Pope Leo XIV has become an unlikely figurehead for young people disillusioned with organised religion, drawing in a generation that once turned its back on the Catholic Church.
Maria Ward-Brennan, an Irish writer raised in the Catholic tradition, admits she was not initially convinced when the US-born Pope was first elected, believing the role should go to someone from a Catholic country.
But over the past year, Ward-Brennan says Leo XIV has fundamentally changed her view, not only of the pontiff himself but of the institution she once described as something she despised.
Her disillusionment was rooted in Ireland’s deeply painful relationship with the Church, shaped by the 2009 Murphy Report, which detailed widespread sexual abuse scandals and sent what she describes as a dark cloud of shame and anger across the country.
The abuse of children and the treatment of women in the Magdalene laundries compounded that damage, and the 2017 revelation that babies were buried in a disused sewage tank proved, in her words, the final straw.
Yet the pull of faith proved difficult to escape entirely, and Ward-Brennan notes that for most Catholics, once you are in, it is very difficult to leave.
Pope Leo’s appeal to her generation appears to rest on several pillars, including his nonchalant attitude towards prominent political figures such as Donald Trump, and his use of soft power in calling for peace during a war-riven period.
His critical stance on artificial intelligence, in which he urges younger people to maintain their ability to think and build genuine friendships, resonated widely and became the topic of discussion on most social media platforms.
The Pope has also attracted attention from Gen Z by joining viral TikTok and other social media trends, alongside the broader cultural moment sparked by the viral Conclave film that swept across social media and reignited interest in the Church.
According to figures reported by the European Union, the Catholic Church has recorded the highest numbers of 18- to 25-year-old adults seeking baptism in decades, suggesting the resurgence is more than a passing trend.
The Church is further courting younger generations by placing a student who died at 21, eight years ago, on the path to becoming what would be their generation’s first Saint.
Ward-Brennan argues the deeper explanation for this revival is not simply memes or social media virality, but a genuine hunger among young people for calm and reasoned voices that promote hope in a turbulent world.
She concludes that Pope Leo XIV is exactly the right person for the right time, and expresses hope that he continues to represent the fresh air the world currently needs.