Welcome pope Leo!

Accompanied by prayer from the world's Catholics, we now have a new pope. We welcome Pope Leo XIV.

 The significance of his choice of name has already been noted in the fact that his predecessor, Leo XIII, who was pope around the turn of the century 1899/1900, laid the foundations of Catholic social doctrine through the encyclical Rerum Novarum,  which recognized the right of trade unions and workers to strike. He also opened the Vatican Observatory to show the Church's positive interest in science (this in an era marked by Catholic anti-modernism and legalism). But it is also significant that Leo XIII was a pope who was open to the Holy Spirit and the renewal of the Church through Pentecost.

He listened to a nun, Elena Guerra, who had received a revelation from the Lord that there must be more preaching about life in the Holy Spirit in the church. Elena was a prophetic voice on the threshold of the 20th century, anticipating the Pentecostal charismatic stream of renewal in the 20th century. She wrote twelve confidential letters to the Pope stating that the whole Church must pray for the Spirit to do something great in the 20th century. She called on the Pope to pray for a renewal of the Church, the reunification of Christians, the renewal of society and a renewal of the face of the earth. She imagined Pentecost as something that continues, she said:

"Pentecost is not over. It continues continuously in every time and in every place, because the Holy Spirit has the desire to give Himself to all people, and anyone who wants to receive the Spirit can always do so, so we need not envy the apostles and the early Christians; We only have to make ourselves available in the same way as them in order to receive Him, and He will come to us as He came to them."

Inspired by Elena Guerra, the Pope published an encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Divinum illud munos. He also introduced 9 days of prayer for the Holy Spirit between Ascension Day and Pentecost, and on New Year's Eve at the beginning of the new century, he prayed the Pentecost sequence in the name of the whole Church.

So with the name Leo is associated both with the care of the poor and the openness to the full life of the Holy Spirit. That our new pope finally also emphasizes Christian unity is clear from his motto as bishop: "In Illo uno unum" - words spoken by St. Augustine in a sermon on Psalm 127 to explain that "although we Christians are many, we are one in the one Christ".

Let us in the CHARIS community continue to pray for our new Pope and work with him on the foundations laid by Pope Francis. His desire was that the Charismatic Renewal would promote the reception of the baptism of the Spirit throughout the Church, serve the poor and work for the unity of Christians.