Pope Leo Calls Out a Warlord

When Attila the Hun marched his bristling barbarian horde up to the gates of Rome in 452, unsatiated with the conquest of the Italian countryside left devastated and desperate in their wake, he was met by a man. This man knelt between the Hun and the Eternal City and, according to a blend of history and legend, said these words:

“The people of Rome, once conquerors of the world, now kneel conquered. We pray for mercy and deliverance. O Attila, you could have no greater glory than to see suppliant at your feet this people before whom once all peoples and kings lay suppliant. You have subdued, O Attila, the whole circle of the lands granted to the Romans. Now we pray that you, who have conquered others, should conquer yourself. The people have felt your scourge. Now they would feel your mercy.”

Then, Attila’s disbelieving eyes beheld two resplendent figures flanking the emissary, bearing flaming swords over his gray head as he knelt in humble submission. Drawing back, Attila saw a glorious army ten thousand times greater than his own, ranked in rows of flashing fire above the city. The man’s entreaty echoed in his ears like a command. The warlord swore to a truce and drove his legions across the Po River and away.

The title “Great” was not first given to Pope Leo for small reason.

Nearly sixteen hundred years later, Pope Leo XIV called out a warlord as well. The whole world heard that Leo XIV was diagnosed with lung cancer, but less proclaimed was that he called Vladimir Putin while recovering from surgery in Gemelli Hospital. Taking the initiative himself, Leo pleaded with the Russian president for a humanitarian ceasefire for the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky, in Ukraine’s Kherson region, where some 2,000 civilians are trapped and imperiled by the fighting.

As with his namesake, who also called out an imposing commander at a time when the world was not poised to know all manner of events instantaneously, Leo XIV’s quiet call to Putin bespeaks the caution and initiative of a prudent administrator. Difficult as it is—and perhaps even impossible—Leo is navigating the balance between publicity and privacy that the papacy should have.

Just imagine if Pope Leo XIV had met Putin in person, as Pope Leo the Great met Attila the Hun. It would almost certainly have been emblazoned across the entire world. The majority of people on the globe would’ve instantly known about it, formed an opinion, or had their opinion formed for them. Billions would’ve been edified or scandalized or scoffed at such a wild intersection of religion and politics and all of its insinuations, influences, and instigations. It would’ve been insane.

Then the internet storm of posts and podcasts would settle down to its customary simmer. The trolls would creep back beneath their bridges to spring out another day, and the collective consciousness would move on—but not unchanged. This way that the world now has of immediate public proclamation and public reaction does injury to the character of the papacy, an office that requires more discretion and discernment than modern media allows. The pope is an administrator, not an entertainer, legislator, or personality.

November 10 is the feast day of St. Leo the Great (c. 400-461), who led the Church with remarkable administrative strength and steadiness, making him the patron saint of popes. Like Leo XIV, he negotiated humbly with a warlord of his day… and the world, Catholic or otherwise, did not need to know it in real time—which may be a good reminder for the popes in these days of instant information (which is often incomplete) and instant impression (which is often incorrect).

The stability of Leo the Great should be central to the papacy—especially in an age as unstable as this. Pope Leo held the Chair of St. Peter from 440 to 461, and from it projected the holiness of Rome and, by virtue of the See of St. Peter, ruled by doctrine rather than dominion. Rome was, and yet is, the heart of the Kingdom of God on earth, and Leo defended it despite the riches and renown of Constantinople.

Though his might was manifested in meekness with Attila the Hun, Pope Leo’s assertive strength as the Vicar of Christ was a theological force during his pontificate. In 451, he gathered the largest group of bishops up to that point for the Council of Chalcedon: a council to strategize against heresies arising from the East and particularly Constantinople. At the Council, Jesus Christ’s dual nature in one Divine Person was defined and dogmatized in Pope Leo’s epistle, called the Tome, which was read aloud at the Council. Upon this inspired articulation of the hypostatic union, the bishops reported, “Peter has spoken through Leo.”

And Peter speaks through all the popes as much as they work with God’s grace to administer to Catholics with the peaceful security of the Church whose reign will not end. On this feast day of Pope St. Leo the Great, Catholics should unite in prayer that Pope Leo XIV be guided by his original namesake as he administers the Church in an era that has long grown intolerant of the kind of administration that Leo the Great wielded, where heresies Leo could never have imagined are commonplace. And one of the things that hampers the administrative action of the papal office is how so much is cast before the undiscriminating public eye for indiscriminate public consumption.

The pope is not meant to administer to the Church through 𝕏 or to have every word that he may say offhandedly about being pro-life blasted far and wide, or his immediate reaction about a bluster from Donald Trump published everywhere, or his awkward encounter with people like the female Archbishop of Canterbury shouted from the rooftops. The pope is a person and, like everyone else, he will not hold up to constant scrutiny. The pope should administer with some distance, therefore, and not in a spotlight that funnels into the feed frenzy. That is not how the papacy has ever worked or is supposed to work.

The pope should be an anchor—steady and unseen. Catholics should feel the fixedness of the Church in procedures that diplomatically eradicate the wishy-washy, the weird, and the wicked. As Pope Leo the Great abolished heresies and schisms arising in the East, and defended the rise of Rome, the likes of Fiducia Supplicans and Traditionis Custodes should be shelved firmly and unceremoniously. As Pope Leo the Great dismissed the errors of Eutyches and Nestorius, the likes of Cardinal Victor Fernández and Fr. James Martin should be quietly and respectfully relegated into obscurity. Catholics should hear a clear, calm pronouncement about salvation, peace, and life and not associate the pope and Church teaching with soundbites.

This trend is damaging because it degrades the office of the Supreme Pontiff, who is not a secular figure. Nevertheless, Catholics are all too used to hearing from the secular organs about how the pope voted in the midterm elections, or that he weighed in cheekily on the Notre Dame vs. Villanova basketball game, or that he had an audience with Bob Dylan. The pope should not be subject to internet twittering. He should appear as what he is: the rock—simple, solid, and largely silent on secular affairs.

Pope St. Leo the Great was a regal saint, a Doctor of the Church, a kingly pope serving the King of kings, and a lion of God who roared for His glory. It’s hard to imagine how he would have dealt with social media and news stories about his encounter with Attila, but today, the fourteenth of his name has done a similar act with Putin and avoided broadcast. He also stepped forth as the pope in addressing the threat of AI, insofar as it is a threat, with Magnifica Humanitas.

Time will tell how the pope continues to circumnavigate the online tractor-beams, but there is a similarity brewing between him and his saintly namesake. May the administrative spirit of Pope St. Leo the Great be with Pope Leo XIV in these days of flitting news cycles and reactionary viral influence. The pope is to call out the warlords that threaten the peace of the Church, as these Leos did, but the administration of the Church is properly done on knees and in cabinets and not over the internet. Pope St. Leo the Great, pray for us and for Pope Leo XIV.