The first one hundred days of Leo XIV
By Roberto de Mattei | 27 August 2025
On 17 August, Leo XIV moved back to the Vatican after his summer break at Castel Gandolfo. This date also marked the first 100 days of his pontificate, which began on 8 May 2025.
Is this period, during which the Pope has not made any decisive appointments, international trips or major speeches, sufficient to predict the future course of his pontificate? Absolutely not. The Church’s time frames are not those of politics, and three months is insufficient for a serious analysis of the future.
Pope Francis’s pontificate was objectively devastating, not so much for the victories of progressivism, which did not achieve any of its most radical goals, but for the confusion it generated throughout the Catholic world, including the divisions it provoked in traditionalist circles, pushing some towards positions rejecting Petrine primacy. The process of the Church’s self-destruction is therefore advanced, and it is right to wonder whether Leo XIV will halt it, although it is too early to give a definitive answer to this question.
First impressions are important, and Leo XIV, upon his election, gave the impression of a Pastor aware that his mission has no other foundation than in Christ. The expression, In Illo uno unum — “In the one Christ we are one” — which echoes St Augustine’s words on Psalm 127, is the motto of the new Pope, who appears convinced that he will not be judged by his innovations and worldly success but by his fidelity to the teachings of the Gospel. His Marian devotion was likewise clear from the moment of his visit to the shrine of Genazzano, two days after his election.
The reference to Christ, and therefore to the supernatural nature of the Church, appears to be a constant of the first three months of his pontificate. Moreover, apart from this cornerstone there is no possibility of realising Leo XIV’s programme, which, as he has repeatedly reiterated, is to restore unity and peace in the Church and the world, precisely where Pope Francis’s pontificate failed.
Conservative and traditionalist critics of Leo XIV underline the fact that, in his first 100 days in office, he has cited Pope Francis more than seventy times, presenting him as a point of reference. They also emphasise that he has not removed, in whole or in part, unfavourable documents like Amoris laetitia and Traditionis custodes; that his statements suggest that he intends to continue the synodal path; that in some speeches he has expressed himself in ambiguous language typical of progressivism; and that, finally, he has confirmed in their positions all the heads of offices and dicasteries, starting with Cardinal Parolin. The final judgment is merciless: Leo XIV appears to be a “Bergoglio with a human face”.
It is also true, however, that in no area has the Pontiff crossed the line set by his predecessor. On the contrary, there have been signs of a reversal: “Marriage is not an ideal but the measure of true love between a man and a woman”, he said on 31 May 2025, correcting Amoris laetitia; in his speech to government leaders on 21 June Leo, along the lines of Benedict XVI, Pope Leo firmly defended natural law, “written not by human hands, but acknowledged as valid in all times and places”; on 9 July, in a homily at Castel Gandolfo he seemed to correct the green ideology so prized by Francis; in the audience of 13 August he affirmed that Judas Iscariot chose to exclude himself from salvation with his betrayal, in contrast with Pope Bergoglio, who had said he did not know whether Judas had gone to hell. In a letter addressed on 17 August to the ecclesial conference of the Amazon he condemned the worship of nature, putting Christ and the Eucharist at the centre of evangelisation.
Moreover, the confirmations of Francis’s associates are made donec aliter provideatur — that is, until he decides otherwise — but meanwhile the Pope appointed Cardinal Robert Sarah as his special envoy for the solemn celebrations held on 25 and 26 July at the shrine of Sainte-Anne-d’Auray, at the four hundredth anniversary of the apparitions, and Cardinal Dominik Daka, who signed the dubia on Amoris laetitiae, as his special envoy to the celebrations for the centenary of the establishment of the Archdiocese of Gdańsk (Poland), which will be held on 14 October 2025. Then, on 22 August, Leo XIV received in private audience Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, whom Francis considered one of his worst enemies. In a letter he sent on 17 June to Cardinal Burke, on the occasion of his Jubilee, the Pope thanked him for “the prompt service he carried out with zeal” on behalf of the Apostolic See, always preaching “the precepts of the Gospel according to the Heart of Christ”.
In turn, in an interview with the newspaper La Stampa on 18 August, Cardinal Burke stated:
“The pontificate of Leo XIV is distinguished by its Christocentrism; he always speaks of the Lord and his Church. It is important that the Church not be reduced to an NGO. Leo takes the time to appoint people capable of assisting him in his main responsibilities. The office of pope is impossible for those without the right associates. The very choice of a name that harks back to Leo the Great and Leo XIII makes clear his desire to be an authentic ‘father of fathers’, a true shepherd of the universal Church. We must pray for him and help him, each of us in our role.”
Of course, these are indications, not proofs of a real change, but nor does there exist proof to the contrary, and the critical predictions about the Leonine pontificate are based on tenuous indications. The field therefore remains open, with problems on the horizon that concern, in addition to the crucial issue of appointments, crucial questions like Synodality and the Vatican’s relations with China.
It is easy to suggest to the Pope what he should do, or even demand that he do it in short order, without being in his position and having the responsibility to do so. But we must remember that St Pius X waited four years before condemning modernism, despite having at his side a secretary of state so aligned with him as Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val. What group of anti-modernist associates could today assist Leo XIV in his decisions, who is certainly no Pius X, as his cultural background and pastoral experience demonstrate?
Among the great Pontiffs of the last two centuries we also number Pius IX, a Pope who did not become anti-liberal until three years after his election, following a rude awakening caused by the revolutionary persecution and his flight from Rome. Pius XII, who was a meek Pope and a lover of negotiation, was overwhelmed by the Second World War and had to wait several years before promulgating his great encyclicals Mystici Corporis (1943), Mediator Dei (1947), Humani Generis (1950) and Ad Coeli Reginam (1954).
The virtue of prudence, both natural and supernatural, can preclude a brief time frame for the realisation of a project, and external events like the wars looming on the horizon today can disrupt it. So there is no need to be impatient, but vigilant, putting all hope in God alone and praying for the Pope and the Church in this dark hour of history.