A 1939 meeting between Hitler’s envoy and Pope Pius XII revealed troubling Vatican awareness of clergy abuse. The envoy hinted abuse trials could stop if cooperation followed. Pius XII acknowledged the problem but later ordered abuse-related archives in Vienna destroyed.

In contrast to popes whose cultural identities overlapped entirely with Catholic tradition, Leo XIV represents a shift. He belongs to a generation where being Catholic doesn’t necessarily mean being culturally dominant, and where faith must engage with difference rather than assume uniformity.