Quiet American is an oxymoron for most people, at least those outside the United States. The British writer Graham Greene used the phrase as the title of his 1955 novel, describing a soft-spoken and well-meaning CIA agent who nevertheless causes havoc abroad. In my native Canada, our reserved self-image has no greater or more pleasing foil than our southern neighbor. Fairly or not, complaining about brash Americans is a national pastime.

对于大多数人来说，至少是美国以外的人而言，“安静的美国人”是一个自相矛盾的说法。英国作家格雷厄姆·格林（Graham Greene）将这个短语用作他1955年小说的标题，小说描述了一位言语温和、心怀善意的中情局（CIA）特工，然而他却在国外制造了混乱。在我自己的祖国加拿大，我们内敛的自我形象，没有什么能比我们的南方邻居更能完美而令人愉悦地衬托出来。无论公平与否，抱怨那些傲慢无礼的美国人，是一项全国性的消遣活动。

And yet, over the past six months, the unthinkable has taken shape: a quiet American papacy. Given the intense national enthusiasm that followed Pope Leo XIV’s election, in May, perhaps the most striking feature of his papacy is how inconspicuous it’s been. A casual American observer likely hasn’t heard much about Leo—and certainly far less than they would have heard about Pope Francis’s first six months, in 2013. Compared with the U.S. president, Leo’s loudest compatriot, the pope has barely made a sound. His relative silence carries certain risks, but it might be exactly what American Catholics need right now.

然而，在过去的六个月里，一件令人意想不到的事情已经成形：一个低调的美国教宗时代。考虑到教皇利奥十四世（Pope Leo XIV）于五月当选后全国上下所表现出的强烈热情，或许他教宗任期最显著的特点就是如此默默无闻。一个普通的美国观察者很可能没怎么听说过利奥——而且肯定远不及他们在2013年教皇方济各（Pope Francis）上任前六个月时所听到的那样多。与利奥最喧嚣的同胞——美国总统相比，这位教皇几乎没有发出任何声音。他相对的沉默伴随着一定的风险，但这可能正是美国天主教徒目前所需要的。

Just because Leo’s papacy has been quiet doesn’t mean he hasn’t been busy. In June, he convened tech leaders to discuss the dangers that the unchecked expansion of AI pose to human dignity. Later in the summer, he gave his first extended interview, affirming the Church’s teaching on human sexuality while expressing a commitment to welcoming LGBTQ Catholics. He has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine and the Middle East. And last month, Leo issued his first major teaching document, Dilexi Te, which emphasized Christ’s love for the poor and condemned the unrestrained pursuit of wealth. “A culture still persists—sometimes well disguised—that discards others without even realizing it,” Leo wrote, “and tolerates with indifference that millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings.” None of this generated many headlines, though, in part because none of it was new: Pope Francis had already articulated all of these views. He even wrote the first draft of Dilexi Te.

仅仅因为利奥的教宗任期显得低调，并不意味着他无所事事。六月，他召集了科技界领袖，讨论人工智能（AI）不受限制的扩张对人类尊严构成的威胁。夏末，他接受了首次长篇采访，在肯定教会关于人类性行为教义的同时，也表达了接纳LGBTQ（性少数群体）天主教徒的决心。他还多次呼吁乌克兰和中东地区实现和平。而上个月，利奥发布了他的首份重要教学文件《Dilexi Te》，该文件强调了基督对穷人的爱，并谴责了对财富无节制的追求。利奥写道：“一种文化仍然存在——有时伪装得很好——它在不知不觉中抛弃他人，并冷漠地容忍数百万人死于饥饿或在不适宜人类生存的条件下苟延残喘。”然而，所有这些都没有引起太多关注，部分原因是这些观点并非全新：教皇方济各（Pope Francis）此前早已阐明了所有这些看法，甚至连《Dilexi Te》的初稿也是他撰写的。

Unlike Leo, Francis commanded attention from the very start of his papacy, not because of his nationality but because of his actions, most notably his unconventional gestures of humility. On his first day as pope, he personally returned to the hotel where he’d stayed before the conclave to settle his bill. Francis chose to spend his tenure living in a modern guesthouse rather than the traditional and grander Apostolic Palace. Instead of washing the feet of priests—a tradition on Holy Thursday—he went to a youth prison to wash the feet of inmates.

