What is Letters from Leo?
Letters from Leo is one of the fastest-growing Catholic communities in the country — and one of the top 100 best-selling political publications on Substack, with more than 20,000 subscribers.
We cover Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope, and the collision between his moral vision and American political life.
I believe God raised up a pope from the Americas to confront MAGA authoritarianism — just as he raised up John Paul II from behind the Iron Curtain to help defeat communism.
We hold powerful officeholders to account against the demands of the Gospel, grounded in the social teaching of the Church — from immigration and war to human dignity and the consistent ethic of life.
Our focus is ad extra — how faith engages with the world, especially American politics.
Letters from Leo is a movement sustained entirely by readers, with no corporate sponsors and no billionaire benefactors. It’s open to anyone who wants to be informed and inspired by our pope, and to turn that inspiration into action that leaves America and the world more just, more humane, and more alive with hope.
Catholic or lapsed, skeptic or believer, you belong here. The only requirement is that moral clarity matters to you.
Why subscribe?
Analysis rooted in Catholic social teaching. The argument is always theological first — which is why this publication lands where it does politically. Theology has consequences.
The only publication of its kind. I’ve spent fifteen years embedded in both the Catholic Church and U.S. political power — which means I can connect Pope Leo XIV’s moral vision to the day’s news with the theological depth and political fluency that neither beat reporters nor theologians can offer alone.
Paid subscribers receive exclusive biographical deep-dives on Leo’s life and formation, seasonal reflection series, the Q&A mailbag, and investigative reporting — published several times a week.
Who writes this?
My name is Christopher Hale.
I’m a struggling Catholic who has found meaning, mercy, and redeeming love in the faith of the apostles. I’m also a patriotic American who believes democracy is the crown jewel of our republic — and will do anything in my power to protect it. I’m a partisan, too. A heterodox Democrat who believes the Democratic Party is the best secular vehicle to drive back MAGA authoritarianism, and I won’t pretend otherwise.
This isn’t a wire service. Anyone expecting unbiased coverage will be let down. I’ll tell the truth as best I can, always from where I stand. My faith shapes how I see things. My politics do too. That’s the deal.
I’ll also hold my own party accountable when it falls short — and it does, often. If you’re looking for a passionate, imperfect Catholic who believes this Church and this pope are the best religious vehicle to reclaim the moral foundations of our country, you’re in the right place.
I’m a skeptical sinner who keeps showing up to Mass anyway.
I started Letters from Leo because I believe the Gospel demands something more from us than rage and cynicism. I have a dogmatic conviction that we are living through a providential moment: the first American pope, elected at the precise moment when American democracy and the Church’s moral witness face extraordinary pressure.
I grew up Catholic in Murfreesboro, Tennessee — St. Rose of Lima parish, the kind of Southern Catholic upbringing where you learn early that your faith puts you at odds with polite company. My grandfather Jolly Hayden was Irish; my grandmother Mary Michael Fiorella was Italian. The faith I inherited from them is stubborn, sacramental, and unapologetically concerned with the world.
I’ve spent my career at the intersection of faith and politics. I led Catholic outreach for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign, worked in the Obama-Biden administration, ran for Congress in Tennessee in 2020, and spent years advising campaigns, nonprofits, and faith-based coalitions on religion’s role in public life.
I’ve been a nonprofit executive and a political operative — I still am — but more and more, I’ve become what I probably should have been all along: a writer.
What I bring to this project is my back, my mind, my heart, and my love for this Church and this country — imperfect institutions both, still worth fighting for.
If you feel the urgency of this moment, I’m asking you to join us.
Thank you for reading. I’ll see you on the road.
