People inside and around the institution are waiting, with varying degrees of curiosity and enthusiasm, for long-expected moves by Pope Leo XIV.
The first anniversary of Leo’s election is approaching on May 8. While popes don’t work on deadline, some observers are surprised that he hasn’t yet put more of his stamp on Vatican leadership, replacing the team he inherited from Pope Francis.
So far, Leo has made only two major appointments. In September, he named Archbishop Filippo Iannone as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, filling the job that the former Cardinal Robert Prevost left when he became pope.
On March 12, he reassigned Cardinal Konrad Krajewski from his Vatican role as papal almoner to the cardinal’s hometown of Łódź, Poland, where he will serve as archbishop. The Pope named his Augustinian confrere Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín as the new almoner.
There are currently five prefects in the Curia older than 75, the age when they were required by canon law to submit their resignations. There has been speculation that Leo will accept these resignations more or less at once.
But popes often let cardinals stay on in such posts, even until the age of 80. Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, will reach that milestone this July, but the other curial cardinals have at least one year left.
If Leo leaves any of these men in place a little longer, it will presumably reflect his confidence in their abilities. It will also reflect the deliberative and patient governing style he has displayed so far as Pope.
He has taken a more traditional approach to protocol and liturgy than his predecessor, and has reversed certain decisions by Pope Francis regarding finances, but Leo has not signaled any abrupt break with the agenda of the last pontificate.
That has helped calm the waters after an often-turbulent 12 years under Francis and allowed Leo, whatever changes he might be contemplating, to delay showing his cards.
The same logic could apply to how Leo handles the most debated and, in some ways, the most emblematic of Francis’ appointments to the Roman Curia.
Cardinal Victor Fernández was controversial even before he was appointed prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in July 2023, among other reasons, because of a book he had written on “the art of kissing.”
Another book, on the spirituality of orgasms, was rediscovered after his arrival at the Vatican.
His promulgation of guidelines for non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples in December 2023 was one of the most contested decisions of the last pontificate, leading to a confrontation with the bishops of Africa, who refused to allow such blessings on their continent.
Cardinal Fernández is only 63 and if Leo were to replace him before the end of his term in 2028, it would likely be seen as a criticism of Francis’ judgment on sensitive questions of moral teaching. Whatever Leo’s views on such matters, he may choose to take a page out of his predecessor’s book regarding this office.
Francis’ first doctrinal chief, then-Archbishop Gerhard Müller, had less than a year on the job when the new Pope took office in 2013. The two men hardly saw eye to eye, as Müller’s later criticisms made clear.
But Francis kept him on and even made him a cardinal, before finally replacing him at the end of his five-year term.
Artificial Intelligence
Leo’s first public reference to artificial intelligence came on his second full day as pope, in a speech to the College of Cardinals wherein he strongly hinted that he would be addressing it in an encyclical in the tradition of Rerum Novarum (On Capital and Labor) by his namesake Pope Leo XIII.
The Holy Father has mentioned AI on numerous occasions since, expressing his concerns over the effect of the technology on everything from weapons systems to homilies, which he says priests should write themselves and not outsource to a chatbot.
A social encyclical from Leo will no doubt treat a range of topics, but AI is bound to be the focus of attention from the media and therefore from those — the large majority — who learn of it second-hand through news accounts.
The Pope’s words are likely to draw intense and widespread interest, since bewilderment and anxiety over AI grow more acute every day. Those who can’t put their faith in the promethean claims of tech moguls are looking desperately for guidance, and the most credible source of that guidance is the papacy, the nearest thing we have to a global moral authority, even for many non-Catholics.
The closest comparison with this situation is the excitement that greeted Laudato Si, Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the care of creation, which made headlines with its call to combat climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels.
But the environment is a highly politicized subject, and reactions to Francis’ document broke down largely along partisan lines. By contrast, AI alarms people of very different ideological stripes, which means the potential audience for Leo’s message is practically unlimited.
The risk is that expectations for that message will run impossibly high, and many turn away disappointed, especially those expecting the sort of concrete policy recommendations that Leo is unlikely to endorse in such a complex and fast-changing field.
Move to Apostolic Palace
At the beginning of his pontificate, Leo let it be known that he would be moving into the Apostolic Palace, which Francis gave up in favor of the Vatican’s St. Martha guesthouse.
It was one of several of the Pope’s decisions to restore traditions that his predecessor had abandoned.
Preparations for his move are still going on nearly a year later, and in the meantime, Leo remains in the Vatican lodgings he inhabited as a cardinal.
After being shuttered for a dozen years, the papal apartment required extensive renovations, including the removal of accumulated pigeon droppings on the terrace, according to someone familiar with the matter.
The residence, which was designed for a household with servants, is also being modified to make it easier for the Pope to cook for himself, a hobby he is said to practice on his weekly visits to the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo — another residence Francis eschewed.
One Vatican official tells me he thinks Leo’s move could prove a turning point, and that bigger changes, including in the realm of appointments, may come more swiftly once the Pope has settled into his new home.
Whatever the possible ramifications, he must be looking forward to it more than anyone.