I kept hearing that Pope Leo XIV was “far left,” and for a while I assumed there must be some truth to it. Then I started actually listening to him. Not clips. Not political commentary. Not somebody telling me what I was supposed to think about him. His speeches. His words. His teaching. And I have completely changed my opinion of him. On immigration, he has acknowledged that a country has the right to control its borders. But he does not stop there. He has also told immigrants that entering another country comes with responsibilities. Learn the language. Respect the laws. Learn the customs. Participate in the life of the community. That struck me because it is neither “open borders” nor a rejection of the immigrant. It is order and responsibility alongside human dignity. Then there is abortion. Pope Leo has been absolutely clear that the right to life begins at conception and continues until natural death. In his encyclical, he specifically named induced abortion and euthanasia among choices the Church considers gravely wrong. And now, as he prepares to go to France, where abortion has been placed in the constitution and assisted dying has advanced into law, the central theme of his visit is essentially a defense of human life: “That the world may have life.” (AP News) Then listen to what he tells young people. Stop being afraid of commitment. Stop being afraid of your vocation. Stop being afraid of marriage. When speaking to hundreds of thousands of young people in Spain, he congratulated couples preparing for marriage and told them plainly: “You don’t have to be afraid to get married and start a family.” In a culture constantly telling young adults to delay marriage, delay children, chase themselves first and keep every option open forever, hearing the Pope tell young people that marriage and family are something beautiful enough to embrace instead of fear hit me hard. (National Catholic Register) The more I listen to Pope Leo, the more ridiculous our political labels start to look. Borders matter. Laws matter. The unborn matter. Migrants matter. Marriage matters. Families matter. Human dignity matters. None of those things cancel the others out. That is Catholicism. I thought I had Pope Leo figured out before I really listened to him. I was wrong. And honestly, the more I hear from him, the more I love this Pope.

You can walk into a Catholic church almost anywhere on earth and know exactly where you are. You could be in Rome, Poland, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, or sitting in a nearly empty parish in Chester County on a Tuesday morning. You may not understand a word being spoken, but you will still recognize the Mass. You will know when to stand, when to kneel, what is happening at the altar, and why everyone came. That alone is incredible. But then you remember what it took for the Mass to survive. It was offered in catacombs when Christians had to hide. It was offered in prison camps, during wars, in Irish homes when the faith was persecuted, and in underground churches where being caught could cost people everything. Priests risked their lives to celebrate it. Catholics risked theirs just to be there. Kings died. Empires collapsed. Borders changed. Whole countries disappeared. The Mass continued. And now I get to walk into my church on an ordinary weekday morning and step into the same worship Catholics have carried across centuries. That is what gets me. Catholicism is not tied to one country, one culture, one preacher, or one generation. The Church is bigger than all of that. You can cross an ocean, walk through the doors of a Catholic church, and still know exactly where you are. Home.