As we approach the six-month point (8 November) since Pope Leo XIV was elected, Christopher White reflects on the importance of the conclave that elected him and on the surprising speed with which Cardinal Robert Provost was chosen to lead the Catholic Church.
Even before Pope Francis' death on 21 April 2025, several cardinals had told me they believed that the conclave to elect his successor might be the most important in at least sixty years.
When Pope John XXIII died on June 3, 1963, from stomach cancer at age 81, it was a time of testing for the global Catholic Church.
