WOF 494: What to Expect from a Pope Leo XIV Papacy
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Brandon Vogt
4.9 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 June 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On May 8, 2025, the college of cardinals stunned the world by electing Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a native of the South Side of Chicago, as our new pope. What kind of papacy should we expect from this American pope? How should we interpret his papal name, Leo XIV, and his background as the former head of the Augustinian religious order? Are there any early signs of what his priorities will be? And how should we think about him in relation to his predecessors, including Pope Francis?
A listener asks about contemporary misunderstandings of Catholic theology.
00:00 | Introduction
01:45 | The Religious Liberty Commission
06:03 | What Rome was like during the conclave
10:27 | Before the conclave
13:06 | Defining “liberal” and “conservative” in ecclesial circles
13:53 | Why Catholic conclaves attract so much interest
16:14 | Addressing Bishop Barron’s hat
17:10 | Pope Leo XIV as first American pope
18:50 | Pope Leo XIV as first English-speaking pope
20:07 | Pope Leo XIV as first Augustinian pope
24:00 | Pope Leo XIV’s motto
25:07 | A return to the supernatural aspects of the Gospel
26:52 | The significance of Pope Leo XIV’s name
30:55 | Pope Leo XIV as a bridge
33:10 | The pressing issues before Pope Leo XIV
34:42 | Listener question: What is the most misunderstood Catholic teaching?
37:04 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
Links:
- Article: “‘Habemus Papam!’ Meet the First Pontiff from the United States”
- Article: “Pope Leo XIV and the New Social Question of AI”
- Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the Word on Fire show. I'm Matthew Petruscic, Senior Director of the Word on Fire Institute, and the host of the Word on Fire show. Thank you for joining us. |
| 0:07.6 | Habemus Papum, Americanum. The common wisdom up until a few weeks ago was that the church would never have a pope from the United States, or at least not until the U.S. ceases to be an economic and political superpower. But then, |
| 0:22.0 | on May 8, 2025, the College of Cardinals stunned the world by electing Cardinal Robert Francis |
| 0:28.1 | Prevost, a native of the south side of Chicago. Before becoming Pope, Prevost, who has now taken the name |
| 0:35.0 | Leo the 14th, spent nearly two decades in Peru as an Augustinian missionary, |
| 0:40.7 | and gained significant experience working with the global church in the Vatican. He is, to be sure, |
| 0:45.8 | a man of the world. A biographical fact, he emphasized by speaking in Latin, Italian, and Spanish, |
| 0:52.3 | not English, during his first introduction to the jubilant crowds |
| 0:56.5 | in St. Peter Square. All the same, Pope Leo XIV is and always will be a native son of the |
| 1:02.9 | United States, a first, a first in church history. So what kind of papacy should we expect from the American |
| 1:09.8 | Pope? How should we interpret his |
| 1:11.8 | papal name and his background as the former head of the Augustinian religious order? Are there any |
| 1:17.6 | early signs of what his ecclesial, diplomatic, and moral priorities will be? And how should we |
| 1:22.9 | think about him in relationship to his predecessors, including Pope Francis. Here to talk through these and related |
| 1:28.5 | questions and to share his own experience of what it was like to watch the whole conclave |
| 1:33.1 | unfold in person is Bishop Robert Barron. |
| 1:48.1 | Bishop, welcome back to the studio. |
| 1:48.9 | Thanks, Matt. |
| 1:49.7 | Always good to be with you. |
| 1:54.5 | So today we're talking about what we might be able to expect from a Pope Leo the 14th. |
| 2:01.4 | I'm still getting used to saying that, Pope Leo the 14th, and what it was like for you to be there as the whole drama unfolded. |
| 2:08.4 | But before we do, you also recently took another trip to our nation's capital to spend some time in a rather famous Rose Garden. |
... |
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