Till right this moment, practically each Vatican insider agreed on one factor: The US would by no means produce a pope, at the very least not whereas the nation stays a superpower. A citizen of the world’s dominant nation couldn’t turn into the chief of the world’s largest spiritual group with out dramatically upsetting the worldwide steadiness of geopolitical and cultural energy. Or so the pondering went.
And but, the conclave that concluded right this moment in Rome has chosen the primary American pope within the historical past of the Catholic Church: Robert Francis Prevost. Making the milestone much more outstanding is that Prevost was chosen on simply the second day of voting by essentially the most geographically numerous physique of papal electors in historical past. Maybe most shocking of all is that the Church’s first-ever American pope was chosen throughout Donald Trump’s presidency, as Washington assumes a extra contentious stance towards the remainder of the world.
Prevost, who has taken the papal title Leo XIV, was born in Chicago (with the accent to show it) and attended an American college (Villanova College), however he spent a lot of his grownup life exterior the USA. Leo led the Augustinian spiritual order from Rome and lived in Peru, serving as a missionary bishop. Throughout his first speech as pope from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica right this moment, he switched simply from fluent Italian to fluent Spanish. Many within the Catholic hierarchy are inclined to establish American clergy as parochial; they may discover that Leo goes towards sort. Given his affiliation with Peru, some within the Vatican even talked about him as if he’ll be the second pope from Latin America—after Francis—fairly than the primary from America.
Many observers are more likely to solid Leo as an anti-Trump, a job that Francis was usually solid in himself. In February, a profile on X apparently belonging to Leo reposted an article criticizing J. D. Vance, who had argued that Catholics ought to prioritize their household and neighbors over foreigners. And certainly, it appears probably that the brand new pope will proceed insurance policies—corresponding to advocacy for migrants and environmental safety—that his rapid predecessor embraced and that the present U.S. administration largely opposes. However virtually any of the 133 males voting within the Sistine Chapel right this moment would have carried out the identical had he been chosen pope. Francis was a controversial determine amongst many cardinals on account of his autocratic governing fashion and his de-emphasizing of sexual ethics, however not for his beliefs on financial or social justice, which aligned with these of mainstream Church leaders. By taking the title Leo, the brand new pope is clearly signaling an intention to focus on trendy Catholic social instructing, a practice that started with Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903.
The brand new pope’s impression on the Catholic Church in America guarantees to be dramatic. Think about the scenes in Chicago on his first pastoral journey to the nation. Francis, who did little to cover his wariness of U.S. energy and as soon as stated that it was an honor to be attacked by People, was nonetheless broadly in style along with his flock there, as with the non-Catholic inhabitants. The U.S. is sure to embrace its native son with even higher fervor, not least as a result of his elevation clearly confirms Catholicism’s standing as an American faith, for any Catholics who would possibly nonetheless harbor doubts about totally belonging in a historically Protestant society.
Leo’s relationship with the U.S. Catholic hierarchy might present an early clue as to the route of his papacy. Many American bishops felt that Francis downplayed ethical points, particularly abortion, which the U.S. Convention of Catholic Bishops repeatedly declared the “pre-eminent precedence” of its public-policy agenda. Francis bluntly denounced abortion, however he and his allies amongst American prelates sought to provide equal weight to social points together with poverty and the atmosphere.
The brand new pope served his predecessor for the final two years of Francis’s reign as chief adviser on the choice of bishops, serving to discover males who shared Francis’s imaginative and prescient to guide the Church all over the world. In that function, he was not recognized for public interventions within the tradition wars. And but, there may be some proof that he would possibly extra intently resemble the vast majority of American bishops than his proximity to Francis could recommend.
In October 2012, when he was main the Augustinian order, Leo gave a speech on the Vatican denouncing “the Western mass media” for selling “practices which are at odds with the Gospel,” together with euthanasia, abortion, the “gay life-style,” and homosexual adoption. That speech would have clashed with the tone set by Francis, whose most well-known line as pope was “Who am I to guage?” We’ll see if such stark language makes a comeback underneath his successor.