FROM FRANCIS TO LEO – MONICA DOUMIT

The Pope, as head of the Catholic Church, in a global world where Catholics make up

1.4 billion of Christianity’s two billion followers – the largest faith in the world – is a significant influencer across many national boundaries. The new pope has chosen the name “Leo” in the wake of Pope Leo XIII who, in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, while affirming the rights to property and free enterprise, opposing both atheistic socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. Can the world expect a new way forward with Pope Leo XIV? To discuss what might be expected of Leo XIV, Greg Craven, a constitutional lawyer and former Vice Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University joined Monica Doumit, Director, Public Affairs and Engagement for the Archdiocese of Sydney and a columnist with The Catholic Weekly, to address The Sydney Institute on Monday 7 July 2025.

FROM FRANCIS TO LEO

MONICA DOUMIT

Two days after Pope Francis was elected as the 265^th successor to St Peter, US news outlet NBC News posted an image on its Instagram account that became somewhat iconic. If a picture paints a thousand words, then the image posted by NBC News was an essay that outlined the dramatic shifts in technology in the short eight years that had elapsed since Pope Benedict’s election, and a commentary on the way it might impact the Church and the culture more broadly. You might know the picture I’m talking about.

The bottom half of the image was a photo of St Peter’s Square on the evening Pope Francis was elected in 2013. The Square was alight with a sea of mobile phones and iPads taking photos and videos of the new Pope on the loggia.

The top half was the same view taken in 2005 on the night of Benedict’s election. There was only one mobile phone in that shot, with its owner taking a photo using what was perhaps the phone’s 2-megapixel inbuilt camera.

The contrast could not have been starker, and this picture essay was telling us that Pope Francis would be the first Pope elected in a digital age that included 24-hour news cycles, iPhones, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and the citizen journalism the combination of these would create.

Pope Francis was the first Pope elected at a time where traditional media was no longer required, or even effective, in getting a message across. I’ll speak more about this a little later, but if one was to describe the Francis pontificate as controversial at times, part of the reason would have to be that he was the first pontiff to live under this type of intense scrutiny. None of the 265 popes before him had every public word they uttered livestreamed around the globe, and readily available in the palm of every Catholic’s hand for comment and critique.

However, our topic tonight is not from Benedict to Francis, so let’s fast forward a decade or so and consider this same idea – the influence of technology on the papacy – and how it might influence our experience of the transition from Francis I to Leo XIV.

In December 2024, six months before the conclave that would elect Robert Prevost as Pope, a website titled the College of Cardinals Report^[1] was published by a team led by Rome-based journalists Ed Pentin and Diane Montagna, who said that the resource came at the request of cardinals, clergy and laity^[2].

The Report was an online dashboard published in English and Italian that provided biographies of dozens of key cardinals considered to be potential candidates, and information on where they stood on ten key issues. Its authors explained that in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, there were often no more than a dozen cardinals, so it was easy for them to know each other well and therefore cast an informed vote in any conclave. But as the college expanded in size, diversity and distance, the ability of cardinals to get to know each other reduced, and even the few opportunities they had to meet and get to know each other were limited further by Pope Francis.

The website, its authors explained, aimed to bridge the “knowledge gap” for the cardinal-electors and other interested parties by scouring the internet for anything the men had said on topics like ordaining women to the diaconate, blessing same-sex couples, the Traditional Latin Mass, synodality and climate change and putting it on the site.

This handy online comparison tool was supplemented by a 200-page print edition for the less tech-savvy cardinals and was handed to them by the authors as they entered and exited pre-conclave meetings^[3]. This journalistic project, only made possible through the vast amounts of information online and the ability to distribute it amongst targeted Catholic networks, was perhaps the first key indicator of the difference a decade of digital technology can make to the papacy.

While discussion of papabile has been around since the apostles quarrelled amongst themselves about who should be the greatest^[4], this was perhaps the first time that their supporters were so brazen about handing out how to vote cards.

There were other indicators of the technological shift as we prepared to transition from Francis to Leo. Pope Francis’ funeral was streamed live globally in 15 languages and included the first live broadcast of a papal burial procession from St Peter’s to Santa Maria Maggioria. Every part of the 5.5 km journey through Rome’s streets was captured by a video journalist weaving through Roman streets on a high-speed bicycle, along with aerial footage provided by helicopters and satellites.

This, combined with the spectacle of the papabile being swarmed by some of the 4000 accredited media every time they stepped out in public showed that whoever the next Pope would be, he would be living under much more media scrutiny than even his immediate predecessor.

I want to suggest to you this evening that this increased scrutiny is going to be the first key difference between Pope Francis and Pope Leo. The second follows from it.

Because, while each of Francis and Leo were elected in a truly digital age, only one of them held any familiarity with it.

