Cardinals Elect Anti-MAGA Pope Leo XIV To Further the Reforms of Pope Francis
New pontiff signals continuity and rupture with predecessor, delighting liberals and conservatives
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago, now known as Pope Leo XIV, is the first American ever elected to the papacy.
For the first time in history, cardinals have chosen an American Augustinian friar to become the pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church.
The new pope — the Church’s 267th — is a fierce critic of MAGA policies. This correspondent correctly predicted for The Stream that the cardinal electors “could transcend theological disagreements and unite to elect a pope capable of providing an ideological and geopolitical counterweight to President Donald Trump.”
The announcement that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost secured two-thirds of the vote from the deeply divided cardinal electors sequestered in the Sistine Chapel on the second day of the conclave took priests, pundits, and punters by surprise. He was chosen after four votes — one of the quickest conclave elections in modern history.
Now known as Pope Leo XIV, the visibly emotional Chicagoan stepped onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday evening, addressing thousands of rapturous Catholics with the words of the risen Christ to the disciples: “Peace be with you all.”
Millions watched the livestreaming of the event as the new pope proclaimed:
“God loves us, God loves you all, and evil will not prevail! We are all in the hands of God. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we move forward. We are disciples of Christ. Christ precedes us. The world needs His light. Humanity needs Him as the bridge to be reached by God and His love. Help us too, then each other to build bridges, with dialogue, with meeting, uniting us all to be one people always in peace.”
Rival Factions Unite to Praise New Pope
Both liberals and conservatives hailed Leo’s appointment, with conservatives highlighting his missionary zeal and Christocentric emphasis, and liberals emphasizing his call for continuity with the reforms initiated by Pope Francis and his anti-MAGA stance on migration, climate change, and gun control.
“He’s like a dual passport holder. He’s the perfect pontiff for the present moment,” said Miles Pattenden, papal historian and lecturer at Oxford University.
“I know Pope Leo XIV to be a kind, open, humble, modest, decisive, hard-working, straightforward, trustworthy, and down-to-earth man,” Fr. James Martin, a leading voice in the call for full inclusion of LGBTI+ Catholics, posted on X.
Philosopher Edward Feser was delighted by “Pope Leo XIV’s choices to take a traditional name and to appear in traditional papal garb.” The conservative Catholic found these to be “small but encouraging signs of a man who subordinates himself to the papal office and understands the importance of continuity with the past.”
More cautious voices in both camps expressed concerns over the new pope’s previous handling of clerical sex abuse cases, his ambiguous position on Pope Francis’s declaration permitting same-sex blessings, and his silence on hot-button issues like making priestly celibacy optional, the Latin Mass, artificial contraception, and the Vatican-China secret accords.
Pundits pointed out that the appointment of an American would also be an attempt to secure funding for a Vatican that has been facing financial meltdown and has seen donations from the U.S. reduced to a trickle in opposition to Pope Francis.
Italian media explained that Leo was the “least American of the American cardinals” because the Chicagoan was a churchman who transcends borders, having lived for two decades in Peru, where he served as missionary, pastor, and bishop and became a naturalized citizen.
Leo XVI Signals Continuity with Francis
“In his first message, he placed important emphasis on continuity with Pope Francis,” Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, observed. Bätzing has played a leading role in pushing for reforms in Germany’s Catholic Church, including married priests, women’s ordination, and the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals.
In his first Urbi et Orbi (To City and World) address on the loggia, Leo stressed that he would continue the path of Francis by building “a Church that builds bridges, dialogue, always open to receive like this square with open arms.”
“To all of you, brothers and sisters of Rome, of Italy, of the whole world, we want to be a synodal Church, a Church that walks, a Church that always seeks peace, that always seeks charity, that always tries to be close especially to those who suffer,” he added, clearly signaling that he would not abandon the model of synodal government initiated by Francis.
John Prevost, the brother of the 69-year-old pope and a retired school principal, said he expects his brother to follow in the footsteps of Pope Francis since both shared similar contexts: “I think because they were both in South America at the same time — in Peru and Argentina — they had the same experiences in missionary work and working with the oppressed.
“The best way I could describe him right now is that he will be following in Francis’ footsteps,” Prevost said. “They were very good friends. They knew each other before he was pope, before my brother even was bishop.”
He described Leo as “middle of the road” and said, “I don’t think we’ll see extremes either way.”
Will Leo End Francis’s Support of LGBTQ+ Catholics?
“American bishop Robert Francis Prevost decried the ‘homosexual lifestyle.’ He was just elected pope,” LGBTQ Nation media noted in a headline on Prevost’s election.
As a bishop in Peru, Prevost opposed a government plan for teaching about gender in schools. “The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” he told Peruvian media.
In a 2012 address to bishops, Prevost lamented that Western media and popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel.” He cited the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”
“We pray that in the 13 years that have passed, 12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic LGBTQ+ ministry.
Barrage of Anti-Trump Tweets
While Leo XIV has been described as a centrist, a review of his X account shows a pattern of anti-Trump political advocacy. Three of the pope’s last five tweets criticize Trump’s migration policies and Vice President J.D. Vance’s interpretation of Catholic social teaching.
On February 3, he shared an article from the National Catholic Reporter titled, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others” — a dig at Vance’s remarks on prioritizing one’s family and country before caring for outsiders. On February 12, he doubled down by promoting another piece slamming Vance’s Christian worldview as it relates to border security.
In April, he shared a post on Trump’s meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele. The post called the deportation of MS-13-affiliated Kilmar Abrego Garcia from Maryland to his native El Salvador “illicit” and asked: “Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?”
Over the years, Prevost, who is believed to have managed his own X account, has shared social media posts advocating for migrants.
- In 2018, he repostedCardinal Blase Cupich’s criticism of the Trump administration’s family separation policy. In 2017, he reposted a California Catholic Conference statement opposing Trump’s stance on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy.
- In 2015, when Trump was a Republican primary candidate, he repostedan article by Cardinal Timothy Dolan titled, “Why Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is so problematic.”
Following a 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Prevost reposted a statement from Chicago Archbishop Blasé Cupich calling for “increased access to mental health care and stronger, sensible gun control laws.”
“Hardly any churchman has been more critical of the policies of this U.S. administration than Leo XIV,” commented Felix Neumann, deputy chairman of the Society of Catholic Journalists, Germany. “By electing this American as pope, the cardinals have sent a strong signal.
“Pope Leo XIV has the potential to do for Trump’s regime what the election of John Paul II did for Poland’s communist regime,” Neumann noted, alluding to the Polish pope’s “revolution of conscience” that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union and communist dictatorships in Eastern Europe.
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.