与利奥（Leo）不同，方济各从就任教皇伊始就备受关注，这并非因为他的国籍，而是因为他的行为，最引人注目的是他那些非传统的谦逊举动。在他担任教皇的第一天，他亲自返回在枢机主教会议（Conclave，即选举教皇的秘密会议）前住过的酒店结清账单。方济各选择在他的任期内住在现代招待所，而不是传统而宏伟的宗座宫殿。在圣周四（Holy Thursday，基督教节日）一项为神父洗脚的传统仪式中，他选择前往一所少年监狱为囚犯洗脚。

Of his many news-making quotes, Francis delivered the most famous during his first press conference: Responding to a question about gay priests, he said, “Who am I to judge?” As was the case with that line, Francis’s papacy spawned a combination of enthusiasm, criticism, and anxiety among Catholics. These reactions largely mapped onto ideological divisions that predated Francis, but the Church no doubt grew more polarized during his leadership.

在他众多引人关注的言论中，方济各教宗在第一次记者招待会上说出了最著名的一句：当被问及同性恋神父的问题时，他回应道：“我凭什么去评判呢？” 正是像他这句话所引发的情况一样，方济各教宗的任期在天主教徒中激起了热情、批评和焦虑等复杂情绪。这些反应很大程度上与方济各上任前就已存在于教会内部的意识形态分歧相吻合，但毫无疑问，在他领导期间，教会内部的两极分化也更加严重了。

Francis drew the attention of the secular world, in particular, by taking on President Donald Trump. In 2016, the pope said that anyone “who thinks only of building walls”—the signature promise of Trump’s campaign—“is not Christian.” Earlier this year, Francis was even more direct, calling the president’s deportation plan a “disgrace.” Leo hasn’t completely shied away from challenging Trump: He’s referred to America’s handling of immigrants as “inhuman” and called on U.S. bishops to protect them. Most recently, he lamented the physical and spiritual mistreatment of migrants, calling for “deep reflection.” But unlike his predecessor, Leo hasn’t referred to Trump himself.

方济各通过挑战时任总统唐纳德·特朗普，尤其吸引了世俗世界的关注。2016年，教皇表示，任何“只想着建造围墙”的人——这是特朗普竞选时的标志性承诺——“都不是基督徒”。今年早些时候，方济各的态度更加直接，称总统的驱逐出境计划是“耻辱”。利奥也并非完全回避挑战特朗普：他曾将美国对待移民的方式称为“不人道的”，并呼吁美国主教保护他们。最近，他哀叹移民遭受的身心虐待，呼吁“深刻反思”。但与他的前任不同，利奥没有直接提及特朗普本人。

Any pope’s influence on U.S. politics is going to be limited, but a more direct intervention from Leo could make a greater impact than those of his predecessors. The first American pope is uniquely positioned to challenge the “America First” president, not least because a majority of U.S. Catholics voted for Trump last year. This suggests that a substantial bloc of the president’s base could be receptive to papal counsel, even though many MAGA Catholics already regard Leo as an antagonist. Criticism from Leo would likely carry significant weight for non-Catholics too, given how few people in positions of authority have been willing to oppose Trump directly. Catholicism offers ample precedent for such a confrontation. Indeed, the pope’s original eponym, Leo I, issued one of the most potent challenges to secular power in Church history. In 452, as Attila the Hun marched on Rome, Leo I went out to meet the invading army and persuaded it to turn back, saving the seat of Christianity.

任何一位教皇对美国政治的影响力都是有限的，但利奥教皇更直接的干预可能会比他的前任们产生更大的影响。作为首位美国教皇，利奥在挑战奉行“美国优先”（America First）政策的总统方面具有独特优势，尤其考虑到去年大多数美国天主教徒投票给了特朗普。这表明总统支持者中的一大批人可能会接受教皇的建议，尽管许多“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）的天主教徒已经将利奥视为反对者。利奥的批评对于非天主教徒来说也可能具有相当大的分量，因为很少有身居高位者愿意直接反对特朗普。天主教历史也为这种对抗提供了充足的先例。事实上，这位教皇（利奥）的同名先辈——利奥一世（Pope Leo I，圣利奥大帝），曾在教会史上对世俗权力发出了最具影响力的挑战之一。公元452年，当匈奴王阿提拉（Attila the Hun）进军罗马时，利奥一世前去会见侵略军，并说服他们撤退，从而保全了基督教的中心。