In a 2015 Google Hangout with young people, Pope Francis confessed to the youngsters that he did not know how to use a computer, and that he had not watched television since 1990^[5], long before many of his young audience had been born.

Contrast this with his successor, Pope Leo XIV, who – as Cardinal Robert Prevost – had his own account on X that he used intermittently to comment on US politics, amongst other things, most recently using it to repost critiques of the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

In his first formal address to the College of Cardinals that elected him, Leo explained that Pope Leo XIII, “in his historic encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.”^[6] “In our own day,” the new Pope said, “the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour.”^[7] From Francis to Leo, we moved from someone who didn’t know how to use a computer to one who chose his papal name in part, at least, because of the development of AI.

If Leo XIII was considered the first modern Pope due to Rerum Novarum’s addressing of workers’ rights, fair wages, and social justice during the Industrial Revolution, then perhaps Pope Leo XIV will be considered the second modern Pope because he too will need to address these matters in light of the new revolution of AI’s technological disruption, social and economic reorganisation, global reach and speed. I don’t think we can underestimate the difference it will make to have a Pope that understands the impact of these technologies. As Pope Leo himself said recently: “Communications and journalism do not exist outside of time and history.”^[8]

If I return to the, at times, controversial aspects of the Francis pontificate, I think at least some of this can be explained by his self-described distance from digital media. If the Pope isn’t online or even watching TV, then how will he know the true impact on the faithful of comments he made in some in-flight press conference, in a footnote in an apostolic exhortation or even in a motu proprio restricting the celebration of the traditional Latin Mass? He’s only going to know what he gets told by his close advisors and most of us in this room know that it is very easy to filter information that is given to your principal, whether that be in politics or church or somewhere else, and especially so when it comes to the global head of more than a billion Catholics.

While every Pope has obviously had the challenge of having information filtered through his advisors, no Pope before Pope Francis had done so where the flip side of that – the flow of information from the Pope and the Holy See to the faithful – has been the complete opposite. This complete imbalance between information input and information output, to my mind, created the environment for some of the tension we witnessed.

My expectation is that the transition from a Pope who didn’t use computers to one who might not be a digital native but who clearly understands how a brief comment can occupy the Twittersphere for days and confuse and scandalise the faithful for years will be significant. For this reason, I imagine that Leo will be more intentional with his words, not only to limit unintended controversies but also – and much more positively – to evangelise in a new way. Leo will understand in a way that Francis did not, the capability of this particular revolution and the way in which it might be used for the proclamation of the Gospel.

It’s analogous, I suggest, to the difference plane travel made to the pontiff’s evangelistic capabilities. While international flights allowed Pope Paul VI to be the first Pope to travel outside Italy in over 150 years, it was John Paul II who really capitalised on the technology, making more than 100 international visits by plane during his pontificate. While there were many reasons that JPII was so beloved by so many, part of it has to be attributed to the huge difference it made for a pope to be present – physically present – to his flock in other parts of the world. The rapid advancements in digital technology and the way it can be used to communicate gospel truths will have a similar impact in this pontificate.

In a meeting with journalists in the days following his election, the new Pope spoke of the evangelistic ability of the media and the possibility that journalists could themselves be witnesses. “You have been in Rome these past few weeks to report on the Church, its diversity and, at the same time, its unity,” the Pope said. “You were present during the liturgies of Holy Week and then reported on the sorrow felt over the death of Pope Francis, which nevertheless took place in the light of Easter. That same Easter faith drew us into the spirit of the Conclave, during which you worked long and tiring days. Yet, even on this occasion, you managed to recount the beauty of Christ’s love that unites and makes us one people, guided by the Good Shepherd.”^[9]

Pope Leo understands that journalists and other content creators are not passively transmitting a message from himself or other church leaders, but have the capability to themselves become heralds. And so, while Pope Francis was the first Pope to be elected into the era of YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, it will be Pope Leo XIV who harnesses its evangelical power.

This will be made easier, I suspect, by the third key point in the transition from Francis to Leo that I would like to explore this evening. Staying with the communications theme, I want to suggest that another game changer will be that the new Holy Father is a native English speaker. With 1.5 billion speakers, English is now the most spoken language in the world, far outstripping the numbers who speak the Euro-centric native tongues of the previous popes. Combining this with the communication channels that will be exploited by Pope Leo, I think we will find the Pope reaching his flock and potential flock in a very different way.

I don’t know about you, but I have already had numerous conversations with people about how they didn’t expect to react to hearing a Pope speak in fluent English, but that it was very attractive to them. Who will forget hearing the Holy Father, at his very first Mass, commence his homily in an American accent: “I will begin with a word in English, and the rest is in Italian.”^[10]

I don’t think we can underestimate the familiarity and perhaps the affection that the Western world will soon develop for a Pope who has the same accent and language as their favourite US-produced television shows.

