Pope Leo's First Interview

What the Pope’s new interview tells us about wealth, work, and the future of his papacy.

It really is something new to watch and listen to our new Pope conversing in English!

When Pope Leo XIV sat down for his recent interview, the headlines quickly seized on one line: his reference to Elon Musk’s potential to become the world’s first trillionaire (not featured in this extract but here for example, in CNN. Similarly reported by Reuters, the FT and numerous others). Pretty much all the mainstream media outlets have seized on this as either a clever soundbite or a bit of populist continuity with Pope Francis. This is, I suppose, why GB News wrong footed me on the TV interview this morning:

This has been widely portrayed as a sign that Pope Leo is to continue with Pope Francis’ focus on the poor, and I do believe he will.

But if you listen carefully, there’s something deeper going on. Pope Leo XIV’s words are not just casual commentary on wealth inequality. They mark a deliberate return to the classic framing of Catholic Social Teaching; a re-anchoring of instinctive concerns about inequality in the magisterial tradition of the Church.

In Rerum Novarum (1891), Pope Leo XIII responded to the industrial revolution by warning against both unrestrained capitalism and socialist revolution. His central concern was the dignity of the worker. The “question of the day” was not just about economic efficiency, but about human beings reduced to instruments of profit.

Ninety years later, St. John Paul II’s Laborem Exercens (1981) carried this teaching forward. In §12 he offered one of the most decisive statements in the entire corpus of Catholic Social Teaching:

“The basis for determining the value of human work is not primarily the kind of work being done, but the fact that the one who is doing it is a person.”

He goes further: labour is always more important than capital. Capital is nothing more than the accumulated result of human work; it can never claim precedence over the human being who works. When capital dominates, work becomes alienated and the worker is reduced to a means.

This is why John Paul II insisted that every economic system must be judged by how it treats the worker, not by how much wealth it generates at the top.

Against this backdrop, Leo XIV’s warning about a trillionaire carries a sharper meaning. It’s not just about Musk. It’s about the danger of allowing extreme wealth to become the primary measure of what counts in society. If a handful of ultra-rich individuals are treated as the benchmark of human value, we have inverted the moral order: capital dominates labour, money trumps dignity, and society loses sight of what truly matters.

This is not envy or “leftist politics.” It is simply the logic of Catholic anthropology: the human person, imago Dei, is the foundation of all social and economic life. Wealth exists to serve the person, not the other way around. The Pope isn’t criticising wealth; he’s reminding us that wealth is a tool, not a god. People are made in the image of God, not in the image of a balance sheet.

Here’s where Kevin Tierney’s insight is crucial. Much of the mainstream press has described Leo XIV as offering “continuity” with Francis. That’s true, but it’s not the full story, not by any means.

Perhaps it is true that Francis instinctively sensed the dangers of inequality, technocracy, and polarisation. But his critique often remained at the level of broad denunciation, leaving unresolved tensions. He warned, for instance, about the “throwaway culture” and the domination of finance, but often framed these issues in ecological or political terms, his thoughts were un-nuanced and unsophisticated which often meant critics dismissed them as ignorant or partisan.

Leo XIV, by contrast, is showing a capacity to re-align these instincts with the deep currents of Catholic tradition. By invoking the figure of the “trillionaire,” he is not simply railing against the rich. He is pointing us back to Laborem Exercens, to the principle that wealth, capital, and power must remain subordinate to work, dignity, and the person.

As Tierney’s analysis argues, Leo XIV appears capable of moving beyond the deadlocks Francis often created. On synodality, for example, Francis raised the banner but polarised the conversation; Leo reframes it as listening that corrects extremes. On economics, Francis critiqued capitalism broadly; Leo roots the critique in the theological anthropology of work. The result is sharper, more balanced, and harder to dismiss.

I do want to say that I did find his comments on synodality almost as confusing as everyone else’s comments on synodality and he has certainly not convinced me that it has any value whatsoever in the Church, nor is it needed or necessary. But he does seem to be subtly reshaping it into something distinctly more Catholic. Perhaps something more at the service of the Church than governing it?

Importantly, Leo XIV is asking a fundamental question here: What do we value? And this appears to be something he has thought about a lot and thus may well be an insight into his forthcoming encyclical.

He is saying that if society values wealth above all, then only the ultra-rich count. Everyone else is disposable. But if society values the human person and the dignity of work, then the economy must be judged by how it includes, protects, and serves people at every level.

That is why the Pope’s seemingly simple remark about Elon Musk actually reveals his hand. He is not just continuing Francis. He is correcting, re-anchoring, and perhaps even re-launching Catholic Social Teaching for the 21st century.

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A Papacy of Resolution?

We are still in the early months of Leo XIV’s papacy, but already a pattern is emerging. Where Francis opened up questions but often left them unresolved, Leo seems to be moving toward resolution. Where Francis’ critics saw politics, Leo is grounding his message in doctrine. Where Francis polarised, Leo is seeking to unify.

It is too early to say if he will succeed. But what this interview shows is that Leo XIV is not content to repeat slogans or to let papal social teaching drift. He is reaching back to Rerum Novarum, Rerum Novarum, Quadragesimo Anno, Centesimus Annus and Laborem Exercens, and the great tradition of the Church and bringing it to bear on the world of trillionaires, polarisation, and alienation.

And that may turn out to be the most important correction of all.

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