Like perhaps many of you, I became excited when people started texting me about the plume of white smoke rising above the Vatican. Having just visited the Vatican in February for a meeting on Pediatric Tuberculosis and AIDS, I could picture myself standing in St. Peter’s Square with the throngs of others waiting for the announcement of a new Pope.

I also shared in the surprise that an American, Cardinal Robert Prevost, was selected by the conclave to lead the Church into this next chapter.

But what excited me most was his choice of the name, Leo.

From a course I had taken, I knew that Pope Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum in the late 1800s, laying out the concepts that became foundational to Catholic Social Teaching and the rights of workers to a fair wage and safe working conditions. I have a sense that the new Pope Leo will lean toward solidarity with the poor and vulnerable, and champion support for workers.

These principles also guide CMMB in our work to support community health workers, nurses, and other frontline health workers worldwide. These individuals, whose roles are essential to global health systems, often face unsafe work conditions and are not paid fair wages for their significant service on behalf of the health of others. We have joined peers around the world to press for the protection of health workers in insecure settings, for access to adequate water and sanitation in health facilities—so they and their patients do not fall sick where they are meant to heal—and for the right to fair compensation for their service.

I have faith that Pope Leo XIV will continue efforts to highlight the hard-working people who are often behind the scenes and underappreciated, especially health workers.

P.S. We all know a health worker who has helped us through a health issue or offered compassionate care to a sick family member. With May marking International Nurses Day, it feels like a good time to consider thanking a health worker in our own lives.

In grace and peace,

Mary Beth Powers,

CEO, CMMB