I often thought of this passage from Brideshead as I read Christopher R. Altieri’s wonderful new book, Leo XIV: The New Pope and Catholic Reform.
Situating Pope Leo’s pontificate in his Augustinian formation, Altieri has a keen ear for Leo’s nuanced interpretation of his role as Supreme Pontiff, firmly rooted in the tradition of ecclesia semper reformanda. “For the Augustinian,” Altieri explains, “memory is not merely a storehouse of the past but the threefold presence of all time: a power of the mind to make present the past, yes, but also the presence of the present and the presence of the future” (p. 117).
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