UNDER POPE LEO, THERE CERTAINLY IS A SHIFT IN TONE FROM THE CARDINALS IN THE CURIA AND THE NcR AND I HAVE NOTICED THAT POPE LEO IS NOW BEING MORE CIRCUMSPECT ON GIVING TALKATIVE INTERVIEWS OFF-THE-CUFF—AND THIS IS A SIGN OF GROWTH IN THE HOLY SPIRIT WHEN ONE IS POPE!

 

I don’t think Cardinal Ferrell would have said this when Pope Francis was pope:

Evangelization and Catechesis

Cardinal Farrell stressed that the solution to the challenges facing the Church is not to change structures or the principles of Catholic doctrine or morality. Such changes, he said, will not “bring people back to Mass,” increase vocations, or draw young people back to the Church.

Rather, the Cardinal stressed, every local Church, diocese, and parish must offer, on a permanent basis, "paths of evangelization, catechesis, initial proclamation of the faith, Christian initiation, formation in the faith, and accompaniment in spiritual growth.”

And the National catholic Reporter observed what I have been observing recently about Pope Leo:

After a furious start to 2026 which saw Pope Leo XIV close the Holy Yearopened by his predecessor, convene the world's cardinals in Rome and deliver perhaps the most pointed speech of his pontificate yet on the urgency of peace, the pope has since grown noticeably quieter on the world stage.

For U.S. Catholics in particular, that has meant an absence of English-language papal soundbites from nightly newscasts and social media feeds. 

Following months in which Leo weighed in on the day's events by speaking near weekly to reporters upon leaving the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome, the pope has sharply pulled back from directly engaging with the press.

And as the global news cycle has continued to churn, major developments have come and gone without the kind of papal commentary Leo had offered earlier in his pontificate.