In his first month, Pope Leo has taken a very different approach to his predecessor Francis.
Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, has led some two dozen public events since he was elected as the first U.S. pope on May 8 but 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 in 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.
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 inclusion of LGBT Catholics and the possibility of women’s ordination.
