The charisma of John Paul, the depth of Benedict, the closeness of Francis

Barely a year ago, the media were trying to outline what the future Pope should be like, as if it depended on us. 

The truth is that every pontiff goes off script, in one way or another. But we, the media, always try to leave our opinion in print, in order to confirm our own perspectives, even by making verbal filigrees. Thank God, the Holy Spirit does not consult us. 

Leo XIV has visited Spain in what was his first long trip to a mostly Catholic European country. And so it seemed to be confirmed because, in each act, Leo XIV was accompanied by tens of thousands of people, reaching more than 1 million in the Holy Mass and Corpus Christi procession, which he presided in Madrid.

Leo XIV was “at ease” with the family. He skipped the script, he stopped with children and couples, he allowed himself to be embraced and he approached those who, because of age or condition, found it more difficult to see him.

There have been many who have said that Leo XIV reminded them of John Paul II, or Francis, or even Benedict XVI, in some of his gestures.

The Pontiff knows he is a link in the chain of succession of St. Peter and perhaps, for this reason, he reminds us of those who shepherded the Church in the past. Like those children who pick up gestures from their grandparents, or from their older siblings, almost without knowing it, Pope Prevost was reminiscent of his predecessors.

What we have been able to see, has been a Pope with a deep, thoughtful speech, The lecture, with a broad theological depth that, at certain moments, was reminiscent of the lucid words of Benedict XVI.

We have seen a Pope close to us, the Pope of children, of babies, who has blessed more than two hundred during these days.

A Pope who, like John Paul II, has not hesitated to go off script by making encouraging appeals to discover one's vocation, in whatever state of life, or to look more closely to the Lord in the Eucharist.

A Leo XIV who was young in the midst of young people, speaking their language and answering their questions.

And we have seen a social Pope, who weeps with those who suffer most, with those who have had to leave everything behind, with those who have been, for one reason or another, on the brink of death, with those who have despaired because God did not seem to answer their cries. 

Leo will always remind us of John Paul II, Benedict, Francis, Leo XIII, Paul VI... Or Peter. Because, in the end, the reality is that all of us - each one with his or her own nuances - are shaping the face of Christ in the Church, whose visible head on earth, “the sweet Christ on earth” in the words of St. Catherine of Siena is, and will always be, the Holy Father.