This isn’t going to be a lengthy column.

For the foreseeable future, I plan to focus on the positives of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate. I think other orthodox/traditional Catholics should do the same. I’m not interested in scrutinizing every single decision or statement he’ll make in the coming weeks and months.

Is he Francis 2.0?

I don’t think so.

Is he another Pope St. Pius X?

No. But I’m fine with that.

Francis tended to shoot from the hip and seemed to pride himself on creating theological confusion. What’s worse, he punished traditional Catholics desiring to remain in communion with Rome ostensibly because of the ill-advised behavior of a minority of traditionalists who reject and constantly rail against the Novus Ordo (vernacular) Mass, Vatican II and the post-Vatican II popes – if they even believe those popes to be legitimate.

On the other hand, the majority of traditionalists who were/are truly hurt by Francis’ Traditionis Custodes are good Catholics who may prefer to worship at the traditional Latin Mass but don’t reject the Novus Ordo, Vatican II or the post-Vatican II popes.

I attend the Novus Ordo – and I fully accept Vatican II – but I was nonetheless hurt by the late pope’s aforementioned motu proprio. When I lived in Chicago, I attended two parishes, one of which, St. John Cantius, offers both the TLM and the Novus Ordo. So I attended both Masses on different occasions for a number of years.

Will Leo at least modify Francis’ perplexing restrictions on the TLM? I honestly don’t know. Maybe; maybe not. Time will tell.

My hope is that Leo’s overall leadership style will be closer to that of St. John Paul II or Benedict XVI than Francis.

Time will tell.

(Leo may have to intervene sooner rather than later in an ugly situation in the Diocese of Charlotte. Click here to read about that.)