Leo the Listener: The American Pope Who Listens Before He Speaks

In his first 100 days, Leo has shown that listening may be the most radical act of all.

In American politics, the first 100 days of a presidency serve as a litmus test — a special lens through which we gauge a leader’s vision, priorities, and early wins.

From Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal blitz to more recent administrations navigating crises, this benchmark reveals not just policies but character. It’s a tradition born of urgency, where bold actions set the tone for years ahead.

Now, that political template is being applied to the Vatican. Elected on May 8, 2025, as the first American-born pontiff — Robert Prevost of Chicago, now Pope Leo XIV — the Church marks his 100th day today, August 16.

And just as presidents are scrutinized at this milestone, so too is Leo.

A Different Kind of Start

When Pope Francis reached this moment in 2013, he had already electrified the world: his first trip was to the island of Lampedusa, where he wept with migrants, and he had convened a council of cardinals to advise him on reform.

Francis often operated around the system, impatient with curial machinery. Leo’s first 100 days look markedly different.

As Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press put it, his has been a “calm papacy avoiding polemics,” defined by a relentless defense of peace and a hunger for unity.

Francis was a disruptor; Leo is a builder. Francis was a prophet; Leo is institutionalizing that prophecy.

He isn’t bypassing the Vatican system — he wants the system itself to serve the Church better.

The Pope Who Listens First

My biggest takeaway from these first months is simple: Leo has bet his papacy on listening.

Fr. Joseph Farrell, who knows him well, put it best: Leo “recognizes the importance of listening first, then thinking, then acting.”

That’s exactly what we’ve seen. Instead of sweeping decrees, Leo has launched wide consultations, confirmed Vatican officials temporarily, and opened conversations on how the Church can heal its own divisions before healing the world’s.

This may frustrate headline-watchers who want fireworks. But it’s also deeply strategic.

At 69, Leo may lead the Church for two decades. He’s pacing himself — getting it right rather than racing into mistakes.

Continuity with Francis, in a Different Key

Leo has not hidden his debt to Francis, whom he counts as both mentor and friend.

His very first words after election echoed Francis: “We want to be a synodal Church… always seeking peace, always close to those who suffer.”

But there’s an American pragmatism in Leo’s style.

He greets babies, blesses newlyweds, and speaks in English and Spanish as easily as Italian.

He has revived traditional touches like wearing the red mozzetta and vacationing at Castel Gandolfo, even while retaining Francis’s passionate focus on the poor, migrants, and the environment.

Unity as Mission

From the start, Leo’s mission has been unity. His inauguration homily framed the Church as one family bound by love.

Just two days after his election, he asked the cardinals to recommit to the vision of Vatican II, laying out Francis’s six-point blueprint for a synodal, listening Church.

That message resonates in a world fractured by war and politics. He has condemned the starvation of children in Gaza and lamented that Russia’s war in Ukraine has dragged on so long “that no one even remembers its purpose.”

He speaks of peace not as an abstraction, but as the moral duty of Christians.

The Revolution Through Hearts, Not Headlines

By day 100, Francis had already shaken up global Catholicism. Leo, instead, is laying foundations.

His revolution won’t come through bold pronouncements or sweeping legislation. It will come through hearts changed by the patient, stubborn power of listening.

Listening is not a weakness — it is profoundly Christian.

Scripture tells us that God hears the cries of the people, and we are called to hear God in prayer, in the sacraments, and in the voices of one another — especially those who suffer in any way.

As Jesus said, “Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Imagine a Church not divided by ideology but mobilized for justice, for the care of creation, for peace. That’s Leo’s wager.

The question for us is whether we will join him. Leo is listening. Are we?

Pope Leo’s first 100 days remind us that the Church’s renewal will not come from shouting louder, but from listening more deeply — to God and to the world.

That’s the heart of this project, too.

Letters from Leo exists to bring you good news — moments of grace and courage — and to make sure they’re not lost in the noise of our politics.

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