16/05/2025
I was chopping onions when I heard it—“Leo XIV is the new pope.” The moment I heard the name “Leo,” I froze. My mind rushed back to the stormy corridors of church history class. The name Leo: especially Leo X—is not just a name; it’s a dark echo of papal arrogance and the violent suppression of the true Gospel. The pope who excommunicated Martin Luther and sold salvation to fund the building of St. Peter’s Basilica. The one who sparked the 1517 Reformation by pushing the true Church to the edge. What surprised me most was the choice of the name Leo; could it reflect the pope’s values, direction, or even admiration for Leo X and his legacy?
My mind was instantly flooded with memories of the cries of the Reformers: men who bled and burned for daring to challenge Roman Catholicism and its deceptions. I remembered names like John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, William Tyndale, John Rogers, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley, Thomas Cranmer, Patrick Hamilton, Girolamo Savonarola, and countless others; burned, hanged, tortured, or branded as heretics: all for preaching justification by faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ alone, or for translating Scripture into common languages. Rome called them heretics. God called them faithful.
Don’t be fooled by the robes and Latin chants. Rome still preaches the very gospel that Leo X preached. As the Roman Catholic world celebrates their newly elected christ, true believers should not expect anything new from Pope Leo XIV. His name alone reminds us that Rome has never reformed, only rebranded, and remains the very same beast. It continues to preach another gospel, one Paul would curse (Gal. 1:8); a system organized to suppress the true Church and enrich itself.
And yet, I rejoice! Because if God used Leo X’s cruelty to awaken the Church in 1517, may He use Leo XIV to ignite a fresh Reformation in our day and raise another Luther!
As they parade a man on a throne claiming to be the vicar of Christ, let us lift up the true Christ, seated a
