Shortly after the white smoke went up from the Sistine Chapel on May 8, 2025, I received a phone call from a producer at TRT World, Turkey’s 24-hour cable news network, asking if I was willing to appear on the network to discuss the new pope after he made his first appearance on the Loggia. I agreed, and over the next few minutes I scrambled to shave and put on a clean button down shirt and suit jacket before appearing on TV. During this rush, I half-listened to the Vatican Radio commentary.
And then the words came: “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam!” (I announce to you a great joy: we have a pope!)
The rest followed: “Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Robertum Sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalem Prevost, qui sibi nomen imposuit Leonem Decimum Quartum.”
I clearly heard the name “Prevost” and thought I heard “Leo” — meaning that our new pope was American, and he would be taking on the name Leo XIV. My mind was processing this as I was testing my internet connection and microphone and adjusting my camera in TRT World’s virtual greenroom. I can’t say Robert Prevost was a surprise — he was the consensus pick of most everyone I spoke to for the previous three days. I had been pulling for him — I’d heard that he was a very thoughtful and prayerful man, a good leader, a missionary at heart, and very close to Pope Francis — but I was not prepared for the wave of emotion that came over me as he walked out on the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square for the first time. The reality hit me that our new pope was an American, just like me, and I never expected the feeling of joy that came with it.
And I was only beginning to process these emotions when the news anchor cut in and asked me for my reaction. I don’t remember what I said. What I do remember is trying desperately to keep my composure until the host mercifully thanked me and turned to another news topic.
12 Months Later
“Don’t make any big changes in your first year.”
Christopher Lamb, CNN’s Vatican correspondent and a veteran Catholic journalist, begins the fourth chapter of American Hope: What Pope Leo XIV Means for the Church and the World with this classic bit of advice given to new pastors. It seems Pope Leo has taken this advice to heart.
In his first year, Pope Leo has studiously avoided making waves on the hot button issues that brought so much antipathy from Pope Francis’s critics. Leo’s more conventionally traditional style of dress and reserved demeanor has allowed many of the Catholics who held Francis in contempt to convince themselves that Leo plans to “reverse” some of Pope Francis’s teachings and policies. After he called a meeting of the world’s episcopal conference presidents to discuss the implementation of Francis’s apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, some media outlets suggested that the pope intended to relitigate the “controversial” passages in the document. When his secretary of state relayed a message to the French bishops that referenced having “generosity” towards those attached to the Latin Mass, it was widely interpreted by conservative Catholics as a rollback of Francis’s document Traditionis Custodes, which restricted the Tridentine liturgy.
But the truth is, we don’t yet know how Pope Leo XIV will govern. There was chatter that his first encyclical, rumored to discuss AI and life during a change of epoch, would be released May 15 — on the anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum. The most recent rumblings I’ve heard, however, are that we won’t see the document until the end of the month at the earliest.
Pope Leo has shown in his first year that he is largely in alignment with Pope Francis on major issues like war, immigration, the death penalty, care for creation, and social justice. He has made some statements that signify his great admiration for Francis and his papacy, such as his declaration from the loggia that he intended to continue Francis’s initiative to build a synodal Church and the several times he has said Francis is in heaven.
Another quality he shares with Francis is his accessibility to the media, but in a different style. To date, he has only done one longform interview as pope — with Elise Ann Allen of Crux — but he has made himself available to reporters in informal media scrums on Tuesday nights outside the papal vacation residence Castel Gandolfo. Through these encounters, we’ve heard the pope’s candid responses to questions about current events in a way we’ve never experienced. The result has been an unprecedented level of transparency from the pope.
And even though Leo hasn’t courted controversy in this first year, it has certainly come for him. The recent attacks and accusations from President Trump in response to Leo’s advocacy for peace have effectively put the pope in a position to prophesy against wars and violence. Leo has also spoken strongly about Trump’s immigration policies and mass deportations, and he has rallied the US bishops to stand with immigrants. Because he is American, Leo has been able to advocate on US-related issues in a way prior popes never would have dared. A priest friend who is close the Vatican has wondered whether Leo has made officials in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State nervous, because the pope’s directness runs counter to the Vatican’s typically circumspect and delicate style of diplomacy.
On matters of theology and ecclesiology, the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has tried to force Leo to act decisively by announcing their intention to consecrate new bishops on July 1 without papal permission (an act that Church law deems schismatic and which incurs automatic excommunication). To date, Leo has not engaged with the SSPX directly, instead delegating dialogue with them to his doctrine chief, Cardinal Victor Fernandez. It remains to be seen whether he will intervene directly.
On the other end of the spectrum, the German bishops have announced their intention to move forward on a proposed liturgical blessing for same-sex couples, contradicting the guidelines laid out in the Pope Francis-era document Fiducia Supplicans. Pope Leo was asked about this on the return flight from Equatorial Guinea last month and told journalists, that the Vatican does “not agree with the formalized blessing of couples, in this case, homosexual couples, as you asked, or couples in irregular situations, beyond what was specifically, if you will, allowed for by Pope Francis.”
Whether Pope Leo’s second year will be filled with major decisions and groundbreaking documents remains to be seen. He may continue to keep things close to the vest for a while longer. But I doubt it. A while back, I heard that during a private audience Pope Leo told a US cardinal that he has “big plans” — so I look forward to what he (and the Holy Spirit) have in store.
In the meantime, he has my prayers. Congratulations on your first year, Pope Leo. Happy anniversary.
Image: By Edgar Beltrán, The Pillar – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=165144712
Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. In addition to his work for the site, his writing has appeared in America Magazine, National Catholic Reporter, US Catholic, The Irish Catholic, Catholic Outlook, The Synodal Times, and other Catholic publications. He has been quoted in The Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The New York Post, and other mainstream outlets on Catholic affairs. He previously co-hosted the Field Hospital podcast with Jeannie Gaffigan and The Debrief podcast. Before founding Where Peter Is, he worked in communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Climate Covenant. He is married with four children.
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