Pope Leo XIV: A Pope "with the smell of the sheep"

Screenshot of the official photo

We started the Easter Season on the last day of Pope Francis' earthly life, and now at the beginning of the Fourth Week of Easter we are at the start of a new Pontificate. A lot can happen in three weeks!

Most of us are just getting to know the new Holy Father. Unfortunately, some Catholics are already establishing litmus tests for him. This is not just unhelpful, it is spiritually dangerous. It means judging a Pope and his ministry according to our own cherished values, and not within the faith of the Church. (It may even be a signal that, for all practical purposes, our own values or personal convictions have replaced the faith of the Church.)

Anyway, we owe it to the Successor of St. Peter to give him the chance to shepherd the Church of God, and to allow ourselves to be shepherded. And for that, it helps to get to know where this new shepherd is coming from--in his own words, and not from headlines or social media. Because the disinformation (and the partially-edited information) is already swirling out there. If you see a post that intrigues you, go ahead and read it--but then go behind it, to the original source. Do your homework, in other words.

For example, you may have seen allegations that in the past, Father (or Bishop) Prevost dropped the ball in cases of sexual abuse by priests. That was investigated very promptly by a reliable news service. (Crux of the News is a for-profit news service that specializes in Catholic Church news, and reflects very high ethical and journalistic standards.) You can read their full report here: https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2025/05/serious-questions-of-credibility-surround-coverup-allegations-against-new-pope

On another topic dear to my heart, I have seen a few posts about the then-Father Prevost's short intervention at the 2012 Synod of Bishops. So I went to the Vatican website (vatican.va) and looked for it! Yes, it is there--and now it is here, for your convenience. Lo and behold, he is talking about our media-dominated culture! I have helpfully highlighted a few lines I think especially pertinent. (Those highlights are me, pushing my agenda!)

- Rev. F. Robert Francis PREVOST, O.S.A., Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine (Augustinians)

At least in the contemporary western world, if not throughout the entire world, the human imagination concerning both religious faith and ethics is largely shaped by mass media, especially by television and cinema. 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.
However, overt opposition to Christianity by mass media is only part of the problem. The sympathy for anti-Christian lifestyle choices that mass media fosters is so brilliantly and artfully engrained in the viewing public, that when people hear the Christian message it often inevitably seems ideological and emotionally cruel by contrast to the ostensible humaneness of the anti-Christian perspective.
If the "New Evangelization" is going to counter these mass media-produced distortions of religious and ethical reality successfully, pastors, preachers, teachers and catechists are going to have to become far more informed about the challenge of evangelizing in a world dominated by mass media. 
The Fathers of the Church, including Saint Augustine, can provide eminent guidance for the Church in this aspect of the New Evangelization, precisely because they were masters of the art of rhetoric. Their evangelizing was successful in great part because they understood the foundations of social communication appropriate to the world in which they lived.
In order to combat successfully the dominance of the mass media over popular religious and moral imaginations, it is not sufficient for the Church to own its own television media or to sponsor religious films. The proper mission of the Church is to introduce people to the nature of mystery as an antidote to spectacle. Religious life also plays an important role in evangelization, pointing others to this mystery, through living faithfully the evangelical counsels. 

For a week or two, Pope Leo will be a media darling. Don't let that make you undiscerning when it comes to stories or articles that relate in some way to his ministry. Even Catholic media can be influenced by criteria that are not in line with the Church's wisdom. When in doubt, throw them out and just stand with Peter!!!