by Gianluigi Bugliermetto

Dear brother Leo, welcome!

You are one of us, a man in flesh and blood so you are entitled to a warm welcome. Just as on the day your mother gave you to the world, and today again because of the task to you entrusted. It must be indeed like a second or third birth to you.

Taking a new name is not a light choice to make and a person can only do that a few times in life. Most of us don’t even do it, although we hope you know that some do, for very good reasons, when entering a completely new life. Nuns do it (not all), monks do it (not all), transgender people do it (not all). Today, you are in deep communion with them all.

You are also in communion with all who seek justice and peace on Earth, not just in heaven or in their small circles, but everywhere, in the vast expanse of land and ocean and mountains that we all continue to pollute and use to feed our egos, while we keep justifying the killing of thousands of people, where we dwell mostly unaware of the beauty that surrounds us.

You said “peace” and “all are welcome” and “bridges”— we heard in that pope Francis’s cry “Build bridges, not walls!” —and, in a recent interview, you spoke of the church as a community not an institution. Good luck with that! We are not going to stand in the way of your dreams, but you know that this is quite a huge one, don’t you?

I think we would all be happier if you dropped the word “mission” which has done too much harm to us in the past, and that you seem to like instead. If you attach a different meaning to it, if you want to talk about your communion with the poor people living in the lost corners of the earth — lost only to that smaller portion of us who thinks to be living in the center — that’s great, but please specify.

We all liked your shy smile, and your tears in the corner of your eye. Forgive us for prying, but you knew this would happen when you accepted the job.

You are one of us, and we think you know that, but we and you know also that your responsibility now largely exceeds that of most of us. You can be a voice for peace and reconciliation, or you can drop your prophetic call. You can be a listener and a convener in the Catholic Church, or you can just pretend to be that. You can choose new beautiful ideas and polish old beautiful ideas and create a tapestry of hope with all that, or you can try to bury creativity under a stone.

Augustine’s obsessions with sin and sexuality, we truly hope that you let them be just what they are: historically relevant yet faulty steps in our tortuous journey towards the truth of who we are, in communion with other bodies and souls.

We think that your heart is in the right place— which is a lot to say these days when looking at the world’s leaders —so we are thankful for your election and your acceptance of it and your re-naming yourself with strength.

The events of these days may have been caused by Providence or just by Serendipity. We hope that Wisdom also had a great part. But what matters the most for us is that you can represent decency in front of the powerful who have lost it completely, who walk like shells of human beings in their gilded rooms where they concoct our nightmares.

We don’t presume to speak for other species but we think that those seagulls on the roof were a clear indication that they too welcome you, as their new brother with a new name and with a new job for the good of the whole.

Amen.