A priest on his way to Rome walked into a Chicago airport bar, and all everyone wanted to talk about was a papal encyclical. This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but, in fact, it happened to me the weekend after Pope Leo XIV published Magnifica Humanitas. I cannot remember a single occasion in my more than 35 years as a priest when there was such broad and genuine interest shown in a papal encyclical.
My experience at the O’Hare Airport bar was further confirmed during my visit to Rome. I arrived on a Sunday and was pleasantly surprised to find St. Peter’s Square, despite enhanced security to enter, absolutely packed with people to hear the reflection on that Sunday’s Gospel and to pray the Angelus with Pope Leo XIV.
That week, Pope Leo left for his weeklong pastoral visit to Spain, where he drew tremendously large crowds. Despite the well-documented secularization of Spain, 600,000 young people prayed with Leo in vigil before he celebrated Corpus Christi Mass, and 1.2 million people processed through the streets of Madrid to worship with him that Sunday.
Why is Leo XIV suddenly so popular, and why are ordinary people, Catholic and
