May 13, 2025 // Perspective

Practical Faith and Praying for a New Pope

Father Mark Hellinger

In his homily given the morning after his election, Pope Leo XIV voiced a thought that has captivated my own reflection in light of the Easter season. He said: “Today, too, there are many settings in which Jesus, although appreciated as a man, is reduced to a kind of charismatic leader or superman. This is true not only among nonbelievers but also among many baptized Christians, who thus end up living, at this level, in a state of practical atheism.”

That phrase, practical atheism, is an apt description of an attitude that is easy to fall into and is a subtle draining of the Chrisitan life – like a slow leak in a tire, its effects can be catastrophic but not noticed until it is too late. Practical atheism sums up all the ways in which we live or are tempted to live as if God does not exist. Notice, of course, it is not claiming that one actually asserts a disbelief in God; rather, it is about the way we live each moment.

If God is who He claims to be, then in every part of our lives, in particular and as a whole, He is the Lord. Thus, what the reality of God’s life demands is not only a theoretical faith but a practical one. And this really has been what the Church encourages in each one of us since the very beginning.

How fitting it was, then, for Pope Leo’s first words to the world to be those of the Risen Christ to His disciples: “Peace be with you.” It is always the encounter with the crucified and Risen Lord that draws out practical faith – faith put into practice – from believers. After all, what other response can there be to an authentic encounter with the Living God and Lord of my life?

If we back up, though, and consider the event we have just lived, we can find this call for practical faith demonstrated by the Church herself. In the experience of the death of a pope (similar to the loss of a bishop in a diocese or the pastor of a parish) the vacuum created makes the presence of a tangible shepherd appreciated all the more. Catholics tend to feel deeply – even if they can’t articulate it exactly – the absence of a pope. And then, through the process of mourning and preparation for a new election, we are invited to consider the role of the pope in our lives again.

Then the moment comes. I was personally struck, listening to the livestream of St. Peter’s Square, that the largest cheer and expression of joy on Thursday, May 8, was not when Pope Leo was named but rather at the general announcement: “We have a pope!” Who it is exactly matters much less than the reality of having one.

But so it is with practical faith. The details of everyday life matter much less than having God with us in them. Having a pope again after a brief period of not having one is a great call to a renewed practical faith – one that always remembers that Jesus Christ, the Risen One, is risen indeed. He is the Lord of life and of history. He is the Good Shepherd who never abandons His flock. And He has given us the gift of sharing in His life within the communion of the Church, guided and protected by the Holy Spirit always, and shepherded on this earth by the practicality of men entrusted with a sacred office.

Let us pray for Pope Leo, that he is always an example of practical faith and guides the Church to an ever deeper obedience to the Risen Lord so that the whole world will come to know Him, love Him, and live in abiding communion with Him.

Father Mark Hellinger is parochial vicar at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Fort Wayne.