VATICAN CITY. – In his first month, Pope Leo has taken a very different approach from his predecessor, Francis.
Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, has led some two dozen public events since he was elected as the first US pope on May 8 but has not made notable appointments, nor announced plans for foreign trips, nor said where he will live at the Vatican.
It’s a stark contrast to when Francis, originally from Argentina, was selected as the first pope from the Americas in March 2013.
Within a month, Francis had announced he would be the first pontiff in more than a century to live outside the Vatican’s apostolic palace, appointed his successor as Archbishop of Buenos Aires and created a new formal advisory group of senior Catholic cardinals.
Two of Leo’s long-time associates told Reuters they expect the 69-year-old Pope to take a deliberative approach to the challenges facing the Catholic Church and may require months before making major decisions.
“Leo is taking his time,” Rev. Mark Francis, a friend of the new pontiff since the 1970s, told Reuters. “While he is going to continue on the path indicated by Pope Francis, his disposition is very different.”
Leo was first appointed a bishop by Francis in 2015 and then chosen by the late pope to take up a senior Vatican role two years ago. He has frequently praised his predecessor in his first weeks.
He has also repeated some of Francis’ main themes and has echoed the Argentine pontiff’s emotional appeals for an end to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.
But the two men have different temperaments, according to Rev. Francis, who attended seminary with Leo in Chicago and later knew him when they both lived in Rome in the 2000s.
“Leo is much more focused and methodical and not inclined to hasty decisions,” he said.
Among the challenges facing the American pope is the Vatican’s 83-million-euro ($95 million) budget shortfall, which Reuters reported in February had stirred contention among senior cardinals under his predecessor.
Other looming issues facing the 1.4 billion-member Church include declining adherence to the faith in Europe, ongoing revelations of clerical sexual abuse, and doctrinal debates over matters such as the inclusion of LGBT Catholics and the possibility of women’s ordination.
Francis, who sought to modernize the Church, did not formally change many doctrines but garnered criticism from conservative cardinals by opening the door to communion for divorcees and blessings for same-sex couples.
Rev. Anthony Pizzo, who has known Leo since 1974 when they attended Villanova University outside Philadelphia together, said the pope is someone who listens carefully and seeks to hear many viewpoints before making decisions.
“This is going to be his modus operandi,” said Pizzo, who leads the Midwest U.S. province of the Augustinian religious order, to which Leo also belongs.
