Inside the Core is inspired by the talk given by Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, on “Pope Leo and the Legacy of Pope Francis,” last Wednesday, March 18 in the University Center. The talk was co-sponsored by Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, the Catholic Studies Program, and the Catholic Studies Center.
The Cardinal gave a wonderful and personal view of both the current and former Holy Father. He got to know Pope Leo when he was Father Prevost, then prior general of the Augustinian Order, and Cardinal Tobin was the superior general of the Redemptorists. In their capacity as heads of religious congregations, they interacted. He also knew Pope Francis, who appointed him Cardinal in 2016, prior to his election to the papacy, when Cardinal Tobin’s mother picked him as her candidate (because, as Cardinal Tobin told Francis, he carried his own bags, etc.). Francis enjoyed the comment and would refer to it.
His talk gave a deep sense of how Francis’ legacy is being carried on by Leo. Though different in personality and in style, the two share the same core values, seeking to bring them to fruition in the church. These values can be summed up as mercy (in connection with evangelization and peace), concern for the environment and synodality. Cardinal Tobin spoke of how Francis loved mercy, making it part of his papal motto, Miserando atque eligendo, “By having mercy and by choosing him,” referring to the calling of Matthew, the tax collector, as spoken of by Bede the Venerable in a sermon on Matthew 9:9–13. Francis’s Evangelii Gaudium returns again and again to the concept of mercy, which he saw as central to the Gospel and to evangelization. Cardinal Tobin mentioned how mercy is crucial to the message the church needs to convey to the world, subsuming or, as Jesus put it, fulfilling the Law. We are saved by grace, through God’s mercy, from which and through which God’s love flows. We do not save ourselves. The Cardinal said, “Mercy was Pope Francis’ fire.”
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