In the leadup to the recent conclave, certain voices, amplified by the New York Times, advised us to beware of those seeking “unity.” Even though the goal seemed legitimate, it was a rhetorical device of those who wanted to roll back the initiatives of Pope Francis. Now comes Pope Leo XIV. His motto is In Illo uno unum, which means “In the One, we are one.” The phrase is taken from Saint Augustine’s commentary on Psalm 127. There he reminds us that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.” In affirming the Synod, then-Cardinal Robert Prevost pointed out that “unity and communion are truly part of the charism of the Order of Saint Augustine.” The future pope went on to say “that communion, participation, and mission are the three key words of the Synod.” Unity is fundamental.

For Augustine, the foundation of unity is not ecclesiastical maneuvering. Indeed, in his reflection on Psalm 127 he tells us that its foundation is Christocentric. “Christ—head and body—is one single man. And what is the body of Christ? His Church,” he writes. This message is one that the New York Times doesn’t, won’t, and possibly can’t hear. Modernity has a tough time conceptualizing the Mystical Body of Christ.

It’s noteworthy, of course, that Cardinal Prevost chose the name Leo. Pope Leo XIII issued the groundbreaking encyclical Rerum Novarum (The Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor) in 1891. It was a bold development of the Church’s teaching on the cooperative dimension of work, and it rejected both rigid socialism and rapacious capitalism. St. John Paul II further developed the social teaching of the Church in his encyclicals Laborem Excercens (On Human Work) in 1981, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (The Social Concern) in 1987, and Centesimus Annus in 1991, the 100^th anniversary of Leo’s encyclical. Pope Leo XIV aims to underscore, as did John Paul II, that the Church’s social teaching is integral to its mission.

JD Vance occasioned the most recent cause célèbre bearing on the social teaching of the Church. Isn’t there an order of love, he asked, that directs us to first meet the needs of those in our own country and only then reach out to the citizens of other countries? Or so his critics took him to say, and in doing so to support the new administration. A few days ago Politico called attention to a post shared on X by then-Cardinal Prevost with the title “JD Vance Is Wrong: Jesus Doesn’t Ask Us to Rank Our Love for Others.” In fairness to Vance, he never said that Jesus did. But, from the cross, Jesus did show a unique filial love for his mother. St. Augustine, moreover, taught that there is an order of love. Just what is it?

Augustine wrote, “Since one cannot do good to all we ought to consider those chiefly who by reason of place, time or any other circumstance, by a kind of chance are more closely united to us.” Today, of course, we are all citizens of an electronic world. So how are we to balance physical closeness and global need?

Thomas Aquinas recognized the tension. He wrote that “one ought to help those who are most closely connected with us. And if of two, one be more closely connected, and the other in greater want, it is not possible to decide, by any general rule, which of them we ought help,” adding that “the matter requires the judgment of a prudent man.” It hardly seems, does it, that a prudent man is leading this country? Thomas then insisted that “whatever certain people have in superabundance is due, by natural law, to the purpose of helping the poor.”

To return to mainstream pundits: It’s no surprise that they overlook a 2017 article from the Catholic News Agency that then-Cardinal Prevost also reposted. The headline read, “Pence to pro-lifers: Win hearts with compassion and love.” One such pundit, reveling in Pope Leo’s true American decency, was moved to declare that the United States remains the “greatest country in the world” (Gustavo Arellano, “Pope is a reminder of U.S. at its best,” L.A. Times, B2). Not so, at least not by the measure of justice that Leo XIV, as Cardinal Provost, affirms: “We cannot build a just society if we discard the weakest—whether the child in the womb or the elderly in their frailty—for they are both gifts from God.”

A final point. Leo XIII, in 1879, authored the encyclical Aeterni Patris. With it he ushered in a profound renewal of the study of St. Thomas Aquinas. But, gentle reader, even to sketch the unity of Leo’s heart and mind will require another blog post!