Historian Says Pope Leo XIV Is Refocusing the Papacy on Europe

Pope Leo XIV's visit to France is part of a broader recalibration of the papacy, according to Miles Pattenden, a historian of the Catholic Church at the University of Oxford, in comments made to France 24's Erin Ogunkeye.

Pattenden said that while Pope Francis placed particular emphasis on the Catholic Church's peripheries and the needs of the Global South during his pontificate, Leo XIV is subtly bringing the Church's historic European heartlands back into focus.

France holds particular significance in that shift, Pattenden noted, given the country's deep historical relationship with Catholicism alongside its evolving and often complex relationship with Christianity, European identity, secularism and contemporary geopolitical debates.

The analysis frames Leo XIV's approach as building on rather than reversing Francis's legacy, while reincorporating what Pattenden described as more traditional elements of papal activity.

France 24's discussion with Pattenden did not detail further specific policy changes expected under Leo XIV, focusing instead on the symbolic and historical dimensions of his outreach to European Catholicism during the France visit.