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Can Leo XIV fix Leo XIII?
It took only four ballots
The election of the man who has become Pope Leo XIV has caught the imagination of the world. An American from Chicago, a missionary and bishop in Peru (becoming a Peruvian citizen) a polyglot with a doctorate in canon law, demure in appearance and gesture — we were expecting an African, a Filipino, even an Italian again. It only took four ballots to choose Robert Francis Prevost to succeed Pope Francis. And the world was stunned.
One particularity is that Cardinal Prevost chose the name of Leo. This is a signal that he would emphasize tradition, as opposed to the late pope, who chose to become Francis (the First). He decided to live again in the papal apartments that Francis had vacated. For his first appearance to the waiting crowds, Leo XIV wore the traditional papal stole and mozetta, which most of his recent predecessors had worn — except Francis.[1]
The first Pope Leo (aka St. Pope Leo the Great) had a strong hand in codifying what has become known as the Chalcedonian Definition of the two natures of Jesus Christ: fully human yet fully divine, along with bolstering the idea of the primacy of the Bishop of Rome.[2] The last Leo, the Thirteenth, is rightly remembered for advancing significantly the social teachings of the church, and for requiring the direct study of St Thomas Aquinas, the greatest…
