In the first days of June, Pope Leo continued the work of papal diplomacy, hosting phone calls with political leaders such as Vladimir Putin. The Russian president called the pope to discuss the war situation in Ukraine.
It was not the first time the new pope had spoken with the leaders from the Russia-Ukraine war: in the previous month, Pope Leo had also hosted a conversation with President Zelensky.
In the early months of his papacy, Pope Leo revealed little about himself. Instead he was and has been primarily focused on fulfilling the unfinished work of Pope Francis.
During the Jubilee of the Holy See in June, we witnessed an unusual event: a religious sister, Sr. Maria Gloria Riva, offered spiritual remarks before the Pope.
SISTER MARIA GLORIA RIVA
Religious of the Perpetual Adoration community
“Eternity lies before humanity, and I say this knowingly because when I was 20, when my faith was still very weak and stained with many illusions of the modern man, I had a near-death experience. I saw before me the crack of eternity open up, which changes life, which changes perspective.”
The month revealed both similarities and differences between the new Pope and his predecessor.
For example, Pope Leo restored the tradition of personally carrying the monstrance for the mile-long procession on the Feast of Corpus Christi on June 22. Pope Francis had paused this tradition in 2020 due to his decreasing health.
Pope Leo also returned to other traditions that Pope Francis had forgone. This included reinstating the papal imposition of palliums on new archbishops. Pope Francis had limited himself to blessing them starting in 2015. With the new pope, the ceremony returned to its customary form.
