds hopeful. Not clear if there’s an actually speech — or series of speeches — that Pope Leo made the form the basis of this intepretation?
Thanks.
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