“God did it for us”, Catholic Archbishop in Ghana Hails Pope Leo XIV as God’s Gift, Urges Spiritual Solidarity “always”

On May 8 evening, white smoke rose from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, where the 133 Cardinal Electors had been gathering since the previous day for the 2025 Conclave. 

The white smoke signalled that the 133 Cardinal Electors had elected the successor of St. Peter to take over from the late Pope Francis, who passed on Easter Monday, April 21 and was laid to rest on April 26 in his “beloved” Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major as he had explained in his testament.

When the new Pontiff, who has taken the Papal name Leo XIV appeared on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, he addressed the people of God present in person and all those, who were watching around the world, offering his first blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) as the new Roman pontiff.

In his first address as Pope, the 69-year-old American-born member of the Order of St. Augustine (OSA) asked the people of God to help the Church build bridges through dialogue and encounter, working for unity and peace.

The newly elected Pontiff has explained his choice of Papal name, noting that Pope Leo XIII “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution” with his May 1891 Encyclical Letter on capital and labor, Rerum Novarum.

“In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labor,” Pope Leo XIV said.

In the May 16 webinar, Archbishop Palmer-Buckle reflected on the significance of the Pope’s chosen name and motto, seeing them as symbolic.

“We asked God to give us a shepherd, and he has given us Pope Leo, and that there is so much in the name that he has chosen and in the personality that he has given us. And even in his… papal personal motto ‘In Illo uno unam’, that means ‘In the One, we are one’ in Christ Jesus,” he said.

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle described Pope Leo XIV as both “an outsider and an insider,” explaining, “An outsider because he's coming from Peru with all the experience that he has, and then an insider because he's been working in the Vatican for the past few years.”

“He is definitely going to be, in my opinion, a trailblazer and also a torchbearer,” the Ghanaian Catholic Church leader said.

He praised Pope Leo XIV’s early focus on continuity with his predecessor, Pope Francis, especially in addressing issues related to the family and marginalized communities.

“He has already begun tying the loose ends about the family and about… the marginalized,” Archbishop Palmer-Buckle observed.

Calling for an African contribution to the Pontificate, the Catholic Archbishop emphasized the unique gifts the continent brings to the Universal Church.

“We have so much to share… youthful exuberance, vibrant liturgies, vibrant celebrations… vocations to the Priesthood, the Religious Life… we must increase vocations to marriage,” the 74-year-old Archbishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in January 1993 as Bishop of Ghana’s Koforidua Diocese said.

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle further appealed, “Let us love him; let us support him; and I am sure he will lead us where God wants the Church, even in Africa, to be led.”

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Also speaking during the May 16 webinar, South Africa’s Wilfrid Fox Cardinal Napier described Pope Leo XIV as a “timely gift to the Church”, chosen not because of where he comes from, but for the leadership qualities the Cardinal Electors discerned as necessary to guide the Church in the present moment.

“I think you can see just in the smile and in the freshness which Pope Leo is now showing that he knows he’s leading a group of people who have chosen him because they see in him qualities that are needed at this present time,” Cardinal Napier said.

Drawing comparisons to his predecessors, the Archbishop emeritus of South Africa’s Durban Archdiocese underlined the Church’s evolving priorities.

Pope Francis, the South African Cardinal said, “did very much what had been going on in Latin America for the entire world. That’s how we got the rebuilding of the Church, starting with marriage and the family, then moving on to youth.”

Pope Leo XIV is expected to build upon that legacy while bringing fresh insight and direction, he said, adding that as the Church in Africa looks to the future, the people of God on the continent need to walk the talk.

“What am I going to do to make a difference in this African Church? Am I going to do it by waiting for somebody else? Or am I going to do it by implementing what our leadership has been giving us for the past 25, 30 years?” he posed during the May 16 webinar.

Cardinal Napier said he hopes that Pope Leo XIV will continue to remind the people of God that “Jesus is the center of everything that we are doing,” especially through a renewed focus on the Eucharist as “the most important, central part of our faith as Catholics.”

On his part, Fr. Stan Chu Ilo, a Research Professor in the Department of Catholic Studies at DePaul University, called for a new kind of leadership within the African Catholic Church – one that is humble, accountable, and deeply rooted in the values of synodality and self-reliance.

“What I think is number one for us in the continent of Africa, indeed in the world today, in the Catholic Church, [is that] we need humble, sovereign, accountable, transformative leaders. Those who see the future, and see the people, and see the church not as their own, but a treasure that is dispersed among all the people,” Fr. Stan stated.

He urged African Catholics to broaden their understanding of leadership beyond traditional hierarchies.

“Leadership is not just top-down leadership. If you are able to influence any person, you are a leader. Leadership of our young people, leadership of our women, our pastoral agents, leadership in civic education, so that people can see in the African Church the mirror of what they want to see in the public square,” Fr. Stan said.

In this context, the U.S.-based Nigerian Catholic Priest expressed hope that Pope Leo XIV will model the kind of leadership that Africa and the global Church need, “a leader with the heart of Jesus; a leader who attracts people to something bigger than themselves.”