Gerard O’Connell shares insights from his interviews with seven cardinal-electors about why they chose Pope Leo XIV: a missionary with a global outlook, a leader known for deep listening, a promoter of synodality, and someone they found deeply credible. We also cover Pope Leo’s first priestly ordinations in Rome, where he urged new priests to live “lives that are known, lives that can be read, lives that are credible.” At the Jubilee Mass for Families, he said, “We must be prepared to defend the family.” Though some saw this as signaling a return to a firmer stance, this is a teaching popes in living memory have always upheld. Plus, Pope Leo blesses riders of the Giro d’Italia as the race passes through the Vatican Gardens.

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