Pope Leo XIV prays in front of a fresco of Our Lady of Good Counsel at the shrine named after the image in Genazzano, Italy, southeast of Rome, on May 10, 2025. The shrine, with a famous image of Mary, is run by the pope's Augustinian confreres. Credit: CNS photo/Vatican Media

The story of Pentecost in Acts places Mary the mother of God in the upper room with the disciples. Scripture passages from Acts 1 and 2 affirm the presence of Mary at the beginning of the church’s ministry after the death and resurrection of Christ. We read the passage from Acts 2 during the 50-day paschal celebration of unbounded Easter joy in the liturgical calendar. 

This year, the liturgical calendar placed Easter just before May, a month dotted with Marian feast days and heralded by Paul VI as “a month [during] which the piety of the faithful has long [been] dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God.” That month, we also saw the election of Pope Leo XIV as the successor to Pope Francis.

As I watched pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square celebrate Pope Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, I heard a familiar strain: the “Regina Caeli” being chanted by the crowd. In his first address from the balcony, Pope Leo also invoked Mary in his opening words, saying, “Our Mother Mary always wants to walk at our side, to remain close to us, to help us with her intercession and her love.” In these words, he invited Mary into the midst of the people, to be alongside them in their pilgrim journey back to God. He then invited the crowds to pray the “Hail Mary” with him, asking Mary for special grace, foregrounding consideration of this “new mission, for the whole Church, for peace in this world.”

Several months into his papacy, we have an opportunity to examine his engagement in the Petrine office of the papacy and the way his young papacy is embracing a Marian face. 

Bridge-builders

The Second Vatican Council’s “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church” (“Lumen Gentium”) offered that Mary is “its type and excellent exemplar in faith and charity.” What that document did not do, however, was offer a comprehensive theology of Mary. In fact, the document itself affirms that theologians are the ones who must be discerning of Marian theology. 

“Lumen Gentium” does affirm that Mary “occupies a place in the Church which is the highest after Christ and yet [is] very close to us.” Pope Francis and his predecessors also closed many of their papal exhortations with prayers to Mary, inviting a pastoral and prayerful response to the people of God at the conclusion of these teachings. Francis in particular helped us to understand Mary’s proximity to the people of God, and it is clear that this proximity to Mary is part of what the young papacy of Pope Leo XIV is also embracing. How do we know?

Pope Leo’s first visit outside the Vatican following his election included stops at both the Basilica Sanctuary of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, run by the Augustinians, and the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, a church whose structure was commenced shortly after the Council of Ephesus in 431, which declared Mary the Theotokos, “God-bearer.” While visiting these churches, he prayed before two images of Mary, demonstrating his desire for his papacy to be accompanied by her. While in Santa Maria Maggiore, Pope Leo chanted the “Magnificat” before urging the faithful gathered to “renew our devotion to Mary.” He then invited the people to pray the “Hail Mary,” inviting Mary’s presence into the midst of their journeys. 

The presence of Mary at Pentecost in the midst of the disciples means Mary was among the disciples during the descent of the Holy Spirit, which sent them out into the world to bring about God’s kingdom. They were called out into the world to learn the languages of the world, and, as Willie James Jennings notes in The Christian Imagination, to “enact the joining desired by the Father of Jesus for all people.” This new joining required Mary and the disciples to go and be among the people of God in intimacy. This intimacy among the global family is part of what Pope Leo is encouraging through his teachings about peace.

In his initial address from the balcony of St. Peter’s, Pope Leo XIV called on the people of God to build bridges and encourage dialogue. In the days since his election, he has called for peace throughout his formal engagements as well as through his social media presence. Pope Leo XIV, through his early teachings on peace, aims to position himself as a bridge-builder, a true “pontifex.” In this way also, he is signalling that his will be a papacy with a Marian face. 

Mary as the neck

Throughout history, there have been many ways of considering Mary and her role in salvation history. One such role is Mary as the neck, or in Latin cervix. In 1904, Pope Pius X wrote in “Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum” that Mary is “the connecting portion the function of which is to join the body to the head and to transmit to the body the influences and volitions of the head—We mean the neck.” That image is a significant one in our understanding of Mary: As the neck, she offers a special type of bridge, which joins the head to the rest of the body. 

That presence of Mary as a bridge is another way that Christ can share his gifts with the world. In calling upon the people of God to be bridge-builders and embracing that metaphor for his own life and papacy, Leo shows every sign of being a pope whose Petrine office embraces a Marian face. 

Caitlin Cipolla-McCulloch earned her doctorate in theology with a Marian concentration from the University of Dayton. She will begin ministry as a Mission Officer with the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas this fall.