Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2026
Abstract
Pope Leo XIV has focused a good deal of writing and speaking in the first year of his pontificate on the theme of listening, dialogue, and bridgebuilding. For Leo, listening, dialogue, and creating harmony across diverse perspectives where possible are at the heart of the Christian life. But his reflections on these themes, while rooted in theology, are aimed at a wider audience, going well beyond the church community, and addressing philosophical issues of universal human concern. Indeed, the first American pope happens to be highlighting certain ideals regarding dialogue that, while perhaps forgotten today, are central to the American Constitution as well.
In this article, I will show first how the surprising election of the first American pope was itself made possible by a two hundred fifty-year dialogue between American constitutional actors and Catholic social thought. Over the course of that time, both made a long journey from sharp, polarized antagonism and mutual suspicion to mutual respect by listening to each other and even learning from each other. Second, I will explore Pope Leo’s theology and philosophy of dialogue. For Leo, dialogue is a “way of life” that has deep roots in Scripture and the writings of Saint Augustine. Through his explorations of these sources, he has developed a theologically, morally, and psychologically rich account of dialogue as one in which the truth about the world is discovered and both parties to a dialogue are transformed via a process of listening, critical thinking, and charitable engagement with one’s interlocutors. Third, I will attempt to show how the history of the 250-year dialogue between America and the Catholic Church, and Pope Leo’s theology and philosophy of dialogue, may have significance for the American Constitution today. In our current fraught moment, the inability to speak productively with each other appears to be warping our constitutional system and undermining confidence in the Constitution itself fueling flirtation with “post-liberalism” on both the left and right. Just as Pope Leo’s episcopal motto, “In illo Uno unum,” happens to rhyme with America’s traditional motto, “e pluribus unum,” his theological and philosophical reflections on dialogue echo some often overlooked yet crucial insights from America’s founding generation, and later jurists, about the necessity of healthy and robust dialogue for the American Constitution to endure.
Recommended Citation
Derek A. Webb, The Constitutional Significance of the First American Pope: The Promise of Listening in an Era of Mutual Suspicion, 40 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol'y 331 (2026).
