Leo XIV: The First Pop Age Pope

Dear Reader, With this issue we welcome our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV. The long turnaround of printing and distributing The Southern Cross meant that our June issue had already gone to print when the cardinals met in conclave to elect our new pope. The Holy Spirit guided them well.

We present the life story of Bob from Chicago and Leo of Rome — with a poster that may grace many a Catholic’s wall. We even cropped it in such a way that it will look great in a picture frame. It is fair to say that Catholics of good faith have taken Pope Leo into their hearts very quickly. May he always speak to our hearts.

By the standards of the modern papacy, Leo XIV is youthful — even at the age of 69. He is the youngest serving pope since May 1990, when St John Paul II turned 70. But his “youth” lies not only in chronology nor even in his fresh face, but in his cultural experiences. Leo is the first pope to have grown up with pop culture and its music — he was still a child when The Beatles were big — and the first pope to have been on social media in his private capacity. He is likely the only pope to have had a gym membership, even as a cardinal.

Pope Leo has a certain “cool” factor — or, as the latest slang puts it, certified vibe. He is “goated”, even, if you feel like keeping up with Gen-Z vernacular. Our cover goes for the more timeless: “The first pop age pope”. By the circumstance of where and when he was born, Pope Leo is certainly that.

A new saint for the youth

Our Saint of the Month preceded the pop age by a few decades. Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati died at the age of 24 exactly 100 years ago this month, and he will be canonised at the culmination of the Youth Jubilee on August 3.

He is a relevant role model for young people — and any of us — today. Read about his life on page 17 — and perhaps share it with a young person who may benefit from Bl Frassati’s story.

Pope Leo has inherited the Jubilee Year from our beloved Pope Francis, and with it the monthly jubilees. After a busy June, the Holy Father may take it relatively easy in July and August, with only two jubilees. Of these, the Jubilee for Youth (meaning young adults) will doubtless attract big numbers. On page 22, Lesego Zikhali explains what our bishops’ conference is doing to form our young people in the faith.

From July 28–29, the Church will mark the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, an important time to focus on how to use the mission field of the digital world for spreading the Good News — with the right ethics and with imagination.

It is thus a jubilee also for The Southern Cross, which is present on various digital platforms to engage, entertain, edify, educate, elucidate, evangelise and enhance our faith.

In our January issue we looked at how to be missionaries on social media; the article is also available on our website.

In her article this month, Sarah-Leah Pimentel looks at how the digital mission field needs to be populated by Catholics who can communicate an authentic faith — one that is lived both behind the keyboard and away from it. One social media user who may serve as the perfect example of that? Pope Leo!

Authors with faith

These days, anyone with a TikTok account can be an influencer. Time was when the influencers were masters of the written word or rhetoric (for better or worse). This month we look at eight authors of Catholic faith, some from the past and others currently active. The omissions that will spring to mind — Chesterton, Tolkien, Sidwell, Hemingway, Campbell — tip us off that the list of authors with Catholic faith is long. So there certainly will be future instalments of Catholic literati.

Thank you for reading The Southern Cross, and please tell your friends about your monthly Catholic magazine.

God bless,
Günther Simmermacher
(Editor)