By Fr. Brian A. Graebe.

How much can we glean about the young pontificate of Pope Leo XIV? Early signs may not be definitive, but they can be suggestive. And no doubt many and various surprises lie ahead. One theme that has emerged, however, may well become a leitmotif. In his first remarks from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica on the day of his election, Pope Leo spoke of walking together "as a united Church." This Pentecost Sunday, as we remember the tongues of fire that descended upon the Apostles, is also a good time to recall how often we have said we need to listen to the Holy Spirit to rediscover that unity.

The voice of the Spirit speaks to us through many sources in the Church, but especially through the pope. The emphasis on unity found fuller expression in Pope Leo's inaugural Mass

"Brothers and sisters," Leo exhorted, "I would like that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world."

Pope Leo has drawn attention to the first of the four "marks of the Church" that Christians profess in the Nicene Creed: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. The Church's oneness, or unity, derives from her common foundation (Jesus Christ), a shared set of beliefs, and a singular means of grace in the Holy Spirit.

Thus can St. Paul speak of "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." The internal coherence of doctrinal unity has always found its visible, external expression in the person of the pope who, like St. Peter whom he succeeds, is tasked by Jesus to "strengthen the brethren" in that same faith. Catholics rightly look to the pope as a voice of creedal clarity and a bulwark against confusion and distortion.

Pope Leo's emphasis on unity, and his awareness of his personal role in both representing and assuring that unity, is welcome and needed. The preceding pontificate was marked by unprecedented doctrinal confusion. Certainly, there has been confusion and error since the earliest days of the Church; what was different was that the confusion came from the pope himself.

Pope Francis seemed to revel in studied ambiguity: not explicitly changing Church teaching (which he had no authority to do anyway) but winking at those who would like him to.

Can a priest bless a same-sex couple, or simply bless individuals who happen to form a same-sex couple? Can something that touches so closely on the Church's understanding of marriage and human sexuality be permitted in Germany but forbidden in Nigeria?

Pope Francis had little regard for such questions, and his biggest fans were always those most eager to see the Church capitulate to the secular zeitgeist. Combined with a certain harshness, especially against those drawn to the Church's most ancient forms of worship, Pope Francis left behind a deeply divided and wounded Church.

His successor has, from the start, displayed a more subtle savviness, and his calls for unity are not lost on those who have felt left out in the cold. His serene and confident demeanor, unafraid to embrace the external signs of an office larger than himself, suggests to many Catholics that he is aware of their suffering and wishes to heal the family rift.

Even at this early stage, he has prescribed a noteworthy remedy. A week after his election, speaking to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, Pope Leo said that, "from the Christian perspective, truth is not the affirmation of abstract and disembodied principles, but an encounter with the person of Christ himself, alive in the midst of the community of believers. Truth, then, does not create division, but rather enables us to confront all the more resolutely the challenges of our time."

The pope makes clear that truth, the "one faith," is not some arbitrary collection of dogmas. It is the person of Jesus Christ, "the way, the truth, and the life." That theme of unity rooted in Christ has continued to imbue the Holy Father's words throughout the first month of his pontificate. In a ...