Leo XIV: The “suspended” documents

In just a little over one hundred days since taking office, Pope Leo XIV has met several times with all the heads of dicasteries. He has approved appointments already in place, messages already in progress, and initiatives now in the final stages. For now, however, there have been no key decisions regarding the heads of dicasteries—five are over 75, and Prevost’s successor at the Dicastery for Bishops is still missing—nor have there been any crucial documents. Leo XIV has not made any really substantial governing decisions.  A critical moment will soon arrive, however, when it will be clear how Leo XIV truly intends to govern.

And that moment will concern the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

On July 3, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, prefect of the former Holy Office, announced that the Dicastery he leads will soon publish a document on “various Marian themes.” This document should be considered a sort of follow-up to the new norms on supernatural phenomena published in May 2024. The document is likely to be in the vein that led to the publication, in Septmber 2024, of a note on the supposed apparitions at Medjugorje (and the whole Medjugorje experience).

With the new norms on supernatural phenomena (published in May 2024), the Dicastery shifted its focus from assessing the supernatural nature of particular phenomena to a pastoral assessment of their impact. For this reason, six levels of approval were defined, ranging from a declaration of non-supernatural nature (but never the opposite) to nihil obstat, or the declaration that nothing stands in the way of carrying forward that veneration.

Fernandez explained that the nihil obstat is a very positive thing, but “it doesn’t mean that everything that’s being said is risk-free. When we look at these phenomena as a whole, we see recurring problems.”

According to Fernandez, the text that should clarify and balance the issues arising from the investigations is almost ready, but it will take several more months for publication. These words must be weighed against a persistent rumor that Leo XIV had seen the document and refused to approve it, requesting some substantial changes.

This is just a rumor, fueled among others by those seeking signs of an open discontinuity between Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV. The rumor remains plausible for two reasons. First, a document on Marian phenomena conceived under Pope Francis may not be—in tone, even more than in conclusions—completely in tune with Leo XIV.

Pope Francis greatly appreciated popular piety. Leo XIV also appreciated popular piety. But it’s challenging to imagine Leo XIV openly contradicting the traditions of the Church, or even having a document of the Doctrine of the Faith that openly censured specific manifestations of faith in an almost prejudicial manner. 

The document on Mariological questions will therefore be a test. It will be seen whether Cardinal Fernandez, Pope Francis’s staunchest supporter and trusted “ideologist,” will be moved to change the tone and scope of his statements. Pope Francis approved of a type of language that signaled a break with the past, even where this break was perhaps exaggerated or primarily ideological. Leo XIV is not moving in that direction.

But Fernandez seems to want to put pressure on Leo XIV to ensure that everything that had been prepared under Pope Francis is published.

In January 2025, Fernandez announced that the Dicastery was preparing documents on the value of monogamy, slavery throughout history, and various forms of slavery today, the role of women in the Church, and, indeed, some Mariological issues.

Nothing more has been said about these other documents. In some cases, we know what the line would have been. On slavery, Fernandez is among those who emphasize that the Church endorsed slavery, and only later changed its doctrine. This assertion contradicts historical data, the existence of religious orders like the Mercedarians, founded precisely to free enslaved people, and the fact that the political decisions of the Papal States cannot be confused with theological positions. Fernandez, however, has stubbornly supported this idea, even expressing it in a press conference during the Synod on the Family in 2014.

Regarding the role of women in the Church, one might expect a return to the question of deaconesses, a topic on which Pope Francis had established two inconclusive commissions. It is thought that a document on the value of monogamy was, of all the documents, the one least open to possible misinterpretation.

The possible publication of all these documents, and how the language and themes have changed, could represent an essential key to understanding how Leo XIV wants to carry forward the pontificate.

Indeed, there is a certain pressure on Leo XIV to show his hand and demonstrate whether or not he wants to be in continuity with Francis.

Father Santiago Martin, in a post on Aldo Maria Valli’s website, noted that during the vacancy of the see, the German episcopate had approved a rite for the blessing of irregular unions. The diocese of Cologne distanced itself from the document because Cardinal Woelki, the city’s archbishop, noted that the rite contradicts the declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fiducia Supplicans, which authorizes the blessing of homosexuals, but not of same-sex unions as such.

Speaking of Fiducia Supplicans, Fernandez himself said that Leo XIV would not have changed it. This, too, is a form of pressure, considering, among other things, that Fernandez currently holds a provisional position, like all heads of departments.

There has also been pressure on the issue of abortion. A German bishop has asked that abortion not be used as an ideological weapon. Since Leo XIV has not yet expressed himself on the issue, the statement sounds like undue pressure on the Pope. Leo XIV will have to find a balance, but he cannot do so based on pressure.

And then there’s the case of Father Michael Weninger, the former Austrian ambassador who, after becoming a widower, became a priest and served for some time at the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue. Close to or even fully involved with Freemasonry—he is described on official websites as a lodge chaplain—he made it clear in a conference that being Catholic and a Freemason is no longer incompatible. This statement is contradicted, among other things, by several recent pronouncements from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Here, too, however, pressure is being created on the Pope. A public debate is being fomented to pressure Leo XIV to speak out or, by his silence, to allow the Church’s position to be manipulated.

These “suspended” documents, these still-unspoken declarations, are currently a sword of Damocles over the pontificate.

Leo XIV does not appear to be a man who seeks to sow division. But what can he do in the face of the agents of division? How can he counter the narrative about himself? Will he have the courage to halt some of the most controversial legacies of the previous pontificate?

These are still open questions for now.

Answering them will allow us to understand the direction of the pontificate better.