Christopher Hale is a political consultant and the editor of the popular Letters from Leo newsletter. Millennial editor Robert Christian interviewed him on Letters from Leo, the Democratic Party, his work, and his faith.

Why did you start Letters from Leo? And what do you think accounts for its surging popularity?


I wish I had a more noble reason for starting it, but honestly it came from seeing the surge of interest in the new American pope and realizing I had a lot to say. I’ve been a contributor to Newsweek and Time for about a decade, writing on faith and politics, but those outlets tend to be slow-moving and don’t really accommodate the breakneck news cycle.

With Pope Leo XIV, there was so much happening so fast, and people wanted insight immediately.

I also noticed that my fellow Democrats had an almost insatiable curiosity about this new Holy Father—as if he were a moral bulwark against authoritarianism. So in my free time after work, I wanted to step in and help educate and inform them about who Pope Leo is and what his words and actions mean. The intersection of an American pope with US politics, culture, and even technology is unprecedented, and I think people are flocking to Letters from Leo because it gives them a front-row seat to that story in real time.

Some journalists have called you an “influencer” (pejoratively) and have criticized not just your content but even the legitimacy of the Letters from Leo project itself. Why do you think they are reacting so negatively? How would you reply to such critics? Or would you not engage, since your message is clearly resonating with so many people and you’ve been writing about the intersection of faith and politics for over a dozen years now?


For the past fifteen years, we’ve watched an insurgency of right-wing media dethrone a lot of the legacy media.

Something similar has happened in the Catholic media landscape.

A lot of right-wing actors have flooded the space and really dominated the online commentariat. With Letters from Leo, I think we’re trying to balance that out while still holding true to the faith. We’re offering an alternative voice that’s faithful to Catholic teaching but not coming from the far-right perspective that has been so loud online.

On the flip side, I suspect some of the established center-left Catholic publications might see us as a threat. Our audience is surging among three groups: young people, non-Catholics, and even prominent media influencers.

In fact, our content gets picked up by major news outlets all the time.

When you’re growing that quickly outside the traditional channels, it can rub some people the wrong way — especially those who’ve been in this space for a long time. They might question our legitimacy because we’re new and unconventional, but the irony is that our reach and impact show that we’re filling a real need.

But I don’t seek any enemies in this at all. I want Letters from Leo to be part of a global conversation about Pope Leo and the issues he’s spotlighting. My hope is that we can provide something fresh for Catholic media.

Too often we all get caught up in trivialities—what Pope Francis once referred to as focusing on “cholesterol issues” on the battlefield of faith and politics instead of tending to the real wounds. I think there’s value in doing something new, even something a bit aggressive and forward-looking, to cut through that noise.

Frankly, too many Catholic progressive groups and outlets have been relying on the same voices for thirty years. It’s time to try something new, and the enthusiastic response we’re getting tells me it’s resonating. So to the critics, I’d say: we’re not here to undermine anyone, we’re here to enrich the conversation. And given the response, it seems people are glad we showed up.

Putting on your Democratic strategist hat—when you look at the party, it seems many with power and influence were unwilling to learn any real lessons from Trump’s victory in 2016. Now that Trump has won another election, what lessons should the party draw from losing to such a figure twice?

My party is aging. It’s increasingly homogeneous at the top, and it has little influence west of I-95 or east of I-5. We need to, in the words of Pope John XXIII, let some fresh air in. Let’s stop punishing heretics and allow new, heterodox voices into the mix. The Democratic Party can afford to be unified but not uniform—we should have fewer non-negotiables set in stone.

For me, the three core principles Democrats must rally around are:

• Protecting democracy.

• Fighting for working families.

• Ensuring effective governance.

Everything else can be worked out on a case-by-case basis. If we agree on those fundamentals — defending our democratic institutions, championing the middle and working class, and making sure government actually works for people — then we should be able to tolerate a bit of diversity on other issues.

To quote Saint Augustine: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, diversity; in all things, love.”

We have to let some air in and let go of rigid litmus tests. The lesson from losing to someone like Trump twice is that we can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. We need new energy, younger and more diverse leadership, and a broader tent.

Let’s bring in folks who maybe don’t line up perfectly on every plank of the platform but who share those core Democratic values. In short, we have to renew ourselves or risk becoming irrelevant in large swaths of the country.

How does your faith impact how you view politics?


It’s my entire vista — nothing matters more to me than my Catholic faith in Jesus Christ, and that perspective shapes everything about how I approach politics.

My faith is the lens through which I interpret justice, leadership, and the value of human life and dignity. So for me, political issues are never just theoretical or strategic questions; they’re moral questions filtered through the Gospel.

In practice, that means I’m always asking: Are we protecting the vulnerable? Are we pursuing the common good? Those concerns come straight from my faith. I can’t silo my beliefs from my political views, because ultimately, it’s all one vision of life.

How does your faith impact your life outside of your work and writing? Why are you a Catholic in 2025?


My faith isn’t just part of my public work—it’s central to my entire life. I’m a Catholic in 2025 because, despite my many shortcomings, failures, doubts, and even resistance over the years, God has never tired of loving me.

The Lord’s been there with mercy at every turn. “Mercy and kindness chase after me,” as Scripture reminds. I remain Catholic because I’ve experienced that relentless mercy and redeeming love in the core of this faith. It’s not about politics or habit or culture for me—it’s about the fact that in the darkest or most trying moments of my life, I have felt the presence of a God who is always ready to forgive and embrace.

That reality grounds everything. It gives me hope and purpose beyond any professional role I have. So outside of writing or campaigning or whatever work I’m doing, my day-to-day life is deeply shaped by prayer, the sacraments, and trying (imperfectly) to love others as Christ loves us.

In the end, I’m Catholic—still, in 2025—because I believe the promise that “nothing can separate us from the love of God.”

And I’ve found that promise to be true in the faith of the apostles, over and over again.