(Pope) Leo XIV and the Best-Case Scenario, by Dan Hitchens

By Dan Hitchens, First Things, May 10, 2025

The philosopher Michael Oakeshott, the leading conservative thinker of his generation, regarded politics with distaste; he voted for the Tories, he said, “because they do the least harm.” The cardinals of the Catholic Church seem to have just acted on a similar basis.

Robert Prevost—as he was until yesterday—is unlikely to fulfill the liberal cardinals’ nightmare of a pope who would rip up Francis’s legacy. He seems to be well-liked by the more progressive cardinals—some of whom appeared beaming with delight on the balcony of St. Peter’s yesterday. But conservatives, too, expect a less harmful pontificate than a Pope Francis II would have delivered. Leo XIV’s first choices—the traditional name and traditional papal dress—are in themselves a retreat from his predecessor’s example. And he was, after all, spotted last week “entering Cardinal Burke’s house for a very secret summit.”

Trawling the Holy Father’s Twitter history, as one does, suggests a churchman who has made it to the age of sixty-nine without feeling any need to choose a side in the Catholic culture wars. Yes, he is outspoken on the rights of migrants; but he’s also seriously alarmed about the trans issue. Yes, he retweets the more progressive Catholic publications; but he also shares writings from the sturdily orthodox Cardinal George and Archbishop Chaput. Yes, he admires Pope Francis and likes the idea of “synodality”; but (unlike some people) he does not seem to regard either as a kind of inspired update on the gospel that calls into question what the Church has been doing for the last two thousand years.

To be clear, this is not a call for complacency. The Church is at an incredibly perilous moment, attempting to recover from a pontificate that actively fostered major doctrinal errors. If Leo XIV continues in this line, however cautiously and diplomatically, it means a deepening of one of the most severe crises in Church history. But you know all that already. So here is a case for optimism.

Continue reading at First Things

SOURCE >>>>>>>>>>>>>