Caritas welcomes Pope Leo XIV
Photo credit: Mazur/CBCEW
On Thursday 8 May, I was with the leaders of Caritas Europa as we gathered together in Chisinau, Moldova, for our Regional Conference. At the same time, the cardinals were gathered in the Sistine Chapel in Rome about to elect the Church’s next successor of St Peter.
At the end of Holy Mass that evening, we heard the words we had been waiting for: habemus papam! We have a pope! The excitement was palpable as we made our way to dinner, checking our phones for the appearance on the balcony of St Peter’s of the new pope. Sitting together at table, the first pictures came through of Pope Leo XIV.
There was more than one tearful eye, as colleagues translated from Italian some of the first words of the new Holy Father, clearly in a line of continuity with Pope Francis, but without doubt with his own style.
From the balcony we heard Pope Leo say: “We want a synodal Church, a Church that walks, a Church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always seeks to be close, especially to those who suffer.” We toasted the health of Pope Leo!
The following morning, we started the final day of our conference with a prayer for the Holy Father. We heard from Alistair Dutton, General Secretary of Caritas Internationalis, who reminded us that Pope Leo, while he was a Bishop in Peru, was on the board of Caritas Peru.
We were reminded that the previous Pope Leo, the 13th, was the pope who championed the dignity of the workers and gave us the first encyclical of the social teaching of the Church, Rerum Novarum, in 1891.
In his address to cardinals on 10 May 2025, Pope Leo XIV confirmed the inspiration behind his choice of name. He said it was “mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.”
We saw a video clip of our new Holy Father speaking in an interview from October 2024 which indicated his views on leadership in the Church: “The bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom, but rather called authentically to be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to walk with them, to suffer with them, and to look for ways that he can better live the Gospel message in the midst of his people.”
It is with great hope and joy that the family of Caritas, indeed the whole Church, welcomes Pope Leo XIV and renews our commitment to work with him in charity with and for those who suffer most, inspired by the Gospel.