Pope Leo XIV visits Metz and praises Europe's political achievements

The history of the papacy is also not without ironies. This includes the visit of Leo XIV: Apparently, a citizen of the United States first had to become head of the Catholic Church in order to rehabilitate Europe. The Pope's visit to Metz to pay tribute to one of the founding fathers of today's EU, and his trip to France as a whole, were a commitment to Europe that his predecessor Francis would never have said. The Argentine pope with Italian roots had described the Old Continent as resembling a grandmother “who is no longer fertile and vital.”

That was tough stuff. It wasn't just Catholics in Europe who were disappointed and angry about this, even if Francis was not completely inaccurate in describing the demographic development. Leo chose a different tone in Metz: In his Europe speech, he did not simply ignore what no pope can ignore: that the roots of Europe, especially the Christian ones, urgently needed new water. But in contrast to Francis and, according to the trend, also Benedict XVI. He did not hold a funeral mass for Christian Europe. Rather, his words conveyed confidence and appreciation.

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American in the best sense

For any politician, such a sentence would be a Sunday sermon. But a Pope who certifies that Europe has impressively proven over the last eighty years that it is possible to assert different opinions, demands and interests is proclaiming a political message. Benedict XVI often gave the impression that Europe's salvation lay in a role backwards to St. Augustine and Plato.

Leo, on the other hand, is pragmatic and American in the best sense of the word when he calls for a “creative rediscovery” of European values. However, Leo also left the crucial question of how such a rediscovery could take place open. But that doesn't have to be a disadvantage.

At best, a pope can be a source of inspiration, nothing more, but also nothing less. Praise and encouragement from the successor of St. Peter do not help the EU all that much in everyday political life. But a European Union that even the Pope no longer believes in would be missing something.