As the world welcomes Pope Leo XIV, many are finding hope in the promise of expanding the legacy of Pope Francis, a shepherd who remodeled the Catholic Church when bringing it closer to the poor, excluded and wounded. This transition moment is not just ceremonial. It is a spiritual and moral inflection point.
In his first public words like Pope, Leo XIV proclaimed: “We have to look together to be a missionary church. A church that builds bridges and dialogue.” That single prayer indicates continuity with Francis's soul, and also charges us something urgent: build.
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12:58 PM May 9, 2025An earlier version of this piece dropped words from the appointment of Pope Leo's balcony speech. He characterized the voice of Pope Francis not only as “weak”, but also “always brave.”
But even before those words were pronounced, Catholics worldwide should understand the deep importance of the name, Leo. Pope Leo XIV now bears a name full of social tradition. Leo XIII first framed the rights of workers and economic dignity as a sacred land in “Rerum novarum. “This 1891 revolutionized the Catholic commitment to the modern world.
The values that encouraged Francis – Mercy, Justice, human dignity and care for creation – were defended by their predecessors, Papes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. But Francis lived them with surprising clarity, incarnating them not only in teaching, but also in action and encounter.
During the last decade, I had the privilege of working together with Francis through a Vatican office for human rights and social and economic justice. I also served as a delegate for international meetings of grassroots organizers that Francis convened to focus the voices of the poor. Through that work, I witnessed first hand the vision defined by his papacy.
In 2015, at the world meeting of popular movements of the Church, I heard Francis denounce “the search for money without restrictions” as a “new colonialism” and raised the sacred rights of housing, work and earth. “The future of humanity,” he said, “is in the hands of peoples and in their ability to organize.”
Four years later, I found him again and gave him an image of the Mission of Dolores in Los Angeles, representing Mary and Jesus as migrants. I asked him what message could bring home. He smiled, my heart said and said: “Stay with the people.“ Stay with people.
That is the call that the Church inherits. Pope Leo XIV honored his spirit when he said: “We keep in our hearts the weak but always brave voice of Pope Francis who blesses Rome … God loves us. God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail.”
In this moment of change and possibility, four principles that Francis lived, and that Leo XIV has begun to echo, must guide the Church.
Cultivation meeting In a moment of social fragmentation and loneliness, the Church must become a home for relations. One in five Americans informs that they have no close confidant. Loneliness is now considered as dangerous for health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Francis reminded us: “We do not love concepts or ideas; we love people.” Catholic parishes are among the last places where people from different races, classes and generations meet. But they must become spaces of belonging and mission, not just the Sunday obligation.
The community organization offers a way forward. Through listening and narration of small stories, parishes can become shared purpose schools. As Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. has been paraphrased, “the Church is not the place you come to, it is the place you go.”
Integral human development This is the name of the Vatican office with which I collaborated. His work with migrants, war refugees, peacemakers, poor and workers is based on the belief that spiritual formation and social transformation go hand in hand. We need contemplative practice and emotional and spiritual resilience to navigate this era of uncertainty.
Integral human development means resisting binary thought so common in politics and the media, seeking truth beyond ideology and leading with mercy. In a world of indignation and division, these are not luxuries, they are essential.
Civic leadership Francis challenged the Church to be “bruised, wounded and dirty because it has been on the streets”, instead of caught in self -preservation. Meanwhile, inequality, climate collapse and democratic erosion threaten the common good. In the 2024 elections, only California saw 1.7 million less votes than in 2020. Too many people feel invisible or discarded.
The Church must follow Jesus' call to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Salt preservation. The light reveals. A salt and light movement would help Catholics establish relationships through difference, organize locally and bring gospel values to public life. As a priest told me to march in the 1963 march in Washington: “He changed my understanding of who God is.”
Moral leadership We face a courage crisis. Francis warned that “fear leads us to feel trapped” and paralyzed. His response was the joy, imagination and the public witness. Leo XIV seems ready to continue with that witness, “always looking for peace and justice. Seeking to work with men and women who are faithful to Jesus Christ without fear of proclaiming the Gospel.”
The world needs us not to be indifferent or desperate in the midst of darkness. The world needs people of faith and good will who choose to meet their neighbors, expand their circle of human concern and call courage to act in civic life for peace, justice and care of our common home. Pope Leo XIV is a spark of light that attests to which a more compassionate and inclusive church and world are possible. Guide, as Francis said, “with humility and conviction of this process of change.”
Joseph Tomás McKellar is Executive Director of Pico California, a faith organization based on faith. He collaborated with Pope Francis through the Vatican Dicastery to promote integral human development and served as a delegate for multiple world meetings of popular movements.
