More than 300 days into his papacy, Pope Leo XIV is being described by a longtime Catholic social justice scholar as a man who understands that faith must be lived in the world, not sealed off from it. Source: Common Home TV.
That assessment comes from Fr Bruce Duncan, a Redemptorist priest and longtime scholar of Catholic social teaching.
In a podcast interview with fellow Redemptorist Fr Mans Bolli, Fr Duncan said Pope Leo’s rise was no accident and that his first months have confirmed what many close observers had long suspected.
“What we need to think about here is it’s not an accident that he’s pope,” Fr Duncan said. “Pope Francis was really singling him out.”
Fr Duncan said Leo is “following closely in Francis’s footsteps,” especially on synodality and social justice.
He said there was a divide between those who see religion mainly as devotion and those who insist devotion without public consequence misses the Gospel’s core.
“What do I mean by that? Not to see religion just as a ritual thing of piety alone,” Fr Duncan said.
“If you haven’t got this commitment to the poor, if you don’t take it seriously, you haven’t really got faith. You’ve got faith in something, but it’s not the God of Jesus.”
That is why Fr Duncan believes Pope Leo’s choice of name matters. He linked this decision to Leo XIII, whom he called “a great reforming pope who steered the Church into really engaging with the big industrial issues,” including “workers’ rights,” “the rights to property,” and “social equity”.
Fr Duncan says Pope Leo places himself in that lineage while extending Francis’ concerns into the present. This continuity matters, especially as Francis’s legacy and reforms have become so contested.
“There had been a lot of opposition rising against the direction Pope Francis was taking the Church,” Fr Duncan said. “People thought he was too outspoken.”
Yet Leo’s task, he suggested, is not retreat but consolidation.
“He’s saying, ‘No, no, this is Vatican II, part two,’” Fr Duncan said.
The Redemptorist believes Pope Leo’s “greatest challenge” is to “get the Church into a position where it can help humanity at this vital stage avoid catastrophic outcomes of climate change or world war or other disasters which are threatening”.
FULL STORY
Pope Leo at 300 Days: Vatican II, Part Two? (Common Home TV)
Inside Pope Leo XIV’s First 300 Days as Pontiff (Redemptorists)
Common Home TV: Questions for the Modern World Podcast (Common Home TV)
