Pope Leo XIV and a New Age of ‘New Things’
This past Sunday my essay, “Pope Leo XIV and a New Age of ‘New Things’”, was published at The Dispatch as part of the excellent Michael Reneau’s Dispatch Faith Newsletter.
This essay critiques the way many Catholics fall into traps speculating about the life of the church and then proceeds to offer some of my own observations on the resume and Augustinian spirituality of Pope Leo XIV. It then charts a potential Leonine trajectory to the papacy as continuing the development of catholic social teaching and philosophy in line with Pope Leo XII and Pope Saint John Paul II into our ‘new things’ including “gene editing, drone warfare, virtual worlds, and AI.”
It includes this fun story from my college years as a warning to all speculators!
Near the conclusion of the 2005 papal conclave, I sat listening to a lecture by a distinguished American Catholic philosopher at a small Midwestern liberal arts college. The room was filled with professors of philosophy and theology, and eager students of both. At the precise midpoint of the lecture a student burst into the room and excitedly said, “We have a pope!”
The distinguished lecturer paused and then asked with equal eagerness, “Well, who is it?”
“Cardinal Ratzinger!” The enthused student whooped as he turned to spread the news further.
A torrent of displeasure and a curse, major or minor I don’t precisely recall, erupted from the lectern.
The distinguished American Catholic philosopher then composed himself and calmly and patiently explained that Pope Benedict XVI was sure to erase the legacy of the Second Vatican Council and return the church to the Dark Ages. Precisely none of this came to pass. Some self-styled traditionalists and conservatives within the church, otherwise reasonable and sober-minded, had an equal and opposite reaction to the election of Pope Francis in 2013. Speculation is an equal opportunity maker of fools.
Full essay available here. Enjoy!
