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.