If you think you now have a fix on Pope Leo, and you know what to expect from this papacy,… Well, you’re wrong.

Father Raymond de Souza makes the point in a review of two new books about the new Pontiff:

Both Bunson’s and White’s books are slender, and both fail at an impossible task, that is, telling us what Leo thinks about controverted issues. A man of significant ecclesiastical responsibility who gets to age sixty-­nine without attracting attention to his thinking has made a deliberate choice.

Face it: We don’t know what he thinks. He has kept clear of controversy— not just for these last few months, but for his entire priestly life. That’s not likely to change overnight.