I’m writing this dispatch from the Rome airport while waiting for my flight home to North Carolina. I’m filled with gratitude for everything I’ve experienced over the past several days, and I’m hopeful about what these events might mean for the Catholic Church and the whole Church.
Yesterday evening, I enjoyed one final dinner at what had become my favorite restaurant in Vatican City. While I waited for my meal, I wrote out a prayer to pray for Pope Leo XIV before leaving the city.
Ever since Pope Francis asked the members of the joint commission for our Baptist-Catholic dialogue to pray for him, I’ve tried to pray for the pope whenever he’s crossed my mind. I want the future prayers I’ll be praying for his successor to be rooted in a recollection of the space where he was elected and first presented to the public.
After dinner, I walked to the spot in St. Peter’s Square at the back end of the left colonnade where, on the evening before the papal conclave began, I had stood and prayed for God’s Spirit to guide the cardinals in discerning whom they should elect as Pope Francis’ successor.
This time, as I looked across the square toward St. Peter’s Basilica, I prayed for the ministry of the one the cardinals had elected. Here is what I prayed for Pope Leo:
Gracious and merciful God,
By your grace and in your mercy
you have given to your very human church
very human leadership,
that we might walk together
on the road that leads to what you intend for all creation.Thank you for giving the Catholic Church
and the whole church
your servant Pope Leo XIV
as one of these gifts of leadership.Thank you for everyone in his journey
who has recognized in him gifts for ministry and encouraged him in his calling.
Thank you for the people and experiences who have prepared him for this new task:
his family and friends,
his priests and teachers;
his life experiences of all sorts
and the experiences of others that have helped him understand the human condition;
the Rule of St. Augustine that has shaped his spiritual discipline,
and his life lived in covenant relationship with Augustinian brothers;
his students, parishioners, and fellow ministers in Peru;
the priests and bishops he supervised,
and the cardinals with whom he has sought to discern the way your church should go.Thank you for Pope Leo XIII, for Pope Francis,
and for others who have helped him imagine
how he might lead the church of today.By your Spirit, give him the strength, love, wisdom, courage, grace, love of justice, mercy, and humility he needs
to lead your church
and to encourage your world
toward the peace of your reign.Deepen his devotion to Christ and his way,
That he might continue to grow in faith and faithfulness.
Help him to continue listening deeply to the voices of other people,
and to discern your voice in their voices.Help him to lead your world away from violence
and toward peace.Help him truly to be a “bridge-builder,”
building bridges between communities of followers of Christ divided from one another,
bridges between nations at war with one another,
bridges between people alienated from one another,
bridges between people and creation itself,
for our common life demands that we cross these bridges.Help us to be faithful in praying for your servant Leo,
and help us to discern your voice in his voice
and take it to heart and live it out in our lives,Through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and forever. Amen.
I invite you to join me in praying for Pope Leo in the days ahead.
As I travel home, I will continue thinking about the challenges in the church and in the world that the new pope will face at the beginning of his pontificate. I’ll share my reflections on these things with you on Thursday.
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Professor of Historical Theology at Gardner-Webb University. Harmon is serving as a GFM correspondent for the papal conclave in Rome.
