The Inaugural Mass of Pope Leo XIV

The stage which the Square of St Peter’s affords for grand liturgical spectacle is of unquestionably unique scale. It is framed by the Bernini colonnades on the one hand, while the façade of St Peter’s Basilica serves as a backdrop on the other. In addition, it is replete with yet more ancient, albeit pagan references, through having an Egyptian obelisk at its centre, topped with an urn said to contain nothing less than the ashes of Julius Caesar. This vast space was yet further enlarged at the instigation of Mussolini with the construction of Via della Concilazione, leading all the way down to the Castel Sant’Angelo and the Tiber. 

When filled with several hundred thousand people and a vast array of Ecumenical and civil dignitaries, as happened at the Mass marking the Inauguration of the Petrine Ministry of Pope Leo XIV last Sunday, the scene is eloquent of the enduring global reach of Christianity.

It was a very great joy to have been invited and thus to witness this very promising beginning of another pontificate. The expanse of the Anglican Communion was itself made evident in that the official delegation was led by The Most Revd Leonard Dawea, Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Melanesia.

But what was perhaps most striking however, amidst such architecture of grandeur, was the layout and revised nature of the ceremony itself.

The very grand throne and canopy traditionally placed immediately in front of St Peter’s for the inauguration of each new Pope was, for this event, entirely omitted – as was the ceremonial of first obeisance whereby all the Cardinals would each in turn do homage, followed by the Archbishops present, who traditionally did likewise and kissed the papal foot. 

This left in very clear relief the central acts of inauguration: the imposition of the Pallium and the conferring of the “Ring of the Fisherman,” after which twelve representatives from “the different categories of the People of God, from all over the world” pledged obedience.

In a scene so rich with historical reference but new internal simplicity, it was striking to think of that very contrasting Pontificate of Lothar of Segni, Pope Innocent III (1160/61 – 1216). 

Lothar was elected Pope on the very same day that his elderly predecessor Pope Celestine III died (January 8, 1198). And he was elected Pope though still only aged 37 and in only Minor Orders. So he had first to be ordained a priest on February 21, 1198, and was then consecrated as Bishop of Rome the next day, on the feast day of St Peter’s Chair.  

What made his pontificate so important historically was that, before his time, the understanding of the office had stressed an understanding of the Roman Pope as the successor or Vicar of St Peter. He, by contrast, came up with a far more elevated claim: namely to be nothing less than the Vicar of Christ. As he put it, with startling expansiveness, a Pope “has the authority because he does not exercise the office of man, but of the true God on earth.” It was this radically innovative approach, when articulated through the mechanisms of Canon Law, that led ultimately to the claims of universal jurisdiction rather than of honor which have always been so problematic to non-Roman Catholics and Anglicans in particular. 

All of that past history served to make the dramatically recovered simplicity of the rite that inaugurated Pope Leo’s new ministry last Sunday seem very interesting indeed.

It is far too soon to anticipate and explore the full ecumenical potential, but it is nonetheless apposite to recall the rather ecumenical vision of Roman Primacy set out after Vatican II by the distinguished Roman theologian Louis Bouyer * who said: 

“It should be recognized that only the seven great councils of the undivided Church were able to make definitions de fide which cannot be revoked … the apostolic see of Old Rome ought to make a declaration to the effect that the dogma of the primacy of that see and of the infallibility of the doctrinal decisions made by the pope as teacher of the universal Church must be understood, first with the complements that Vatican II has already added concerning the teaching role of the episcopate as a whole and the participation of the whole people of God in the witness perpetually given to truth in charity, and secondly in the light of the whole tradition of the undivided Church …”

Such a perspective is a helpful lense through which to look at the striking and inviting words of the new Pope in his Homily last Sunday:

“The heart of the Gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters. With my predecessor Leo XIII, we can ask ourselves today: If this criterion “were to prevail in the world, would not every conflict cease and peace return?” (Rerum Novarum, 20).

With the light and the strength of the Holy Spirit, let us build a Church founded on God’s love, a sign of unity, a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the word, allows itself to be made “restless” by history, and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity.

Together, as one people, as brothers and sisters, let us walk towards God and love one another.”

The Rev. Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff
Rector

Footnote:

*Louis Bouyer CO (17 February 1913 – 22 October 2004) was a French Catholic priest and member of the Oratory of Jesus who had earlier been a Lutheran minister. As a peritus (theological advisor) he had significant influence on the Second Vatican Council and with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and others, co-founded the international review Communio.