Member-only story
Pope Leo XIV Said a Curious Thing
I was surprised to hear the pope mention atheism in his first homily
Pope Leo XIV delivered the first homily of his papacy on Friday morning, May 9, 2025, at the Sistine Chapel. Amidst the expected remarks about the “joyful faith in Jesus the Savior” and the like that any pope or priest would say at any mass, he also had something to say about nonbelievers:
[T]here are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure.
Well… okay. But I don’t know about “weak,” as that seems a tad condescending, or at least it’s too broad a canvas on which to paint. As for “unintelligent,” that is patently untrue. Yes, Francis Collins’s evangelical beliefs do indeed seem absurd to me — “absurd” is the pope’s word, not mine — but in no way can you say that the former Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute who served under three presidents is “unintelligent.” Intelligent people can compartmentalize their beliefs, but that’s a subject for another time.
More from the new pope:
A lack of faith is often tragically accompanied by the loss of meaning in life.
