Prevost was not among the top-level names mentioned as a successor to Pope Francis but Thursday, when the white smoke appeared around the noon hour on the East East in the U.S., much later in the day in Rome, Prevost, Chicago-born and Philadelphia-educated, became the 267th leader of the Catholic Church.
He also made history as the first Pope from America.
As he was announced from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, he emphasized peace and unity to the thousands in attendance.
A close friend of Francis, he shares many of the last Pope’s priorities and beliefs...but there are noteworthy differences.
Leo aligns with Francis on the church’s support for the environment, migrants and the poor, but if you believe God created only two genders, genders that cannot be changed, there may be reason for cautious optimism.
Francis became known for his inclusive stance, once stating, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
He expressed support for civil unions, stating that have a right to be in a family and should be legally covered by law. He made these remarks in a documentary film entitled, “Franceso,” part of the Rome Film Festival in 2020.
Leo, meanwhile, has been described as “less progressive” on LGBTQ and gender issues. The pro-LGBTQ news outlet Them.US neither celebrated nor bemoaned his arrival.
He has expressed reservations about “sympathy for beliefs and practices that contradict the gospel,” according to CollegeofCardinalsReport.com and has not fully endorsed a document that would bless same-sex unions in the church. Instead, Leo has stressed the need for national bishops conferences to have doctrinal authority to make decisions on the matter that best apply to their local districts.
In these early hours of Leo XIV, the best glimpse into his future papacy may come from his chosen name, Robert George, a law professor at Princeton, said on Washington Watch Thursday.
“Clearly, he's symbolically linking himself to the pontificate of Leo the XIII, who is widely known in Catholic circles as the first modern Pope,” George told show host Tony Perkins.
Here’s who Prevost hopes to emulate
Leo XIII served from 1878-1093 and is known for his contributions to Catholic social teaching, particularly the plight of workers during the Industrial Revolution.
In 1891 he called for safe working conditions, fair wages and trade union representation.
He led mostly from the center by opposing both unbridled free market capitalism and socialism, according to PopeHistory.com.
He established soup kitchens and homeless shelters for children and the elderly.
These were the great social issues of the day for Leo XIII, not whether a man could become a woman and have his decision culturally celebrated or whether two men could marry, with the church’s blessing, then adopt children and teach their lifestyle.
Leo XIII reigned during “the rise of new, profound ideologies, Marxism and nationalism, including nationalism of the sort that only a few decades later would turn into vicious fascism and Nazism. He found a way to bring the gospel to bear on social questions rather than treating the gospel simply as something that applied to our individual spiritual lives and the life of the community of believers,” George said.
George said the new Pope’s namesake forcefully rebuked Marxism and all forms of socialism.
“He also rejected dog-eat-dog capitalism. So he was not a collectivist by any means, but he wasn't any kind of radical libertarian or individualist. He, again, found a way that he felt was more in conformity with the gospel,” George said.
American, yes, but Leo XIV, having spent much of his life away from the continent, is no fan of Donald Trump’s immigration polices and has voiced frustration for the President and Vice President J.D. Vance on social media, advancing an X post that was critical of Trump’s deportation plans, specifically mentioning the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a prison in El Salvador.
The new Pope also shared an editorial from the National Catholic Reporter that criticized Vance for comments he made in a Fox News interview.
“There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that,” Vance said.
Many challenges await Leo. Internally, the Catholic Church has great need of reform in its governance but also its finances. Sex scandals of the early 2000s continue to haunt the church, George said.
“We need a Pope who will be a genuine reformer, someone who knows who's who, what's what, where the bodies are buried, who can bring administrative order to the church and who can root out corruption,” he said.
What the world needs now
But the world at large needs clarity, George said. It needs Leo XIV to stand tall among the “challenges of secular progressivism” and share Jesus Christ.
“That’s what the Pope is. He’s a Christian leader,” George said.
The world needs to be reassured that Leo XIV supports Christ’s message, not the “perceived ambiguity of Catholic teaching” that existed under Francis, he said.
“Clarity is charity. If you leave people thinking they’re not doing anything wrong when in fact they’re doing something very bad, something destructive to themselves, their families, their relationships … that’s not charity. That’s not kindness.”
