Patrick Flannery

Today, when speaking to the basketball teams and fans from Villanova and Notre Dame, Pope Leo joked that The Pope doesn’t take sides, but Prevost has another opinion! It was a humorous acknowledgment of something we don’t often consider: the distinction between the man and the office he has been called to serve. When Robert Prevost was elected to the Chair of Peter, he assumed an extraordinary responsibility. As Pope Leo XIV, he is the successor of St. Peter, the Vicar of Christ, and the visible sign of unity for Catholics throughout the world. His ministry transcends national boundaries, political parties, and earthly governments. He belongs, in a very real sense, to the whole Church. But becoming Pope did not erase Robert Prevost’s personal history, his identity, or his citizenship. Still, in a very real sense, Prevost had to die to himself so that Pope Leo XIV could live. His personal desires, worries, preferences, fears, and ambitions now have to yield to the responsibilities of the Petrine ministry. His life is no longer entirely his own. But dying to self is not the same as losing one’s personal identity. The surrender of oneself to Christ so that Christ might live more fully within us does not erase who we were before. He still has personal thoughts and opinions that are not necessarily those of the Church. He will make mistakes, commit sins, and seek forgiveness. He will have likes and dislikes, he will form friendships and may have relationships crumble. He will rejoice and mourn. It is a beautiful thing to know that he is still the same person he was before his election and like each of us, that person is being formed and perfected in Christ’s image. Not everything he does or says is in the name of the Church or is an official pontifical act. We saw beautiful example of this distinction in Pope Benedict XVI. While serving as Pope, he published his Jesus of Nazareth books under his baptismal name Joseph Ratzinger. He deliberately distinguished his personal theological reflections from the authoritative teaching of the papal magisterium. In the preface to the first volume, he explained that the work was not a magisterial act but an expression of his personal search for the face of the Lord. Joseph Ratzinger had become Pope Benedict XVI, but Joseph Ratzinger had not ceased to exist. The theologian, the scholar, and the man of faith remained, even as he surrendered himself to the extraordinary demands of the papacy. Even when he gives his entire life in service to the office, the office cannot consume him. Rather, it is in surrendering ourselves to God that we discover who we are most truly called to become. Pope Leo will spend the rest of his life learning what it means to surrender Robert Prevost more completely to the service of Christ and his Church. Yet the man from Chicago, the Augustinian friar, the missionary, the friend, and yes, even the Villanova fan, remains. And perhaps that is the beautiful paradox of Christian discipleship. Christ asks us to lose our lives for his sake, not because who we are no longer matters, but because who we are matters enough to be transformed by his grace. Robert Prevost does not have to disappear for Pope Leo to exist. He must continually offer himself so that Christ, rather than himself, remains at the center of his ministry. And he has done a tremendous job at that!