A quiet American papacy – The Catholic Thing

Randy Boyagoda, The Atlantic

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Over the past six months, the unthinkable has taken shape: a quiet American papacy. Given the intense national enthusiasm that followed Pope Leo XIV’s election, in May, perhaps the most striking feature of his papacy is how inconspicuous it’s been. A casual American observer likely hasn’t heard much about Leo—and certainly far less than they would have heard about Pope Francis’s first six months, in 2013. Compared with the U.S. president, Leo’s loudest compatriot, the pope has barely made a sound. His relative silence carries certain risks, but it might be exactly what American Catholics need right now.