Pope Leo’s diligence, composure and inscrutability have brought the Church the unity and calm it yearned for. But conversion and reform are at the heart of his ministry. The near-universal approval for him is unlikely to last.

On 8 May 2025, all that anybody seemed to know about Robert Prevost was that he was an Augustinian. It was how he introduced himself to us from the loggia before anything else, “a son of St Augustine”.

And that, as plenty of cardinals confirmed publicly and privately, was what they were after. His hinterland and formation offered security, even predictability: “our hearts are restless until they rest in you”, and the Church needed a rest. Exhilarated and battered by Pope Francis’ 13 years at the wheel, the electors wanted somebody who would keep driving but put the roof back up on the tourer.

(In the post-conclave scramble for biographical details, my only discovery was that Prevost had been a keen motorist who enjoyed making long drives across Italy to visit Augustinian communities as prior general.)

If Augustine is what they wanted, Pope Leo XIV has delivered. His episcopal and then papal motto In Illo uno unum – “In the One we are one” – from the saint’s commentary on Psalm 127 was the first of innumerable references. Leo was credited with lending patristical heft to Francis’ draft for Dilexi te, including a whole section on Augustine; in January he used The City of God to ballast his “state of the world” address to the Holy See diplomatic corps; his visit to the ruins of Hippo on 14 April was the spiritual apex of his apostolic journey in Africa. In between times, Leo has peppered scores of addresses and messages with the Doctor Gratiae.

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