In a world where so much is framed in binary terms, a dichotomy I find especially troubling is the common assumption of sharp divisions between a “Global North” and a “Global South.” The supposed divide matches simple geography poorly, but more fundamentally it posits sharp splits not only along lines of power and wealth but also of attitudes, approach, and interests. Focusing on dichotomies can accentuate them, aggravating divides and polarization. The need instead—a truly existential one—is to build links and common purpose for people and life everywhere, with bridges that link different societies and cultures. We need to develop notions of global citizenship grounded in a courageous, deep commitment to equity and jettison notions of sharp divides like those implied in the juxtaposition of North and South.
Pope Leo XIV’s life history and the approach we are witnessing in his new papacy belie just such sharp divides. They offer the promise that he, like Pope Francis, can draw on his life journey as well as the Catholic Church as a global community to bridge regions and communities, weaving threads of common humanity and its rich diversity together, thus giving living meaning to the ideal of a uniting common good and of an enlightened understanding of what it means to be a global citizen.
Pope Leo XIV’s remarks to a gathering of parliamentarians from around the world in Rome on June 21, 2025, highlighted his challenge to simplistic polarities and the positive links he forges among elements that are often framed as incompatibly separate. The pope’s background—starting with a diverse family heritage and youth spent in an exciting if volatile Chicago, followed by many long years in Peru, then in the special world-crossing Vatican and Roman communities—has equipped him remarkably well not only to appreciate the assets of diversity but also to come to grips with its more challenging, and too often conflictual, dimensions.
The fundamental bridge-crossing idea and ideal is the common good, which, as Pope Leo elaborated, is the good of the community. But in framing that concept he focused on what I like to see as the most powerful message of a global religious community, which is to defend those who are vulnerable, marginalized, and too often unheard: “Those who live in extreme conditions cry out to make their voices heard, and often find no ears willing to hear their plea. This imbalance generates situations of persistent injustice, which readily lead to violence and, sooner or later, to the tragedy of war.” He puts his finger precisely on the dangers of seeing and acting as if the world falls into two separate parts.
At a time when trust in politicians seems to descend ever lower, Pope Leo commented that politics is “rightly” defined as “the highest form of charity.” He takes issue with facile assumptions that government is more problem than solution, equating “the service that political life renders to society and to the common good” with a true act of Christian love “always a concrete sign and witness of God’s constant concern for the good of our human family.” He delved straight into the fraught moral debates around inequality, observing that sound politics can offer an effective service to harmony and peace both domestically and internationally by promoting the equitable distribution of resources. That’s hardly a well-accepted priority of global leadership these days, notwithstanding the powerful logic of what Pope Leo states quite baldly.
The bridging theme of the common good was central in a second message centered on religious freedom. He cited the Augustinian notion of society as the civitas Dei, a society whose fundamental law is charity. That demands moving from amor sui—egotistic, myopic and destructive self-love—to amor Dei—a free and generous love, grounded in God and leading to the gift of self. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by placing the human person, in his or her inviolable integrity, at the foundation of the quest for truth, restores dignity “to those who do not feel respected in their inmost being and in the dictates of their conscience.”
Pope Leo lingers on honesty and courage as central to public service and thus to the common good. Sir Thomas More serves as an exemplar of courage and the primacy of conscience, and “an exquisite sense of justice” with his readiness to sacrifice rather than “betray truth.”
Pope Leo exemplifies the most positive features of the concept of global citizenship that is at the heart of the Berkley Center’s mandate and ethos. The concept eschews potential pitfalls of a global elite that savors cultural diversity and a freedom to engage across worlds with little regard for the vast majority for whom multicultural diversity seems to taunt their limited opportunities. Our concept starts from a sense of both the common good and today’s remarkable potential to work towards a world truly free of extreme poverty.
Pope Leo has experienced the meaning of inequality, inequities, and poverty in their different forms: urban poverty and thwarted opportunities in societies where wealth and poverty are indeed immediately juxtaposed and the rural struggle for survival he knew well in Peru. Rather than a world divided into two halves he conveys a responsible, open eyed global citizenship model that is rooted in a sense of fairness and justice. What we can hope is that he comes also with a vision of what can be that is tied both to a deeply rooted commitment to human generosity and goodness and to an appreciation of what can truly be in a world where the aspiration to assure not only dreams and aspirations for a common good but a determination to hear and empathize with those left behind. By following that lead the Catholic Church can nurture positive and engaged ideals for a common good and a shared welfare that benefits from the rich diversity that is the power and benefit of global citizenship.
