A whole year has passed since the fourteenth papal lion appeared on the central loggia!

On this day last year, I sat in my office with a few of my colleagues with great expectation! White smoke appeared from the temporary chimney of the Sistine Chapel, and from the Loggia of Blessing emerged the 267th successor of Saint Peter, elected in the most diverse corpus of cardinals in church history!

We all cheered with joy from across the globe, for from this loggia emerged someone we barely knew, and at the same time, we knew who he was. We knew him as the Bishop of Rome and as the bearer of the keys of Christ. Robert Cardinal Prevost, a man born in the United States and who served as bishop in the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, now stood at the threshold of history.

I shared thoughts a year ago on the importance of the papacy here. Below are some ideas that we can consider at the close of Pope Leo XIV’s first year.

A man of peace

What can we make of his first year? Remember his first words, “The peace of the Lord be with you.” This Resurrection greeting gives us insight into his pastoral program.

His immediate successor, Pope Francis, defined peace as Christ, who is at the center of all relationships. Pope Francis said it this way:

The sign of this unity and reconciliation of all things in him is peace … The Gospel message always begins with a greeting of peace, and peace at all times crowns and confirms the relations between the disciples. Peace is possible because the Lord has overcome the world and its constant conflict “by making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col 1:20).

The Augustinian from North America

Contrary to popular belief, Saint Augustine of Hippo is not the founder of the Augustinian Order. While Saint Augustine is the holy father of the Order that bears his name, another is credited for establishing these Mendicant Friars.

Pope Innocent IV united various groups of hermits in March 1244 to establish the Augustinians. Pope Alexander IV extended the Order further, including more hermits in the community’s corpus. Two popes established the Augustinians in service to the Church! The Order was founded to promote the values of the first Christian community and to have them lived out by all Christians. Leo XIV comes from this heritage as an Augustinian himself.

Leo XIV is the first pope born in the United States. That is a wonderful plus for Americans. Timothy Cardinal Dolan mentioned in an interview that it shows that America has finally reached spiritual recognition on the global stage. As a young country compared to the rest of the world, our time has come to serve the Church.

At the same time, what makes Leo XIV ready is that he is an American who became a missionary!

Leo XIV and the gaze

I was struck by one of Leo’s early speeches. It displayed his pastoral sensitivity and collaborative spirit. In addressing the papal representatives, he said,

To look into one’s eyes means to build a relationship. The ministry of Peter is to create relationships, bridges: and a Representative of the Pope, first and foremost, serves this invitation to look into the eyes. Always be the eyes of Peter! Be men capable of building relationships where it is hardest to do. But in doing so, preserve the same humility and the same realism of Peter, who is well aware that he does not have the solution to everything: “I have neither silver nor gold”, he says; but he knows he has what counts, namely Christ, the deepest meaning of every existence: “in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, walk!”

To give Christ means to give love, to bear witness to the charity that is ready for everything. I am counting on you so that in the countries where you live, everyone may know that the Church is always ready for everything out of love, that she is always on the side of the last, the poor, and that she will always defend the sacrosanct right to believe in God, to believe that this life is not at the mercy of the powers of this world, but rather is traversed by a mysterious meaning. Only love is worthy of faith, in the face of the suffering of the innocent, the crucified of today, whom many of you know personally, as you serve peoples who are victims of war, violence, and injustice, or even of the false wellbeing that deludes and disappoints (June 10, 2025).

The Leonine Priority

The Augustinian heart of Leo XIV reminds us that we are restless until we abide in Christ, who is the longing of the human experience. Leo has a beautiful quote that may give insight into his whole papal priority. In an interview, as Cardinal Prevost, he said,

There are many different cultures, many different languages, many different circumstances around the world where the Church responds. So when we list our priorities and weigh up the challenges before us we have to be aware that the urgencies of Italy, Spain, the United States, Peru or China, for example, are almost certainly not the same except in one thing: the underlying challenge that Christ left to us to preach the Gospel and that this is the same everywhere. 

No matter where we are in the world, knowing and loving Christ is the priority; everything else follows. Leo XIV has come to us to announce Christ.