My youngest brother (by 8 years) graduated with you from Villanova, 1977; so I write you as I would him, as my little brother in Christ; with due reverence for you as our Holy Father and Vicar of Christ on earth; with tender affection; with respect for your evident gifts; aware of shortcomings only recently manifest. To do such takes theological confidence, clarity, certitude and even cockiness. Fleckinstein (you are aware dear Reader) is not lacking in such!
In your choice of name, you clearly emulate Leo XIII. I urge you: do not expect to give us a Rerum Novarun for the 21st century! Rather, echo the Augustinian (your order) Leo who foresaw the darkness of the 20th century, the invasion from hell, and gave us the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, the call to spiritual combat. This second Leo understood Augustine's view of the City of God and the City of Man. The first is the presence of the Kingdom of God among us, since Jesus, in the Church. The second is the realm of libido dominando ("lust for domination") which is the determining force of "the world," the arena of political force, violence and control. You belong to the City of God, not the City of Man. This is not a dualistic binary, rather a realization that in the real world the two interpenetrate each other in subtle, complex fashion, but are clearly distinct.
It is NOT your job to be global chaplain and outline the framework for international peace and justice. That is NOT your mission! I urge you: Do Not Worry...about...climate, immigrants, income inequality, fascism, capital punishment. Pray (as St. Padre Pio taught us), hope, and do not worry.
Renounce the error of Pope Francis: to see yourself as global chaplain of a new international Christendom, as instructor of everyone in political ideology. Even Ross Douthat (with whom I agree 98% of the time) (NY Times Oct. 12, 2025) is looking for you to do what Leo XIII did for 20th century Catholicism in Rerum Novarun : provide political guidance going forward. Such is not possible. Such is not your job.
Catholic social doctrine...initiated by Rerum but developed for over a century through John Paul and Benedict...holds up well in postmodernity as it is not a meta-theory but a body of fluid, flexible, organic principles, rooted in Natural Law and Revelation, applicable in all contexts and untied to any system or ideology: solidarity with the poor, subsidiarity, common good, freedom of conscience, etc. These remain useful to us going forward and admit of organic development.
Douthat correctly notes that Leo XIII set the table for Catholic politics of that century by rejecting, as the Industrial World was emerging, both collectivist socialism and individualist capitalism in favor of a balanced, communal vision of social life rooted in the traditional family and entailing freedom of initiative, markets, unions, a limited but a robust state to serve the common good, countervail power/wealth, defend the worker and the poor. This template was implemented faithfully in the postwar West after the New Deal and in Christian Democracy in Europe.
That accomplishment no longer holds: we are in a new world, far more dark, violent, turbulent, dangerous, and puzzling. It has been compared to that of Augustine and Benedict by sages like Ratzinger, McIntyre and Dreher: the old order weakened and collapsing under the assault of barbaric forces. In that time, it is unthinkable that any pope, AI program or genius could have anticipated the subsequent development of the monastic movement into the Medieval order. And so with our world: we look back, 80 years, and know the world we are leaving; we do not know the one we are entering, except that it is dark, dangerous, and complex. We speak of "postmodern" and "postliberal."
"Postmodern" is the rejection of mega-theories of rationality and sees around us decision and freedom in the face of uncertainty, chaos, contingency, irony, partiality. Encyclopedic, universal political theories and systems of all sorts...Marxism, Democratic Liberalism, Progressive Evolutionism...are now sterile, abstract constructions. Neither system nor abstraction serve us: we stand in a dramatic war between the holy and the hellish. Our choice is a hard binary: Nietzsche (protege of Lucifer) or Christ!
"Postliberal" means that the liberal, global, postwar Pax Americana no longer holds in a multipolar world of competing totalitarianisms/fascisms and a West bitterly waging culture war. Surely the basic Christian values (freedoms, rule of law, human dignity, right to life) remain; but they no longer cohere in a neat system like that of FDR or Ronald Reagan.
Do not pressure yourself to create a brilliant new social thesis including technology, AI, the internet, medical ethics, the renunciation of lethal force (war, death penalty, defund police), global warming, immigration and borders.
First of all, there is nothing in your resume, temperament, training, ordination, mission or charism that prepares you for this impossible task.
Secondly, the dark forces overwhelming us are immense, far beyond the capacity of anyone to understand and order: loss of faith and despair across the West, totalitarianisms of communism and Islam, emergent fascisms, technology, global warming, wars and violence. This is LIBIDO DOMINANDI at a volcanic, boundless degree.
As pope you have no role, no capacity, no place in the arena of libido dominandi. Your domain is the sacred, this is the profane, the secular. One reason the Catholic hierarchy allowed the priest abuse to continue was the systematic clerical incapacity to recognize and confront Evil. Inherently, priests have an innocence, a naivite, a cluelessness in dealing with evil. And so, papal teaching on warfare, death penalty, borders and such is unrealistic, largely illusionary. If it was up to the hierarchy, the USA would never have bombed the Iranian nuclear site, Israel would not have devastated their war machine, and the Middle East would still be dominandi by totalitarian mullahs.
Stay in your lane! Sweep your side of the street! It is yours to shepherd the flock in Truth! It is the truth of the Gospel and the life of worship that unites us in Christ and empowers us to enlighten the world now in darkness. It is for the laity to deal with the secular, the libido dominandi. Yours is the realm of the sacred.
Please:
1. Rescue the Chinese Church that Pope Francis surrendered tragically to the communists.
2. Strengthen, clearly, our Catholic ethos of family, chastity, fidelity, respect for life. It is this that underlies any just social order. Stand against cultural progressivism. Dismiss the "blessing of homosexual unions." Define "synodality" as a spirituality of reverent, compassionate listening and get rid of the emergent faux-apostolic bureaucracy. Restore the John Paul Institute to the teachings of John Paul.
3. Welcome the Latin Mass back into the heart of the Church as did Pope Benedict.
4. Correct the Catechism back to the ancient, unchanging Catholic teaching on the death penalty as a prudential decision by secular authorities.
5. Clean up curial corruption: the progressive, lavender mafia; all the financial corruption; the continuing tolerance for sexual abuse by predators like Rupnik,
In the last few weeks, dear Pontiff, you have shown us something of yourself. I am saddened and disappointed. There are clear indications that you will, as you promised, follow the path of Pope Francis: act as global chaplain; accommodate Western sexual liberation and Chinese Communism; and neglect the our urgent pastoral needs above.
Nevertheless, you are our Holy Father and Vicar of Christ on earth. You are a holy priest, a man of the poor, a steady and judicious institutionalist. We love you. We will pray all the more for you as we see that you are not temperamentally prepared for the task before you.
Come Holy Ghost!
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