Pope Leo has enough Peeps. Since his brother John revealed that the marshmallow chicks and bunnies are the pope’s favourite sweets, he has been given enough to fill two cupboards. That does not include a large crocheted yellow peep, complete with a white papal mitre, that American students made and presented to him as he whirled past in the Popemobile on St Peter’s Square. What has the Pope accomplished in his first year – other than a lifetime supply of yellow marshmallows?

Having been elected in May, commentators were confidently declaring by September that his honeymoon was over. Conservative US Catholics were apparently not happy with the pope speaking about immigration as a crucial moral challenge that demands a humane and compassionate response.

In fact, his honeymoon had not properly begun. Even though the quiet American had been saying the same things since the earliest moments of his papacy, people did not pay full attention until relatively recently.

Significantly, his first words to the crowd when he stepped out on to the balcony as pope were “peace be with you all”. For him, peace is impossible without integral development for everyone and the planet, hence his trip to four African countries.

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