Is Pope Leo XIV a Secret Conservative?

I share Dr Morello's hopes that Pope Leo XIV "will begin to roll back the disgraceful policy of discrimination against the Latin Mass and “build bridges” with the Catholic Church’s traditionalists."

From The European Conservative

By Sebastian Morello, PhD

Perhaps the new pope will begin to roll back the disgraceful policy of discrimination against the Latin Mass and “build bridges” with the Catholic Church’s traditionalists.

So far, the signs are good. Bishop Robert Prevost, henceforth to be known the world over as Pope Leo XIV, appeared on the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica wearing the red shoulder cape called the ‘mozzetta’ and a heavy crimson stole embroidered with images of saints and symbols of the papal office. This choice of traditional vestments is significant, given that his predecessor Pope Francis had refused to wear these symbols of the Holy See when he appeared on the balcony after his election on the 13th of March, 2013. For those hoping for a more conservative papacy than that of Bergoglio, Prevost’s appearance inspired some confidence. 

In his speech from the balcony, the first American pope said the predictable stuff about how wonderful Francis was, and the need for a future ‘synodal’ Church, which he may or may not really believe, but which was in any case entirely to be expected. Anyway, perhaps the Church’s new path of ‘synodality’ could be given a conservative twist. 

In centuries past, and especially during the Church’s first millennium, the laity had a much more central role in determining the Church’s direction. Moreover, since the Catholic lay powers, represented in the sacral monarchs of Europe, fell in the 19th and 20th centuries and were replaced with secular, democratic, grey-suited leaders, it hasn’t been obvious how the laity are meant to relate to the ecclesiastical hierarchy beyond just turning up to Mass occasionally and tossing something into the collection. If Pope Leo can use the new synodal movement within the Church to return clerical-lay relations to something resembling patristic tradition, that may be no bad thing.

As it happens, he may be just the man to do that. After all, he has spent his life in the Order of Saint Augustine, being thus steeped in the thought of the father of Latin theology. The 5th century Augustine wrote his magnum opus The City of God partly as an extended meditation on the survival of the Church amid the fall of the Roman Empire, as he observed the beginning of the Great Migration period from his episcopal see in North Africa. Now, we are living through the rise of a new empire, which has indeed just moved from its republican epoch to its imperial one with the rise of Emperor Trump. The Church, whose Spirit guides it with centuries rather than office-terms in mind, will undoubtedly seek to convert that empire, and hence it is fitting that a pope has risen from its midst.

Some conservative-minded Catholics are worried because Prevost has a reputation as a social justice warrior. But part of the problem with the prevailing Left-Right political divide is precisely that conservatives often see any social justice causes as Lefty issues. The Church, however, should transcend such ideological squabbling. Prevost’s choice of the name ‘Leo’ is a good indication that he will contribute to the tradition of Catholic social justice teaching launched (or re-launched, depending on how you look at it) by the last pope to take that name, Pope Leo XIII. That 19th century pope’s encyclical letter Rerum Novarum marked a major moment in the Church’s effort to achieve greater justice in the emergent modern world. It is probable that Prevost was inspired by this to take the name.

It certainly bodes well that Prevost has both extensive pastoral experience and leadership experience, having been both Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine and a bishop in Peru. On account of the latter position, some fear he may be contaminated with liberation theology—a noxious cocktail of superficial biblical criticism and Marxist materialism—that has been at times hugely popular in South America. But there’s insufficient evidence to suggest that Prevost has ever leaned in that direction. 

Some have pointed to his environmentalist activism as evidence of him being a leftist pawn. As I’ve argued in many places elsewhere, it is imperative that the debate about global ecological devastation be seized from the hands of leftists and progressives, so that their terrible solutions to the very real problem of the corruption of complex ecosystems cease to be the only ones on offer. Having been based in Peru for so long, where ancient and intricate ecological environs and habitats are being destroyed and replaced with monocultures, if anything at all, he may be just the person to reframe and revitalise the debate about what Christian theology calls ‘stewardship.’ In the past, Prevost has publicly lamented modern man’s “tyrannical dominion over nature.” Every sound Catholic should welcome a shift away from the Cartesian, mechanical worldview, and towards something much closer to the Church’s traditional, organicist philosophy of nature.

Serious Catholics were disappointed time and again by Pope Francis’s protection of homosexual networks in the Church, by which many speculated he procured the loyalty of such morally compromised underlings. Prevost, however, has a history of strongly criticising the so-called LGBTQ+ movement, and much indicates that he’s not going to exercise much patience towards the gay ascendency in the Catholic Church. He has said in the past: “Western mass media is extraordinarily effective in fostering within the general public enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel—for example abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia.”

So, who knows what the coming years will bring. But, for those with a more conservative or traditional attachment to the Church and her mission, there are already a number of reasons to be moderately hopeful. It is worth noting that Pope Leo is a trained canon lawyer, holding both a licentiate and a doctorate in canon law from the prestigious Angelicum University in Rome. One of the most painful aspects of his predecessor’s papacy, at least for conservative-minded Catholics, was Francis running roughshod over the Church’s law and circumventing due process whenever it suited him. (After all, in Pauline theology, the “lawless man” is another name for the antichrist [2 Thessalonians 2:1-12].) Following the last papacy, having a man in the Chair of Peter who takes the Church’s law seriously will be for many people quite a relief. 

In Pope Leo’s address from the balcony, minutes after it was announced that he was the Petrine Office’s new incumbent, he repeatedly stated that he planned to “build bridges.” One of the most divisive policies in recent Church history has been that of Pope Francis’s maltreatment of Catholics who attend the traditional Latin Mass which goes back to the Apostolic period, preferring it to the new liturgy invented in the 1960s. This unjust discrimination by Rome has been chiefly orchestrated by Francis’s henchman, the English cardinal Arthur Roche. Perhaps Leo XIV will begin to roll back this disgraceful policy and “build bridges” with the Catholic Church’s traditionalists. There is a rumour currently circulating that he has long had an affection for the ancient liturgy and likes to celebrate it when he can.

Roger Scruton used to remind his students that “Progressives are always optimistic and yet despairing, whilst conservatives are always pessimistic yet hopeful.” Surveying the infelicitous condition of the Church in the modern world, racked as it is by moral and financial scandal as well as in-fighting, whilst most of its faithful have given up on attending Mass or inducting their offspring into the Faith, there are few reasons for optimism. Nonetheless, with the election of Pope Leo XIV, there are already some signs offering traditional Catholics like me reasons for hope. What’s more, a Vatican insider that I know sent me a text message with some very important information about Prevost which I will share here, and I quote verbatim: “He’s a nice chap.” After twelve years of having a bully leading the Church, having a “nice chap” is no small thing. I will be watching this papacy unfold with great interest.