The threat that today’s Leo faces is certainly less dramatic. From one vantage, if he doesn’t wield his power more distinctly, his papacy could succumb to “vagueness and vapor,” as the New York Times columnist and prominent American conservative Catholic Ross Douthat warned—he could become a source of “pious-sounding exhortations that never condense into clear recommendations and whose applications seem to be overtaken by events.” Douthat was writing specifically about Dilexi Te, which he regarded as too imprecise to offer clear moral guidance or attract sufficient attention.

今天的教皇利奥所面临的威胁，无疑没有那么戏剧性。从一个角度看，如果他不能更清晰地运用自己的权力，他的教皇任期就可能陷入“模糊和空洞”之中，正如《纽约时报》专栏作家、著名的美国保守派天主教徒罗斯·杜萨特（Ross Douthat）所警告的那样——他可能会成为那些“听起来虔诚，却从未凝结成明确建议，其应用似乎总被事件超越”的说教的来源。杜萨特当时是专门针对《Dilexi Te》这份文件发表评论的，他认为这份文件过于含糊不清，无法提供明确的道德指引，也难以引起足够的关注。

At the same time, more direct intervention carries its own dangers. A pope who arrogates attention and flexes the power of his singular office could worsen the problems of an era in which one-man rule is already ascendant. Global affairs are beginning to resemble earlier periods when absolutist rulers—both secular and religious—shaped the destiny of millions through sheer force of will. Leo’s papacy can be seen as a bulwark against this kind of regression. “I don’t see my primary role as trying to be the solver of the world’s problems,” Leo has said. “I don’t see my role as that at all, really, although I think that the Church has a voice, a message that needs to continue to be preached, to be spoken and spoken loudly.”

与此同时，更直接的干预也伴随着其自身的危险。一位独占公众关注、滥用其独特职权（教皇职位）的教皇，可能会加剧当前个人独裁已然盛行的时代问题。全球事务正开始类似于早期的那些时期，那时无论是世俗还是宗教的专制统治者，都仅仅凭借个人意志就决定了数百万人的命运。利奥（Leo）的教皇任期可以被视为抵御这种倒退的屏障。利奥曾说：“我不认为我的主要职责是努力成为世界问题的解决者。”他还补充道：“我真的完全不认为我的角色是那样，尽管我认为教会确实有自己的声音，有一种需要继续宣讲、需要被大声说出来的讯息。”

In so explicitly subordinating his own voice to that of the Church, Leo may be doing two shrewd things at once. First, he is starving the media of the conflict and drama they crave, especially in the United States. Second, and related, Leo could be buying his deeply polarized Church—in particular American Catholics—time to rebuild some measure of unity in the absence of papally generated controversy.

如此明确地将自己的声音置于教会之下，利奥可能同时在做两件精明的事情。首先，他让媒体（尤其是在美国）缺乏它们所渴望的冲突和戏剧性。其次，与此相关的是，利奥可能正在为他那严重两极分化的教会——特别是美国天主教徒——争取时间，以便在没有教皇制造的争议的情况下，重建一定程度的团结。

By granting the Church a moment of calm—at least relative to Francis’s tenure, when Catholics constantly fought over what they heard from Rome—Leo may also be creating the conditions for people to ask themselves how they can address the problems he’s identified, whether about poverty, inequality, or the treatment of migrants. In this sense, Leo’s quiet papacy might really be a provocation: Pay less attention to the Attilas of the present age, and more to what we ourselves are doing and failing to do.

通过让教会获得片刻宁静——至少相对于方济各教宗任期而言，当时天主教徒们总为罗马教廷的言论争论不休——利奥教宗或许也在为人们创造条件，让他们反思如何解决他指出的问题，无论是贫困、不平等，还是移民待遇问题。从这个意义上说，利奥教宗的“沉默教宗期”可能真是一种挑战：少关注当今时代的“阿提拉们”，多关注我们自己正在做什么以及没能做什么。