As good as Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI were at speaking English as a second or third language, and as hard as Pope Francis tried to do the same, they didn’t have the ease of Pope Leo, who not only began his remarks to world media in English, but managed to crack a joke as well.

The ease with which he will be able to directly address the English-speaking world using the communications channels of the English-speaking world and his cognisance of the power this has will, I hope, provide an evangelistic moment that will be without parallel. He will, of course, have to be careful though. Because alongside the gifts of artificial intelligence are the dangers of deception.

I’ll offer a slight anecdote. I intended to use as an example of Pope Leo XIV’s ability to harness digital media a prayer that had been posted to TikTok. It was footage of then- Cardinal Robert Prevost, staring straight down the barrel of the camera, inviting people to pause and pray for one minute and offering a most beautiful prayer about the burdens each of us carry at any one time.

I was going to tell you all how it was a masterful use of social media’s evangelical power, until I realised that it was a complete and total fake. It was his face and his voice, but it never was he himself. The papal deepfakes industry is already big business, and it will only get harder to tell what is real and what is fake. The Pope will need to meet this challenge with a commitment to truth and authenticity, and will need to call us to do the same.

Which brings me to my final point. I’ve focused so far on the means of communication and how they might be used, but what about the message? As we transition from Francis to Leo, do we expect the message to change? On the one hand, we can say of course we don’t, because the Gospel message is timeless, for every generation. But on the other hand, I expect the message may change because I think the audience will be different.

As much as Pope Francis was styled as the pope of the peripheries in terms of where he wanted the Church to focus its attention, I came to understand his preaching style as “preaching to the converted.” Far from being an exercise in futility, I came to understand that Pope Francis believed that preaching to the converted was not only fruitful, but urgent. Consider his famous and oft-cited line, “Who am I to judge?”

Preached to an already secularised and faithless world, this statement could be interpreted as license for a person to do whatever they pleased. Directed, however, to those already in the pews, who were not at risk of living a life of licentiousness, the phrase might have a different effect, encouraging us to reflect on our own weakness and sinfulness before seeking to condemn others.

His push for synodality is another one: it is hardly meaningful to a world of non-Catholics or even non-practising or lukewarm Catholics, but transformative for those firmly inside. The focal point for Pope Francis’ public words were people like me. Who will be Leo’s focus?

The truth is, I don’t know. But from his first words to us as Pope, my sense is that he will seek a wider audience. He began with a greeting of peace, saying that he would like it “to resound in your hearts, in your families, among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world.” He went on to say:

It is the peace of the risen Christ. A peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. A peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally.

God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail! All of us are in God’s hands. So, let us move forward, without fear, together, hand in hand with God and with one another other! We are followers of Christ. Christ goes before us. The world needs his light. Humanity needs him as the bridge that can lead us to God and his love.”^[11]

If Leo continues to focus his message on God’s love and his peace, and he communicates it through all the tools available, then I think his message will not only resonate within the church but to the peripheries, physical and existential, so beloved by his predecessor.

And doesn’t the world need it right now?

ENDNOTES

1. “The Vatican’s College of Cardinals: A Comprehensive Report.” College of Cardinals Report, collegeofcardinalsreport.com/ ↑
2. “About Us.” College of Cardinals Report, collegeofcardinalsreport.com/about-us/. ↑
3. Scammell, Rosie, and Joshua McElwee. “The Dossier: Secret Files on Pope’s Potential Successors.” CNN, 6 May 2025, edition.cnn.com/2025/05/06/world/cardinals-pope-conclave-dossier-candidates-intl. ↑
4. Luke 22:24-30 ↑
5. “Technology Confession: Pope Francis Holds Google Hangout.” ABC News, 13 Feb. 2015, abcnews.go.com/Technology/pope-francis-makes-technology-confession-google-hangout/story?id=28748028. ↑
6. Leo XIV. “Speech to the College of Cardinals.” Vatican, 10 May 2025, www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/may/documents/20250510-collegio-cardinalizio.html. ↑
7. Ibid. ↑
8. Leo XIV. “Speech to the Media.” Vatican, 12 May 2025, www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/speeches/2025/may/documents/20250512-media.html ↑
9. Ibid. ↑
10. Leo XIV. “Homily: Mass in the Vatican Grottoes.” Vatican, 11 May 2025, www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/homilies/2025/documents/20250511-messa-grotte-vaticane.html ↑
11. Full Text: Pope Leo XIV’s First Speech: ‘Peace Be with You’.” Reuters, 8 May 2025, www.reuters.com/world/europe/full-text-pope-leo-xivs-first-speech-peace-be-with-you-2025-05-08/.↑