Pope Leo XIV: Carrying Francis On

Pope Leo XIV has spent April 2026 tying his papacy tightly to Pope Francis’s legacy, from memorial tributes in Rome to prison and school visits in Equatorial Guinea. (vaticannews.va) On April 21, the first anniversary of Francis’s death, Leo said Francis “gave so much” to the Church and called his life “the great gift of Francis’ life to the whole Church and to the whole world.” Francis died at dawn on April 21, 2025, and Leo spoke while flying from Angola to Equatorial Guinea on the last leg of an 11-day Africa trip. (vaticannews.va) In a separate message read at St. Mary Major, where Francis is buried, Leo said Francis’s memory “remains vivid in the Church and throughout the world” and described his witness as a “significant patrimony for the Church.” He linked Francis directly to the Second Vatican Council and to a Church “open to mission.” (vaticannews.va) Leo had already invoked Francis at Easter. In his April 5 “Urbi et Orbi” message from St. Peter’s Basilica, he said Francis had addressed the world “one year ago from this loggia,” recalling the late pope’s final Easter appearance before his death later that month. (vatican.va) The continuity has also been physical and public. On April 22 in Mongomo, Leo visited the Pope Francis Technical School, an institution named for his predecessor that trains young people in technical and vocational skills, during his last full day in Equatorial Guinea. (vaticannews.va) Hours later at Bata Prison, Leo told inmates, “you are not alone,” and said the Church “will stand by your side.” He urged a justice system centered on dignity and rehabilitation, saying “there is always the possibility to start over, learn and become a new person.” (vatican.va) Those stops matched the schedule of Leo’s April 13-23 trip to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, which mixed meetings with heads of state and bishops with visits to an orphanage, a hospital, a nursing home and a prison. The Vatican published the journey as Leo’s first multi-country Africa tour of 2026. (vatican.va) The Vatican is also turning Francis’s environmental agenda into institutions. Notre Dame said on April 22 that the Vatican had asked the university to serve as an academic partner as it seeks to bring Francis’s vision to life through the Laudato Si’ Higher Education Center at Castel Gandolfo. (news.nd.edu) That work had already moved beyond symbolism. Notre Dame and the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Center launched the Global Alliance for Laudato Si’ in March, and Notre Dame said nearly 100 researchers and leaders from more than 60 universities met on March 9-10 to build a shared agenda on sustainability, inequality and ecological injustice. (news.nd.edu) Taken together, the April memorials, the Equatorial Guinea visits and the Notre Dame partnership show Leo presenting Francis not as a closed chapter, but as a program still being carried out. He has used Francis’s own touchstones — mercy, the poor, mission and care for creation — as the public language of his first year. (vaticannews.va)