Leo
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New Pope, who dis?
Habemus papem. We have a pope—and he has chosen the name Leo. In what follows I’m going to tell you why I’m heckin’ excited about the name and share what we’ll be doing together at Recovering Catholic to celebrate.
As
1 pointed out earlier this week, the significance of papal names is multifaceted. Rather than viewing each name in isolation, he argues, we should consider the name of a pope’s immediate predecessor as context for what we might expect to see from a newly elected Successor of Peter. Simmonds writes,When Joseph Ratzinger chose the name Benedict XVI, an homage to the patron of Europe, he explicitly anchored his papacy on the preservation of Europe and the Christian roots of the West. Not only did Ratzinger fulfill this mandate with a brilliant papacy, but also with his entire life …
Bergoglio recognized the brilliance of Ratzinger, but also was inspired to inaugurate a new direction in his own papacy - one that built upon a Benedictine foundation. Bergoglio’…