Leo XIV: The beginning of the farewells?

Leo XIV’s speech last week to participants in the plenary session of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith was highly anticipated. After Leo XIV agreed to finalize the documents left on the table by Pope Francis, it was unclear whether the Pope would maintain the dicastery’s stance or introduce a change.

Leo XIV’s speech had a calm, even tone, recalling the latest published documents and noting the dicastery’s great work. The Pope then appreciated that the plenary session was dedicated to the transmission of the faith.

It was a speech that, in some ways, seemed to signal the close of a chapter. The list of the last significant documents begins with the Gestis verbisque note on the validity of the Sacraments, which is from February 2024. By starting there, Leo was able to exclude the highly controversial Fiducia supplicans on the blessing of irregular couples, which DDF published in December 2023. The more recent document on Marian titles, also controversial, made the cut.

The Pope, indirectly, creates a break in the dicastery’s work with a choice that seems particularly significant. The speech, in some ways, marked the conclusion of a journey that began with Pope Francis and concluded with the publication of the latest documents. Leo XIV will likely shape the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in a different direction.

Does this mean the prefect will change?

Everyone assumes that Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, Pope Francis’s personal friend and his specific enforcer, is destined to retire very soon. The Pope’s speech, however, reveals a departure from a working method, certainly not from a prefect.

And it certainly seems unlikely that the Pope will replace a prefect, no matter how out of line, when practical reasons force him to undergo a major generational change. Cardinals Michael Czerny (who will turn 80 in July), Marcello Semeraro, Arthur Roche, Kurt Koch, and Kevin Farrell have already turned 75. Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, will also turn 75.

In this widespread generational change, it’s unlikely the Pope will touch the heads of dicasteries whose tenure isn’t coming up, and where there’s no need. It’s easier, however, for him to provide direction, a clear line, and that’s what’s happening right now, in words and omissions.

The line Leo began to trace for the DDF is a departure, to be sure, however carefully and delicately couched. It is a departure from a frankly aggressive stance encouraged and even inaugurated by Pope Francis. It is also of a piece with preparations for a necessary generational shift from the Francis-era Curia to the new Leonine Curia.

It’s extremely difficult, however, to understand who Leo XIV’s men are, and perhaps the truth is that they don’t exist at all.

The choice of Archbishop Filippo Iannone as Prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops did not stem from a personal friendship, but from knowledge of the archbishop’s skills and temperament, a gentle man accustomed to resolving problems with rigor and discipline. And Archbishop Redaelli, appointed Secretary of the Dicastery of the Clergy by his position as Archbishop of Gorizia, was not within the Pope’s circle.

Even the Pope’s second secretary, Marco Billeri, was not among Leo XIV’s circle of friends. He comes from the diocese of San Miniato, led by Bishop Giovanni Paccosi, with whom the Pope had been a missionary in Peru.

One reason it is so difficult to spot Leo’s men is that Prevost did not create disciples. He tried to live in a community and thus treated everyone as friends. Perhaps the only person truly from Leo XIV’s circle among the new collaborators is his secretary, Monsignor Edgard Rimcauyna.

And then there are the Pope’s friends, who, for now, remain outside government roles.

They are the Pope’s anchor of safety, his gaze toward the outside world, his memory of having chosen, first and foremost, to be a friar. They are his lifelong Augustinian friends, who, however, do not abuse his closeness, keeping everything under the proper secrecy. Or they are the Peruvians, because Leo XIV remained deeply attached to Peru. And, indeed, the first language he used besides Italian, once elected Pope, was not his native English, but his adopted Spanish, when addressing the diocese of which he had been bishop.

Indeed, when the Pope must look to the heart, he looks to Peru. It’s no coincidence that his chef is Peruvian. It’s no coincidence that last January 29th, he showed up unexpectedly at the lunch of the Peruvian bishops during their ad limina visit, sitting at the table as one of them, as he did when he truly was one of them.

In short, Leo XIV’s men are unknown, and so it’s difficult to make predictions. Everyone is waiting for something to happen, anxiously awaiting the appointment of new department heads and trying to understand whether the Pope will do as he did during the previous pontificate, confirming or undoing with lengthy, sudden communications.

However, it seems more likely that the Pope, until he appoints new heads of dicasteries, will leave matters as they are, without issuing confirmations or announcing departures. A long study phase, one might say, is turning into a long farewell.

It remains to be seen whether the Pope will change attitudes first and then people, or vice versa. Ultimately, it’s all part of the great transition everyone is expecting, which seems like Godot: the longer you wait, the harder it is to arrive. But perhaps it won’t arrive. Perhaps all we have to expect is normality. Ultimately, that’s why the Pope was chosen.