As Leo marks his inaugural Easter as pontiff, almost a year after his predecessor\u2019s death, some Catholics are still trying to work out what kind of pontiff he is.<\/p>\n
The feast \u2013 the most important in the church\u2019s calendar \u2013 comes against the backdrop of war in the Middle East, sparked by the US-Israeli strikes in Iran.<\/p>\n
Leo, mild-mannered and diplomatic compared with the charismatic but often hasty and divisive Francis, has on more than one occasion indirectly rebuked the actions of US president Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>, and on Palm Sunday delivered his strongest condemnation yet when he said God ignores the prayers of leaders with \u201chands full of blood\u201d.<\/p>\n And while popes rarely criticise world leaders by name, instead railing against their policies, Leo did name Trump on Tuesday when he told journalists he hoped the US president would find an \u201coff-ramp\u201d to end the war in Iran.<\/p>\n Still, some Catholics are hoping for a more explicit moral reckoning from their pope.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to see him be a bit more vocal about what\u2019s going on in the world, we are in such turmoil,\u201d said Joanne Coleman, a religion teacher from Ireland. Speaking as the pope delivered his general audience in St Peter\u2019s Square on Wednesday morning, she added: \u201cI think he\u2019s a good person with good intentions but he must get louder, especially with Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Gabriele, who works at a souvenir shop on the corner of the square, agrees. \u201cPeople say to give him time, but now is not the time for being timid. He\u2019s an American for goodness sake \u2013 I thought they were supposed to be more direct?\u201d<\/p>\n Francis often condemned Trump\u2019s policies on issues such as immigration and the climate crisis, and ruptured Vatican relations with Israel after sharply criticising its war on Gaza.<\/p>\n In the months before being elected pontiff, when he was cardinal Robert Prevost, Leo made no secret of his distaste for the Trump government\u2019s policies, criticising its immigration and deportation plans on social media and sharing an op-ed published in the National Catholic Reporter titled \u201cJD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn\u2019t ask us to rank our love for others,\u201d after the US vice-president claimed Christianity\u2019s concept of love was to prioritise one\u2019s family before others.<\/p>\n This led to an expectation that Leo would be just as publicly outspoken as Francis \u2013 but diplomacy was quickly favoured: Vance and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, were hosted at the Vatican within two weeks of Leo\u2019s election.<\/p>\n Iacopo Scaramuzzi, the Vatican correspondent for La Repubblica newspaper, said Leo was a \u201cpragmatic\u201d person whose strategy is \u201ccalibrated not on the resonance of his words but on the efficacy of his actions\u201d, pointing to the Vatican\u2019s behind-the-scenes role as a mediator in Venezuela<\/a> and Cuba<\/a> and attempts to prevent US military action in both countries.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Holy See is playing a role of mediation within its limits,\u201d said Scaramuzzi. \u201cIt can\u2019t present its intervention as a magic wand or the divine intervention \u2026 the Holy See is a chancellor listened to throughout the world because it has a moral authority, but also a relative power.\u201d<\/p>\n In July last year, Leo toughened his tone on Israel when he condemned<\/a> the \u201cbarbarity\u201d of the Gaza war, including a strike that hit the strip\u2019s only Catholic church<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two months later, he held a private audience at the Vatican with Israeli president Isaac Herzog, in an effort to restore diplomatic attempts to end the war.<\/p>\n Holy Week began with another clash, after Israeli police prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, an Italian archbishop with Catholic jurisdiction across Israel and the Palestinian territories, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to conduct mass on Palm Sunday.<\/p>\n The US, France and Italy criticised the incident, and the US ambassador in Israel, Mike Huckabee, a devout evangelical Christian, described it as \u201can unfortunate overreach\u201d.<\/p>\n Israeli authorities subsequently apologised to Pizzaballa, a move Scaramuzzi said was probably due to Leo\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n Scaramuzzi believes the Vatican is discreetly intervening with the White House too, perhaps using the channel established with Vance and Rubio.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a very delicate period and Leo\u2019s strategy is to use his influence and work discreetly rather than make public pronouncements. He appears soft in form, but is strong in substance.\u201d<\/p>\n As Leo moves cautiously, he has been relying on his college of cardinals to make harsher criticisms of the US-Israeli decision to go to war in Iran without the UN\u2019s backing.<\/p>\n