����ֱ��

Pope Leo XIV, in his first 100 days in office, has restored stability to the papacy, calming nerves as he signals continuity with the pontificate of his predecessor Pope Francis, while making his reign one that focuses not on himself but on the church and the faith as a whole.
In a recent impromptu meeting with faithful around St. Peter’s Square, his informal spontaneity alarmed some looking for a change from Pope Francis’ papacy, but his message underlined his unifying and hopeful mantra when he asked young people to spread hope, faith and peace.
In the world witnessing major shifts in international relations resulting in wars, displacement, suffering, and uncertainty, one can only look at the new pope’s first 100 days in office and hope that his quiet, yet forceful, message can inspire leaders and nations in a way that re-instills hope and diminishes the hate that we see everywhere.
It is clear that Pope Leo has gone out of his way at the start of his papacy to heal the divisions that deepened within the church during Francis’s pontificate, offering messages of unity and avoiding controversy. His approach, even on highly complex issues such as his signature topic — confronting the promise and perils posed by artificial intelligence — is something that conservatives and progressives both in the church and outside agree is important.
His recent invitation to several dozen homeless people and church volunteers to join him at his summer vacation residence, celebrating a special Mass for his guests, is unlikely to raise eyebrows, even though his predecessor’s emphasis on caring for the environment and migrants often alienated conservatives in the church.
Compared with US President Donald Trump, who was immediately busy on the world stage with volleys of statements, executive orders, bruising remarks, and tantrums, the pope seems to have eased into his new job slowly, deliberately, and quietly, almost trying not to draw attention to himself. He has refused to do lengthy interviews, avoided creating headlines with off-the-cuff comments, and failed to make any senior staff appointments or even undertake a major trip abroad.

The pope has gone out of his way to heal divisions.

Mohamed Chebaro

Many believe that at 69, the new pope seems to know that he has time on his side, and that after Francis’ revolutionary papacy, the church might need a bit of a breather. One Vatican official who knows Pope Leo said that he expects his papacy will have the effect of a “calming rain” on the church.
Nevertheless the pope has been far from idle in his first 100 days in office. In the church, his style and actions were seen as offering the Vatican bureaucracy a reassuring and a conciliatory message compared with his predecessor’s occasionally authoritarian style.
Continuity with the previous pope’s environmental legacy was celebrated through the first ecologically inspired Mass, while Pope Leo also gave the go-ahead to turn a 430-hectare site north of Rome into a vast solar farm that will generate enough electricity to meet the Vatican City’s needs and turn it into the world’s first carbon-neutral state.
Challenges and adversity will surely be lurking in the wings and will test his moral influence. Gender identity issues will no doubt test his papacy, as will his position regarding genocide and atrocities from Ukraine to Gaza to Sudan.
Pope Leo is clearly an Augustinian pope, insisting he is, first and foremost, a “son of St. Augustine” — a reference to the fifth-century theologian and devotional giant of early Christianity who inspired a monastic order that advocated a life of poverty but was known for its activism in urban communities, preaching, teaching, and ministering to the poor and sick.
It is this flavor of Augustine’s teachings that has characterized the early work of the pope — his quiet activism, advocacy, and positive influence in a world becoming less hospitable for its inhabitants because of greed and excessive individualism.
With hope and peace looking increasingly deficient everywhere, it is to be hoped the weight and symbolism of Pope Leo’s teachings and actions can stir debate and help raise the guardrails that protect the weak and dispossessed. In an age when multilateralism and rule of law are being eroded, efforts ought not to be spared to preserve those values that for centuries have limited powers and the use of force, preserving our world and preventing its descent into disorder and social breakdown.

• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.