Pope Leo named one of Time magazine's '100 Most Influential People of 2026'

April 20, 2026: Time magazine has included Pope Leo XIV in its "100 Most Influential People of 2026" list.

The recognition was announced on April 15, with the first U.S.-born pope joining a varied group of individuals — some widely known and others less so — recognised for their impact as leaders, innovators, icons, artists and pioneers.

Each individual on the list was honoured on Time's website with a brief tribute written by a notable personality. In his reflection on Pope Leo, filmmaker Martin Scorsese said he was "struck by his bravery and his common touch."

Referring to Pope Francis as "a man I came to know and love as a friend," Scorsese said Pope Leo "seems to share" the late pope's "understanding that the church needs to reform itself to retain its moral and spiritual force."

Like Francis — "the first Pope born outside of Europe since the Middle Ages and the first Jesuit" — Leo is also a trailblazer, being "the first North American-born Pope (with a Chicago accent!) and the first Augustinian in 500 years," wrote Scorsese.

"For many, the church has lost a great deal of moral and spiritual credibility," he wrote. "Revelations of widespread sexual abuse and financial wrongdoing keep coming up, and many Christians have grown more secular over the years. The church is at a crossroads, and it may once again be remaking itself."

He added that "Pope Francis always stressed that the church was not a building or a symbol but the actual teachings of Jesus," and said, "I believe that Pope Leo shares that view."

"Like Francis, he seems to be committed to giving the laity a more active role in the leadership of the faith and the practice of charity," Scorsese said.

The list, now in its third decade, has "no single metric that defines influence," according to Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs in his overview.

Instead, Jacobs and his team "poll our editors, reporters, and sources around the world, and review the recommendations that are sent to us every day," with final selections "led by the stories that are shaping the world each year and the people who write them."

Scorsese also pointed out that Pope Leo had written the introduction to a new edition of The Practice of the Presence of God, a brief spiritual text by a 17th-century French Carmelite friar known as Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection.

Pope Leo has referred to the book on several occasions, writing in December 2025 that the work, along with the writings of St. Augustine and others, "is one of the texts that have most shaped my spiritual life" and has "formed me in what the path can be for knowing and loving the Lord."

"I know the book well," Scorsese wrote. "A friend gave me a copy a few years ago, and I've since passed it along to many others. It offers a model for finding God in daily life, and for taking the church out of buildings, no matter how majestic, and into everyday existence."

He cited Pope Leo's introduction to the text: "All Christian ethics can truly be summed up in this continual calling to mind the fact that God is present: He is here."

"I'm encouraged by his words," wrote Scorsese.

Courtesy: National Catholic Reporter (NCR)