The illness and death of Pope Francis was followed by the election of our new pope, Leo XIV.
In different ways, one event fed on the other, with blanket coverage on all the major channels.
My own particular interest was to focus on what for me and for many was the big question that hovered in the background of both events: would Francis’ successor as pope continue the synodal pathway (co-responsibility for our Church) he proposed as the way of being Church into the future?
Or would the conservative wing of the Church, disaffected by and opposed to the Francis reforms, succeed in undermining ‘the Francis effect’.
In short, would one of a number of conservative cardinals manage to be elected pope and set about undoing the good work that Francis had achieved, the way President Donald Trump has systematically attempted to undo Joe Biden’s legacy?
Yes, I know, it seems a fanciful worry. After all the Catholic Church is not the Republican Party. And support for a conservative candidate in the election was very minimal, apart from a few vocal critics of Francis.
Indeed, how could the cardinals, in the main responsible and careful in their deliberations, conclude that a conservative successor to Francis would serve the church well, when the vast percentage of Catholics didn’t just admire Francis but long for his reforms to continue.
It would, commonsense suggested, be daft to disrupt the Francis reforms.
Yet the question, in its possible negative import, lingered.
So on Thursday evening last when Cardinal Francois Mamberti, who was responsible for announcing the new pope, seemed to be milking his spot in history through a series of exaggerated pauses, I found myself wondering why he wouldn’t just get on with it and let us know who was the pope and where he was from.
And when he did (in Latin) there was a huge pause as so many, including myself, failed to recognise the name or the location. Eventually, a voice-over managed to explain the basics.
My impatience was indicative of a worry that unless the new pope was going to continue the Francis reform that the effect on the church might be catastrophic.
It took Leo XIV himself to arrest my fears by mentioning Francis twice and indicating that he intends to pick up where Francis left off.
"We have to be a Church that works together to build bridges," he said, "and to keep our arms open."
While Francis drew energy from greeting and engaging with the crowds in St Peter’s Square, apparently Leo doesn’t enjoy the spotlight.
While Francis chose to be Francis I, to reflect his commitment to the poor, Leo has chosen to walk in the footsteps of Leo XIII who famously laid the foundations of Catholic social teaching.
In other words, social justice was, for both Francis and Leo, a shared and defining compulsion of their lives.
When Francis criticised President Trump’s attitude to migrants and Vice-President’s Vance’s justification for prioritising selfishness, the then Cardinal Prevost was firmly on Francis’ side.
The consensus seems to be that Leo XIV is quiet-spoken, a considered and serious man, a good listener and a balanced leader who will focus on two huge ambitions - as he indicated in his opening remarks - peace in the world and the unity of the Church, as he said, ‘seeking peace and justice’. His commitment to the synodal pathway is, effectively, now set in stone.
At 69 years of age, Leo has packed a lot into his life. Born in Chicago, he actually spent most of his life outside the United States and is, by common consent, the most un-American of all the American cardinals.
As an Augustinian priest, he is a missionary at heart. It is the key impulse in his life and brought him to Peru where he became a bishop and which became his home - to such an extent that he exchanged his American citizenship for Peruvian citizenship, becoming more (it is said) a Latin American than an American.
And, then, it was on to Rome where he served as the head of the Augustinian order and where he later became prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery of Bishops and then a cardinal just two years ago.
A pastoral man, as well as earning a litany of degrees in a stunning academic career, Leo reminded his hearers in his first words on the balcony of St Peter’s that a fundamental of our faith is that ‘God loves each one of us unconditionally’.
In political terms, Leo is a centrist, a unifier as his work in his diocese in Peru attested, but also a progressive in that his focus on peace and justice has fuelled his support for migrants, his love of the poor and his protection of the environment. He is in many ways a carbon-copy of his predecessor.
The Francis project of reinstating the vision and reforms of the Second Vatican Council is now in safe hands.
On Thursday evening, on the balcony of St Peter’s, our new pope seemed stunned and appeared emotional as he looked down on an estimated half a million people from all over the world.
He looks younger and appears younger than his 69 years. He seems a calm person. His exterior seems controlled – whatever about the confusion of emotions that must be raging within him as he wonders what the future will bring.
And the outpouring of such genuine support and such unrestrained joy among the people must have given him confidence that God’s Spirit has led him over the years, slowly but providentially to the immense responsibilities he now faces for the Church and for the world.
May he receive a fair wind.