Pope Leo's Recovery

"Life happens," but nevertheless, the news of Pope Leo's cancer diagnosis has come as a shock to people of good will across the globe. In his brief tenure as pope, Pope Leo has been a voice of reason, a stabilizing force, a prophetic voice decrying war, injustice, and technologies of destruction. At the same time, his gentle presence, spiritual leadership, and personal faith have created something of a spiritual revival, especially among youth... And so we pray for his comfort and healing, that he might find restoration and be restored to us... soon and very soon... because the world needs him and he has endeared himself to all of us...

But even as we pray, perhaps we need to pause and ask ourselves whether we have put too much of a burden on this humble friar. Perhaps we are so in awe of him as an individual and as a world leader that we simply expect too much. The magnitude of the world's agony is too great for a single individual to carry, even if he is the Pope! Which is why we just might need to change our language. Instead of rejoicing that we have a leader who is exactly what the world needs right now, we could ask ourselves what we can do to support him in his role as Shepherd of 1.279 billion Catholics; and instead of expecting him to be a miracle worker, we might explore the small steps each of us can take to change the world...