Tuesday, March 17, 2026
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. EDT
Location: Healy Hall Riggs Library
As we approach the one-year anniversary of the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV, two papal biographers will discuss the historic choice of the first pope from the United States. Drawing on their on-the-ground reporting in Rome, Austen Ivereigh and Christopher White will take us inside the conclave and explore Vatican dynamics following Francis’ consequential pontificate.
Does Leo share Francis’ vision of the Catholic Church as a “field hospital” tending to the wounded? And what might our new pope and his priorities of defending the poor, solidarity with migrants, and concern for our environment signal for both the Church and the world?
Kim Daniels, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life, will moderate the dialogue.
Recording
The dialogue starting at 12:30 p.m. EDT will be recorded and posted online for later viewing.
Photo credit: Vatican Media
Participants
Austen Ivereigh
Austen Ivereigh is a U.K.-based writer, journalist, and commentator best known for his books on and with Pope Francis: The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope (2014), Wounded Shepherd: Francis and His Struggle to Convert the Catholic Church (2019), and Pope Francis’s Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future (2020). He is a fellow in contemporary church history at Campion Hall, Oxford.
Christopher White
Christopher White is the associate director for strategic initiatives and senior fellow of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. He is the author of the book Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy (2025) and a former Vatican correspondent and national correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter.
Accessibility
All accommodation requests should be sent to cathsocialthought@georgetown.edu by March 13. A good-faith effort will be made to fulfill requests.