Leo XIV, the two speeds

The conclusions of the Francis-appointed commission on the female diaconate – basically a hard “No” softly delivered, one that surprised pretty much no one – were published last week, on the same day as another decision by Leo XIV to repeal one of Pope Francis’s financial reforms.

The two events were unrelated, but they demonstrate a characteristic of this pontificate: Leo’s, too, is a two-speed pontificate. Francis’s pontificate also moved at two speeds. The reasons and characteristics of these two two-speed pontificates, however, are different.

Francis’s pontificate was a two-speed affair because he made decisions, often alone, while his government was still stuck in procedures or uncertain about what to do.

The pontificate of Leo XIV is different.

It is a two-speed pontificate, at least for the moment, because it still finds itself acting as a bridge between a world that no longer exists—the Francis pontificate— and a world that has yet to be, the pontificate, precisely, of Leo XIV.

There are, for example, two documents Pope Francis commissioned from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith that are still in the works.

We have already seen two of the four documents Francis commissioned: the one on monogamy and the one on the titles of Mary. Together, the four represent the “mandate” that Pope Francis gave to the Dicastery. Leo XIV published the exhortation on the poor that Pope Francis had left behind, Dilexi Te. The Pope agreed to meet with popular movements and give a speech that was purely Pope Francis’s in tone and themes, taking on a controversial legacy.

While these are the visible situations, there are many other subtle issues. Yet cardinals, archbishops, and Curia officials take different positions with great caution, often recalling Pope Francis, as if they feared losing that legacy or, worse, as if it weighed on everyone like a millstone that could never be shaken off.

The documents begun under Pope Francis retained the late Pope’s pragmatic style and some specific themes. This happened with the revised Charta Oecumenica, a document driven by the need for dialogue with the world, or with the summaries of the synodal working groups, suspended between the work completed that they refuse to release and the work not yet represented by the still-unknown will of
Leo XIV.

But it also happened with the final document from the commission on women deacons.

The document, published on December 4, highlights a series of issues, with several pages detailing specific typologies and including the number of approvals and disapprovals for each response. What matters, however, are Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi’s conclusions, which ultimately reiterate the need for a “prudential attitude” on the question of female diaconate, especially given the uncertain historical knowledge on the subject.

This isn’t a new position. The Commission established by John Paul II had already reached similar conclusions. Pope Francis had appointed three commissions on the issue, as if to keep alive a theme not even he believed in. But the final text also demonstrates how, deep down, those who worked on the document knew that Pope Francis wanted to keep a door ajar. For what reason, no one knows. To wink at public opinion, because Pope Francis himself tried to address the issue sooner or later.

Leo XIV’s approach has been clear from the start. He stated that he had no intention of changing doctrine and called for a return to Christ. In fact, with his Christ-centered approach, he rendered these debates pointless. The document serves to close a circle. The tone of the document reveals an inability to look to the new world, to change approach.

This is the suspended pace of the pontificate. Because those who have been faithful to Pope Francis and his vision don’t go back, instead, they try every way to justify and explain that vision, even against all odds.

Then there’s the second speed of the pontificate: decision-making. Leo XIV is a slow but inexorable decision-maker. At this moment, he is seeking a balance between the old world and the new, acting decisively, however, on some specific issues.

Regarding the appointment of bishops, he generally maintains the approach he himself initiated as prefect of bishops under Pope Francis, as the appointment of Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś as Archbishop of Krakow shows.

Then there are the administrative decisions, and on these Leo XIV seems to be moving very quickly.

First, Pope Francis’s decision to direct all financial investments solely to the IOR was repealed; then, Pope Francis’s decision to abolish the central sector of the Diocese of Rome was repealed; on December 4, with a surgical chirograph, Leo XIV also suppressed the Commission for Pontifical Donations established by the Pope in February 2025. The Commission had a budget of 300,000 euros, was headed by then-assessor Monsignor Roberto Campisi (sent by Leo XIV as an observer to UNESCO), and was responsible for developing professional fundraising criteria.

Pope Francis, as always during his pontificate, had decided to double the number of structures, rather than strengthen and professionalize existing ones. Leo XIV thus demonstrated a different approach, one that envisioned strengthening and professionalizing the curial offices. Moreover, the decision to abolish the Commission came right after of the publication of the Holy See’s budget, which did not have the negative tone of the past but instead showed a slight surplus across dicasteries and halved the structural operating deficit.

This change of direction in the budget suggests that the crisis was perhaps less grave than previously thought, and that, under Pope Francis, the economic figures almost became an excuse to implement radical reforms, perhaps with the help of additional commissions.

More than the numbers themselves, what was striking was their interpretation and the emotional shock that accompanied them. Leo XIV, for his part, seemed to be trying to restore things to a sure “institutional normality,” so to speak.

It remains to be seen how these two speeds will eventually find a balance after the January consistory.