Pope Leo seen to have three-fold approach to Francis’ legacy

This is how John L. Allen interpreted part of what Pope Leo said to Crux’s Elise Ann Allen – Mr Allen’s wife. The interview will eventually be released in book form.

Excerpts released on September 14 point to the way in which Leo is “inclined to treat the legacy of his predecessor”, Mr Allen proposed.

First, Mr Allen wrote, Leo pledges unabashed loyalty to the substance of what Francis was about.

“Synodality is an attitude, an openness, a willingness to understand. Speaking of the Church now, this means each and every member of the Church has a voice and a role to play through prayer [and] reflection,” the Pope told Ms Allen in the interview.

“It’s an attitude which I think can teach a lot to the world today,” Leo continued. Mr Allen said synodality was Francis’ “cornerstone agenda item”.

Mr Allen went on to say that Leo also gently suggested the idea of synodality in itself has much deeper roots.

“The process began long before the last synod, at least in Latin America,” the Pope said in the interview.

Mr Allen said that Leo appears to suggest that synodality was pioneered by the Second Vatican Council.

“I think [synodality] offers a great opportunity to the Church and offers an opportunity for the Church to engage with the rest of the world,” the Pope told Ms Allen. “Since the time of the Second Vatican Council, I think that’s been significant, and there’s a lot to be done yet.”

Finally, Mr Allen said that Pope Leo offers a hint that preserving the ideal of synodality doesn’t necessarily mean keeping all the structures, procedures and systems Francis himself put into place.

“There are many ways that that could happen, of dialogue and respect of one another,” the Pope said in the interview.

Mr Allen said this doesn’t mean it will happen necessarily through artifacts of the last synodal experience.

Pope Leo suggested in the interview that what’s important is to preserve the spirit of synodality, while being open to different ways of implementing it, Mr Allen said.

“To bring people together and to understand that relationship, that interaction, that creating opportunities of encounter, is an important dimension of how we live our life as Church,” Pope Leo was quoted as saying.

Mr Allen concluded that, “in miniature, we have a Pope Leo three-step when it comes to his predecessor: Loyalty to the substance, attention to its deeper ecclesiastical roots to avoid undue personalisation and a willingness to be flexible about ways and means”.

FULL STORY

New book captures Leo’s three-step approach to predecessor’s controversial legacy (By John L. Allen/Crux)