A second 'young pope'?

RomeLeo XIV, the Papaamerican which is already a meme on the networks, has everything to become a celebrity"Trump will have a hard time digesting the fact that there's a more famous American than him," says one Yankee commentator. He's a pope who walks briskly, who's young, with an intelligent, serene, slightly inquisitive gaze. Hearing him speak English makes me think of a mature Laurence Olivier.. Will he be a media star, like Francis or John Paul II? In his first sermon, delivered Friday before his followers, brothers Cardinals, Prevost quoted St. Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote just before his martyrdom: "When the world no longer sees my body, I will truly become a disciple of Jesus Christ." The pontiff added: "Whoever exercises authority is committed to disappearing so that Christ may remain."

I'm no expert at deciphering sermons, but it seems to me to be an important announcement, a promise of discretion that is unlikely to be foreseen. The series "The Secret of the World" comes to mind. The young pope, Sorrentino's, where the fictional Pius XIII (Jude Law) decides not to appear in public because "great creators, like JD Salinger or Daft Punk, base their fame on secrecy." But Sorrentino's Pope was a dogmatist, while Leo XIV is a reformer who, apparently, should not have the intention of reclusing himself or remaining silent in the face of the great political conflicts and global challenges facing humanity. It is also true that the previous pontiff, Francis, is remembered for some notable slips in front of the microphones. Perhaps, after all, we will have a papacy that continues in form, but not too much.

Before returning to Barcelona, I make one last visit to the Plaza de Sant Pere, where a considerable number of faithful are watching the first Mass celebrated by Leo XIV on giant screens. The television production is impeccable; the overhead shots show a multitude of red caps, very round, like a measles virus. The Pope is dressed in immaculate white, a white that distresses me, because I have a tendency to get dirty. At Mass, we hear people speaking English, Spanish, Latin, and, of course, Italian. In the close-ups the director offers us, some cardinals seem sad. I can't help but feel sorry for them, now that their great moment has passed. Many have experienced their first conclave, come from what Francis called the periphery of the Church, do thankless or even risky work in territories ravaged by war or poverty. I think of the bishops of Nairobi, Managua, Ouagadougou, Kinshasa, Ulaanbaatar, Baghdad, Khartoum...

Not only are they abandoning the spotlight and the limelight, the comfort of the Vatican chambers, but they are returning to a daily routine that may or may not be gratifying, but far removed from the magnificence and media attention. Disappear so that Christ may remain...

Watching the ceremony on a screen reminded me of moments from my childhood, when my grandmother Carme used to broadcast Sunday Mass, in black and white and in Spanish. I was the son of believers, sincere believers, whose faith crumbled when my father died prematurely. Until then, I was taken to Mass every Sunday. Until adolescence. These Masses were endless, tedious, detestable. Then I was a young disbeliever, a priest-eater, critical of the Vatican, incapable of reasoning with inflexible Catholics, but envious, deep down, of their sincere faith in the afterlife, that "scandal" that, according to Javier Cercas, is the belief in the resurrection of the body.

All agnostics envy faith, just as we envy the illuminated gaze of children in the Three Kings' Parade. When I met Bishop Casaldáliga in São Félix do Araguaya, I was so impressed by his character and good humor that I said to him, as we said goodbye, "I only regret that my parents aren't alive so I can tell them that I met you." And he replied, without thinking, "Don't worry, they know everything." And for a split second, it seemed to me he was selling me a mystical rapture, a revelation. But it wasn't that; it was just a desire to believe.

But the Vatican is not a place to start believing. As the saying goes: Rome seen, faith lostHere, simple faith, love and mercy, the simple impulse to do good, are buried under tons of marble, velvet, tinsel, authentic and fake relics, drawing-room plots, geopolitics, secrets hidden in miles of archives. And also obedience, dogmatism, misogyny, fear of freedom and change, fear of uncertainty, and even fear of the truth. "When Peter denied Jesus Christ three times, he invented Vatican diplomacy," writes Eric Frattini. But it's also true that Francis has tried to do it differently, and there is hope that the new pontiff will continue to try, even if discreetly. The way things are going, you don't have to be a believer to wish him luck.