Who Is This Guy? Reading Christopher White's Pope Leo XIV
Hack Score: 🫏🫏🫏/5 Mules
Hours after the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on August 27, Pope Leo XIV sent a condolence telegram to Minneapolis Archbishop Bernard Hebda.
The gesture gave me pause. What must a Midwestern-born pope think when he hears of an attack at a parish school much like the one he attended as a boy? How does the spiritual leader of nearly 20 percent of all humans communicate after a tragedy in his flock? And, why is a guy born in 1955 still sending telegrams?
I went in search of answers in Christopher White’s new book, Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy. (Thanks NetGalley for the advance publication copy!)
White, a longtime Vatican correspondent, devotes much of the book to an excellent, engaging account of how we got to Pope Leo, tracing Vatican politics from John XXIII to Francis.
But, the book provides only a 100,000-foot survey of Leo’s life — not much biography beyond a standard feature-story profile.
That’s not a criticism, though. The problem here isn’t the book — it’s the title. What sounds like a biography is actually an informative, readable primer on the papacy and Vatican politics.
Did I get my questions answered? Well, yes and no.
National Catholic Reporter explained that the Vatican secretary of state sent the telegram on the pope’s behalf. Turns out Leo is an executive, not a Luddite.
As to his deeper thoughts, Leo spoke for himself on August 31 when he offered his Sunday blessing from the Vatican in English for the first time. He addressed the Minneapolis attack, calling for an end to the “pandemic of arms, large and small.”
It’s the same message Francis delivered many times, suggesting — as White’s book anticipates — that Leo will pursue a similar call for peace and caring.
We’ll learn more about Leo’s views in the next few weeks when his first “apostolic exhortation” appears.
Will Leo go even further than Francis in his messages? Hard to say. White got this book out fast — just weeks after the conclave — and I wish he hadn’t. I’d have traded speed for a deeper dive into Leo’s focus and style.