In the Footsteps of Francis: Ten Lines of Continuity in Leo XIV's Church

Introduction The first words of a new pope are always read for signals. Pope Leo XIV told the cardinals plainly in his first address to the College, “I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.” Pope Leo praised his predecessor for being “a humble servant of God and of his brothers and sisters,” and called on the Cardinals to “take up this precious legacy and continue on the journey,” expanding on several fundamental points from the late pope’s exhortation: “the return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation (cf. No. 11); the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community (cf. No. 9); growth in collegiality and synodality (cf. No. 33); attention to the sensus fidei (cf. Nos. 119-120), especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as …