The world hopes Pope Leo XIV will be the pope he can never be

[Michie]

It’s a claim that scandalizes the modern mind, and that scandal helps explain why Pope Leo XIV will never completely please those outside the Church. (Or some inside.) It’s a claim that makes those who talk about the Catholic Church to others — who can be hostile, incredulous or just baffled — say, “Look, I didn’t make up this stuff.”

The claim that scandalizes the modern mind asserts that the Catholic Church knows many things to be true, not only about religion but about human life in the world, and the pope cannot change the teaching in the way they want him to. He won’t change his mind the way politicians change theirs.

A lot of people can’t believe this claim, or don’t want to believe it. That explains all the earnest stories and social media posts looking for signs that a new pope will modify whatever part of the Church’s teaching the writers don’t like — the hope that this time, the pope won’t be so popish about being the pope.

They want the answer to the old joke “Is the pope Catholic?” to be, “Not as much anymore.” They look for signs that a new pope will be or won’t be, and they’ll keep looking as long as they think they have reason to.

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Continued below.

The world hopes Pope Leo XIV will be the pope he can never be

The Catholic Church holds to unchanging truths about faith and life, which is why no pope — including Leo XIV — will reshape its teachings.

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[All Becomes New]

I have no doubt the Pope (this Pope in particular) is surely in the vein of Catholicism.

However, I would want the Pope to be "more" in another way. Where is the accompaniment of miracles that accompanied the prophets of old or the Apostles? I admit, if every Pope did signs and wonders, it would be a lot harder to deny the Catholic church as the One True Church. In the absence of these miracles, it leaves me scratching my head as if to say, "This is God's appointed head of the Church?"