What you need to know about Pope Leo XIV

This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley chat with Christopher White, the former Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter. Next month, Chris will start a new position as the associate director for strategic engagement and a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life. Chris’s forthcoming book is, Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy.

Zac, Ashley and Chris discuss: 

- Chris’s background as a Vatican reporter and the experience of covering the Vatican bureaucracy

- Why Chris argues that the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV was the most important conclave in 60 years

- What Chris’s extensive research has revealed about the kind of person Pope Leo is 

In Signs of the Times, Zac and Ashley chat with Connor Hartigan, Leilani Fuentes and Grace Lenahan as they end their 2024-25 Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., Postgraduate Media Fellowships at America. Click here to learn more about the program. If you’re interested or know someone who might be interested in the fellowship, applications for the 2026-27 year open in September 2025. If you’d like more information, email us at jesuitical@americamedia.org.

Links for further reading: 

- Take the 2025 Jesuitical Listener Survey! 

- Learn about the Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., Postgraduate Media Fellowship

- Pre-order Pope Leo XVI: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy.

- NCR’s Vatican correspondent to join initiative at Georgetown University 

- Christopher White at National Catholic Reporter 

What’s on tap?

Chris: Gin martini

Fellows: Sauvignon Blanc

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