Listen to Pope Leo

I was standing in St. Peter’s Square the night Pope Francis was elected in 2013.

White smoke above Rome.

Thousands weeping.

Strangers embracing each other like the world had been interrupted by grace.

I wrote then that if Francis survived long enough, he would change the Church forever — not merely through what he said, but through the Cardinals he would appoint.

There would be no Pope Leo without Pope Francis.

That is certain.

And Pope Leo is not really an American pope in the way modern empire understands America.

He is Latin by formation.

Not by birth.

By proximity to suffering.

By the witness of Latin America.

By the memory of priests, nuns, mothers, labourers, migrants, and martyrs who understood that Christianity without solidarity with the poor eventually becomes little more than chaplaincy for power.

Men like Óscar Romero.

We are living through a collapse of institutional trust unlike anything in generations.

Marriage.

Politics.

Media.

Churches.

Universities.

Markets.

International law.

Everything is questioned because almost everything has revealed itself capable of corruption.

And into that confusion comes an old man in white insisting that human dignity still matters.

Listen to Pope Leo.

When war drums beat louder every month and entire peoples are treated as disposable — listen to Pope Leo.

When nationalism, greed, and fear convince societies that domination is strength — listen to Pope Leo.

When truth itself begins collapsing into propaganda, outrage, algorithms, and performance — listen to Pope Leo.

This morning at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica in Toronto, Francis Leo placed his hand upon my head and prayed that God would grant me grace and peace.

And for the first time in a very long time, I felt something deeper than certainty.

Peace.

Not because Rome is perfect.

God knows it is not.

But because the modern world still cannot manufacture what the Church at its best sometimes carries:

A moral language older than markets.

Older than political tribes.

Older than empire itself.

The world does not need louder influencers.

It does not need stronger empires.

It does not need more rage disguised as wisdom.

It needs moral courage.

Restraint.

Mercy.

Truth.

Listen to Pope Leo.