By Robert Royal.

But first a note: Friends: Pope Leo comes in for a lot of careful scrutiny, for obvious reasons after the controversies generated by his predecessor. That's useful in many ways to the mission of the Church, but sometimes unnecessarily critical. Today's column shows that, in several fundamental ways, he's pursuing the right track - which we'd like to see him do even more openly and vigorously. In online forums, going negative often means more "clicks," a temptation that here at The Catholic Thing we try not to give into. If you want that kind of balanced, truthful reporting and analysis, we believe you won't find them anywhere better. The other kind is easy to find elsewhere.Which is why we also ask that you support this work generously. Please do so, today, so that TCT will be around in 2026 and for many a good day after.

Now for today's column...

Pope Leo has been traveling in Turkey and Lebanon, doing what popes do on such occasions: Visiting religious and political leaders, signing agreements about further "dialogue," calling for peace and respect for human dignity. All good things, and this pope does them with notable dignity. But they're not the main thing. And without the main thing, other things have quite limited prospects. The main thing, the reason for the trip in the first place, was and is the truth confirmed at the Council of Nicaea (Iznik, Turkey today) in 325 A.D. that Jesus was not only a great man - as even many secular people today concede - but that He is the eternal Son of God and the Savior of the world.

Indeed, though Leo has spoken vaguely of some theological controversies as no longer relevant, he also made a point of warning in Turkey that among our many postmodern problems, "there is also another challenge, which we might call a 'new Arianism,' present in today's culture and sometimes even among believers. This occurs when Jesus is admired on a merely human level, perhaps even with religious respect, yet not truly regarded as the living and true God among us." Arianism may seem to be one of those obscure theological controversies that no one much cares about anymore. But at Nicaea, exactly 1700 years ago, it was a hot topic because Arianism was widespread. And continued to be for centuries. And now, again.

This is all well-known to anyone who has looked into early Church history. But many people don't realize how widespread Arianism actually was. When the Vandals invaded North Africa, around the time of St. Augustine's death (430 A.D.), they came not only as "barbarians," but Arian "Christians." The Roman Empire itself "fell" in 476 A.D. when Odoacer, a Gothic "barbarian," deposed the last Western emperor. The causes of Rome's fall are much debated, but it was not by pagan incursion: Odoacer was an officer trained in the Roman Army with connections to the Eastern Roman emperors - and though tolerant of Catholics, an Arian.

Arianism appealed to soldiers, who saw Jesus as not only holy but, in his bravery during torture and death, heroic. It's an odd view for many now. For centuries, the West has tended to turn Jesus into a "nice" figure, all warm and fuzzy. But maybe those soldiers saw something in Him that we might benefit from, especially as Christians are being persecuted around the globe.

Leo's emphasis on Jesus as "the living God among us" also ties in with his warnings about another heresy. As an Augustinian, he's quite sensitive to contemporary "Pelagianism," which the great bishop of Hippo famously combatted about a century after Nicaea. Pelagius was a Celtic-British theologian who was thought to believe - recent scholars, of course, clash about this - that we are capable of following the precepts of the law, without the need for divine grace.

I've seen Pelagius described in some popular accounts as quite reasonable. There are rules. We are rational beings. We can follow them. Which of course ignores our daily experience, to say nothing of St. Paul: "the law is good. . . .bu...