Pope Leo XIV: the invisible pontiff failing to escape anonymity

Pope Leo XIV: the invisible pontiff failing to escape anonymity

Ask about the new Pope of Rome and, with few exceptions, the answer will be a shrug. It has been months since Jorge Mario Bergoglio was succeeded by Leo XIV, but the name has barely registered with the public. Even those most interested in Vatican affairs cannot recall without help his first name —Robert— or that he holds dual Peruvian and American nationality. It is the first time in decades that a Pontiff has gone so unnoticed.

The media silence of a doctrinally orthodox Pope

Compared with Francis's hyper-media leadership —omnipresent in interviews, gestures and encyclicals— Leo XIV has opted for an almost monastic low profile. His public appearances are few and his statements measured. Those who trinc him describe him as orthodox in doctrine, far removed from the proge agenda that characterised his predecessor. But that discretion comes at a cost: to the average observer, the Pope is a stranger. "Ratzinger and Francis were on television far, far more," it is pointed out.

The underlying financial problem

The new Pontiff's invisibility is not just a matter of image. The Church is weighed down by financial scandals that have forced it to turn to traditional banking —the name Rothschild comes up in conversations— and that have undermined its credibility. With an institution unable to stop the haemorrhage of faithful in Europe, the question is whether a discreet Pope can reverse the trend or whether, on the contrary, his low profile accelerates its slide into irrelevance.

A striking statistic

Even though the Papacy is one of the world's oldest institutions, much of Spanish society does not even know the current Pontiff's name. A makeshift online survey confirms it: answers range from "león 1.4" (a car model pun) to "Manolo Carolo Trabolo". For the first time, so many people admit, without embarrassment, that they haven't "the foggiest idea". The question is no longer whether Leo XIV will be a relevant Pope, but whether the institution itself still is.