100 days of Pope Leo XIV: a calm papacy that avoids polemics is coming into focus

Author: NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press, ABC News
Published on: 16/08/2025 | 05:02:19

AI Summary:
Robert Prevost marks his 100th day as Pope Leo this weekend. The contours of his pontificate have begun to come into relief. Leo seems eager above all to avoid polemics or making the papacy about himself. Francis' emphasis on caring for the environment and migrants alienated conservatives. Leo has cemented Francis’ environmental legacy by celebrating the first-ever ecologically inspired Mass. He has fine-tuned financial transparency regulations that Francis initiated. Leo has eased into his new job slowly, deliberately and quietly, almost trying not to draw attention to himself. At 69, he 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. Maria Isabel Ibarcena Cuarite said it was precisely Leo’s quiet emphasis on church traditions and its sacraments. Augustinian spirituality is rooted in a deep interior life of prayer, living in community, and journeying together in search of truth in God. In nearly every speech or homily since his election, Leo has cited Augustine in one way or another. Leo joined the Augustinians after graduating from augustinian-run Villanova outside Philadelphia. Jorge Mario Bergoglio essentially described Prevost as a possible successor. He said the church was "called to go outside of itself and go to the peripheries" he said he "naively" thought the Francis wouldn’t remember him after his 2013 election.

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