August 16 marked one hundred days of Pope Leo’s papacy. It is the moment when a honeymoon becomes a reckoning.
Austrian theologian Paul Zulehner calls it a turning point. The new pope must move from inherited inspiration to crafted reform.
Pope Francis, Zulehner says, was “a jewel in the rough.” Leo must be “the jeweller.” That’s more than a flattering metaphor; it’s a challenge.
A rough jewel dazzles on charisma and moral clarity. A jeweller must decide where to cut, what to discard, and how to set the final piece for permanence.
In Church terms, this means taking the energy of Francis’ synodal reforms and embedding it into structures that endure beyond any pontificate.
High-stakes decisions
The choices Zulehner names—women’s roles, lay participation, decentralisation—are not administrative tweaks. They are stress tests for the Church’s ability to adapt its governance and sacramental life to a changing world.
To act decisively risks alienating parts of the hierarchy and the global South, where tradition often carries different weight.
To delay risks signalling that synodality is rhetoric without reform, hollowing the trust Francis built.
In addition to Zulehner, a significant stress test for this pontificate will be whether Traditionis Custodes is supported or repealed. The outcome will signal the direction of this papacy.
The prayer practice of the Latin Rite does more than shape devotion; it models and forms the Church’s theological worldview. Liturgy is never merely about personal taste.
Symbolism and signals
Leo’s symbolic gestures so far—moving back into the Apostolic Palace, holidaying in Castel Gandolfo, wearing the ornate stole—reassure traditionalists. But symbols can harden into signals. A pope who begins with gestures to the past may find it harder to break from it.
The jeweller’s task
The jeweller’s task is delicate. Cut too aggressively, and the stone loses brilliance. Cut too little, and it remains an unpolished promise.
For Leo XIV, the coming months will show whether he is willing to risk the chips and fractures that come with making a jewel fit for its setting, or whether the rough edges will be left for another pontiff to smooth.
Possible scenarios
If Leo acts boldly
- On women’s roles: Could open the diaconate or other ministries, sending a signal of irreversible change. This would thrill reformers, especially in Europe and North America, but likely provoke resistance from some episcopal conferences and Vatican dicasteries.
- On lay participation: Might grant local churches greater authority over liturgy, pastoral priorities, and governance. Such decentralisation could make synodality a lived reality but also risk a patchwork Church with uneven practices.
- Impact: He cements himself as a reforming pope in the mould of Francis, but at the cost of sharper internal division in the short term.
If Leo delays or plays safe
- On women’s roles: He could defer to further study, keeping reform hopes alive but signaling no urgency.
- On lay participation: He might maintain central control under the guise of unity, letting synodality remain consultative rather than decision-making.
- Impact: Traditionalists stay reassured, but reform-minded Catholics may disengage, interpreting his papacy as one of consolidation rather than transformation.
The defining test
Leo XIV’s papacy will be defined not by how deftly he reassures tradition, but by whether he’s willing to cut the stone, making decisive moves, even if that risks short-term fractures to achieve durable reform.
- Dr Joe Grayland is an assistant lecturer in the Department of Liturgy at the University of Wuerzburg (Germany). He has also been a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Palmerston North (New Zealand) for more than 30 years.
- J.P Grayland’s new book Horizons: Essays on Synodality, Liturgy, and Global Catholicism is available as an ebook or print book.
