Leo XIV and the Post-Francis Thaw

Whilst I prayed for Francis's conversion to Catholicism, I pray that Leo may be a truly Catholic Pope, confirming his brethren in the Faith.

From One Peter Five

By Mark Nowakowski, DMA

I have just dropped off my five-year-old to his Catechesis of the Good Shepherd class. The young children enter a beautifully decorated room, adorned with holy images and bathed in a subdued light; what proceeds is the quietest gathering of preschoolers you have ever heard. Two floors down, my oldest son is engaged with the other high school students in the Chesterton Academy, having just finished praying the Liturgy of the Hours and diving into philosophy class. Parents with large families drop off their children to their various activities; a Dad is congratulated on the birth of his fifth daughter. The little children sing: “This is the day the Lord has made.” There is a palpable energy in the building: purposeful Catholicism is gathered and underway.

Across the metaphorical pond, graying elites gather at the Vatican to discuss a supposedly dire environmental crisis, somehow still deaf to the growing challenges to this supposed apocalyptic paradigm. Cardinals and celebrities help them wave a bizarre blue banner meant to symbolize a river (or life, or something). They have interpretive dancers. They bless what is presumably meant to be a melting chunk of glacier. One looks around furtively, wondering if Pachamama has made a return appearance (this time in more modest winter clothing). The Catholic-tinged NGO is gathered and underway.

There are two competing visions of Catholicism at work here, two differing strategies on how to engage the world. The former vision forms youth purposefully, reverences our traditions while recognizing their socializing power, unleashes the Catholic intellectual tradition, and returns Christ and the Eucharist to the center of our collective focus. It is a vision with youth, vigor, growth, and striking spiritual entrepreneurship on its side. It is the logical outgrowth of the reforms which took place under John Paul II and Benedict XVI. It is also, quite ironically, a real and potent manifestation of the Second Vatican Council’s call to an increased sense of stewardship on behalf of the laity.

The latter vision is concerned with climate change, a supposed social justice inspired redistribution of wealth, and a continuation of a 1970’s social and failed liturgical paradigm. It is a return to the vision of Catholicism which occurred when Modernists fearfully pumped the breaks on renewal under Francis. Ironically, it is an anti-conciliar manifestation of clericalism and the enshrinement of the opinions of the privileged. This vision of Catholicism clearly has political power on its side, but it lacks vigor, is demographically collapsing, and has no real entrepreneurial energy.

The writing is on the wall.

Our dear Pope Leo XIV, God pity him, has seemingly been brought into the Church to heal the rifts and mend the wounds between these competing visions of Catholicism. At least, so we are told. He has of course had better days and worse days, and has thus far presented the image of a bookish moderate giving a fair hearing to all sides. One such recent attempt saw him fumble his response on what it means to be pro-life, giving an alarmingly Bernardinian “whole cloth” rationale to seemingly justify the awarding of historically anti-Catholic politician Dick Durbin. Yet a day later, Durbin backed away from the award; not all is what it seems here. Rather than become alarmed at the Pope’s answer, one would do well to not let the still stinging wounds of the previous papacy drive us towards a hostile attitude towards Leo XIV. After all, such an off-putting over-reaction is what the Catholic Left is desperately hoping for. We must remember that the Pope has expressed a willingness to hear out traditionalists, and traditional priests have reported warm and positive meetings with him. As such, the proper attitude now is holy patience and prayer.

Several years ago, I wrote comparing the Francis pontificate to the enduring of an abusive father. Today, something of the sight of that now infamous melting block of ice at the Vatican reminded me what historians now term the post-Stalinist thaw. I offer this next comparison carefully, as Francis was clearly not a Stalin-esque figure. Yet he did hold the Church in a rigid authoritarian grip, while the way in which long-suffering Europeans behind the Iron Curtain dealt with the death of Stalin provides a fitting historical example for modern Catholic traditionalists to imitate.

After Stalin died, those atop the Communist Party realized that he had gone entirely too far in his punitive actions. To proactively dial-down tensions and resentments, Moscow proclaimed a “thaw,” or loosening, of Stalin-era strictures in the Warsaw Pact countries. There was also additional room granted for these vassal states to more fully develop their cultural talents. East Germany, for instance, was given more support in their athletic ambitions, while music and literature were pushed in Poland. Across the board, restrictions on religion were loosened a bit more, and a generation of Catholic priests formed by operating in a state of oppression took a spiritual mile for every political inch they were granted. There were still reprisals and killings and a culture of fear, but there was also a sliver of daylight.

Sometimes a sliver of daylight is all that you need.

This slight increase in freedom allowed for countries like Poland to gain cultural steam again: they took full advantage to build the critical infrastructure and social cohesion necessary to act decisively once the crack in the metaphorical ice widened even further. Then along came John Paul II – the unexpected ice-breaker – and an edifice based on lies and obfuscation melted far more quickly than anyone thought was possible, faster even than the environmentalists think the sea ice will disappear. Soon the unthinkable happened: the Soviet Union fell, without a single shot fired.

In a real sense, the gaudy glacier chunk is a metaphor of patience: bless it, step out of the way, and let it melt. It’ll take a while yet, but it can’t take forever. In the meantime, pray for the Pope’s wisdom, and put your best foot forward as tradition-loving Catholics. We may be dealing with a slow and quiet thaw in the Catholic Church right now, and we best not grumble overmuch and blow it. Instead, the critical energy necessary for professional grumbling would be more positively applied to the great entrepreneurial energy so common in Trad circles. Keep building, and let your successes be known.

In the end, it is the traditional orders that are growing, while the Church’s ruling leftocracy has comparatively few replacements on the way. And if a purposefully moderate Pope is here, then we should humbly make ourselves at home in any additional space this may soon afford us: demographics and atrophy should take care of the rest, and an ice-breaker may yet come along to speed-up the process.

I return from these musings to the present, as my five-year-old exits his catechesis class with a glowing smile. There is real joy and hope in the air here. Meanwhile, there is nothing like this spiritual entrepreneurial energy on the left. It is moribund.

Keep calm, and keep working. The rest will come in due time.