Once a year, on the Feast of St. Frances of Rome, the convent she founded in the 15th c. is opened to the public. These rooms are painted with scenes from the life of the saint, so beloved by the Romans.
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This…
Reports from Rome suggest that the first encyclical of Pope Leo XIV is approaching publication and could appear shortly after Easter, just weeks before the first anniversary of his election to the papacy.
The document, widely reported to carry the working title Magnifica…— Mark Lambert (@sitsio) March 17, 2026
May I log some apprehension at the prospect of an encyclical on this topic?
I’m not going to say this isn’t an important topic. It is. But 1) it’s not clear if it’s a major spiritual problem, at least not yet, 2) the tech side is moving so fast that it will be difficult to write a text that won’t be dated within 18 months or less, and 3) it does come early in the pontificate and hot on the heels of the technological breakthrough, which risks (3a) that either it hasn’t been thought trough very well – a distinct danger with this topic – or that (3b) it will use/recycle elements from the previous pontificate. And since the spiritual angle seems premature, the temptation may be to write about societal or economic aspects, and those are exactly the ones I would dread a carry-over from Francis.
I hear, once upon a time, encyclicals were worthy of interested anticipation, instead of vague dread.
“Those were happier days …”
I wrote Pope Leo’s first encyclical (as an imaginative and hopeful effort) months ago, and called it Pax Domini. Among other topics, it defended the Seal of the Sacrament of Confession, set a timetable for the discontinuation of the Ordo of Pope Paul VI, and condemned both “affirming the sinner in his sins” and “inventing sins where they do not exist”.