Dear brother Leo, welcome!
You are one of us, a man in flesh and blood so you are entitled to a warm welcome. Just as on the day your mother gave you to the world, and today again because of the task to you entrusted. It must be indeed like a second or third birth to you.
Taking a new name is not a light choice to make and a person can only do that a few times in life. Most of us don’t even do it, although we hope you know that some do, for very good reasons, when entering a completely new life. Nuns do it (not all), monks do it (not all), transgender people do it (not all). Today, you are in deep communion with them all.
You are also in communion with all who seek justice and peace on Earth, not just in heaven or in their small circles, but everywhere, in the vast expanse of land and ocean and mountains that we all continue to pollute and use to feed our egos, while we keep justifying the killing of thousands of people, where we dwell mostly unaware of the beauty that surrounds us.
You said “peace” and “all are welcome” and “bridges”— we heard in that pope Francis’s cry “Build bridges, not walls!” —and, in a recent interview, you spoke of the church as a community not an institution. Good luck with that! We are not going to stand in the way of your dreams, but you know that this is quite a huge one, don’t you?
I think we would all be happier if you dropped the word “mission” which has done too much harm to us in the past, and that you seem to like instead. If you attach a different meaning to it, if you want to talk about your communion with the poor people living in the lost corners of the earth — lost only to that smaller portion of us who thinks to be living in the center — that’s great, but please specify.
We all liked your shy smile, and your tears in the corner of your eye. Forgive us for prying, but you knew this would happen when you accepted the job.
You are one of us, and we think you know that, but we and you know also that your responsibility now largely exceeds that of most of us. You can be a voice for peace and reconciliation, or you can drop your prophetic call. You can be a listener and a convener in the Catholic Church, or you can just pretend to be that. You can choose new beautiful ideas and polish old beautiful ideas and create a tapestry of hope with all that, or you can try to bury creativity under a stone.
Augustine’s obsessions with sin and sexuality, we truly hope that you let them be just what they are: historically relevant yet faulty steps in our tortuous journey towards the truth of who we are, in communion with other bodies and souls.
We think that your heart is in the right place— which is a lot to say these days when looking at the world’s leaders —so we are thankful for your election and your acceptance of it and your re-naming yourself with strength.
The events of these days may have been caused by Providence or just by Serendipity. We hope that Wisdom also had a great part. But what matters the most for us is that you can represent decency in front of the powerful who have lost it completely, who walk like shells of human beings in their gilded rooms where they concoct our nightmares.
We don’t presume to speak for other species but we think that those seagulls on the roof were a clear indication that they too welcome you, as their new brother with a new name and with a new job for the good of the whole.
Amen.
See Matthew Fox, A New Reformation.
See also Fox, The Coming of the Cosmic Christ.
And Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.
And Fox, Letters to St. Francis.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video meditation, click HERE.
Banner image: “Pope Leo XIV on the loggia after his election.” Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
How do you feel about the new pope? Does he foster in you a sense of hope?
Recommended Reading
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality & The Transformation of Christianity
A modern-day theologian’s call for the radical transformation of Christianity that will allow us to move once again from the hollow trappings of organized religion to genuine spirituality. A New Reformation echoes the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther in 1517 and offers a new vision of Christianity that values the Earth, honors the feminine, and respects science and deep ecumenism.
“This is a deep and forceful book….With prophetic insight, Matthew Fox reveals what has corrupted religion in the West and the therapy for its healing.” ~Bruce Chilton, author of Rabbi Jesus: An Intimate Biography
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ: The Healing of Mother Earth and the Birth of a Global Renaissance
In what may be considered the most comprehensive outline of the Christian paradigm shift of our Age, Matthew Fox eloquently foreshadows the manner in which the spirit of Christ resurrects in terms of the return to an earth-based mysticism, the expression of creativity, mystical sexuality, the respect due the young, the rebirth of effective forms of worship—all of these mirroring the ongoing blessings of Mother Earth and the recovery of Eros, the feminine aspect of the Divine.
“The eighth wonder of the world…convincing proof that our Western religious tradition does indeed have the depth of imagination to reinvent its faith.” — Brian Swimme, author of The Universe Story and Journey of the Universe.
“This book is a classic.” Thomas Berry, author of The Great Work and The Dream of the Earth.
Matthew Fox challenges the new Pope to live up to the promise of his namesake St. Francis and reshape a church that has been mired in corruption and bereft of authentic spirituality and rigorous theological debate. Former Dominican priest Matthew Fox presents a series of heartfelt letters to his brother in Christ about the great challenges facing the church today, drawing from the deep spiritual and theological sources that have been suppressed since Vatican II, and implores him to restore the sensus fidelium (the sense of the faithful) and reshape a church with justice and compassion.
