For the first time, the Catholic Church chose an American as the next Pope.
Some ask Why did this happen? Was this an answer to Trumpism?
One letter writer to the New York Times thought this might be the case: “I hope the importance of the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as Pope is not lost on any American, whether Catholic or not. This new Pope, who has spent his life championing social justice, stands in stark contrast to our selfish and cruel American president.
“Could it be that the conclave deliberately selected an American pope to help us remember America the beautiful? You remember that America, right? The America we all loved and believed in – America the helpful – which fed the poor and starving around the world.”
Another letter writer argues, “On the world stage this American pope will be the counterforce to the American president – whether he wishes it or not.”
This new Pope, Leo XIV, was close to the deceased Pope Francis, who had some critical comments about some of Trump’s actions.
For years, Pope Francis criticized Trump’s treatment of migrants. In 2016, he criticized Trump over his pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. “A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,” Pope Francis said while traveling to Mexico. “This is not in the gospel.”
As he had done often over the years, Pope Francis advocated for migrants in his Easter Sunday address on the day before his death.
“How much contempt is stirred up at times towards the vulnerable, the marginalized, and migrants!” he said. “On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas.”
This past February, he wrote to U.S. bishops about their work with migrants. “I have followed closely the major crisis that is taking place in the United States with the initiation of a program of mass deportations.”
Pope Francis continued, “[t]he act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness.”
As a Cardinal, Pope Leo XIV also had some strong things to say. In February, he posted an article from the National Catholic Reporter that rebutted Vance’s interpretation of a Catholic theological concept, “ordo amoris,” as a hierarchy of Christian love.
In an interview, Vance said Christian teachings advocate prioritizing love, first for family, then neighbors, community, fellow citizens, and lastly, the world. Prevost commented, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
In his most recent repost, Cardinal Prevost shared commentary from a Catholic writer on Mr. Trump’s meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in April. The post called the deportation of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador “illicit” and asked: “Do you not see the suffering? Is your conscience not disturbed? How can you stay quiet?”
Whether the Catholic Conclave intended it or not, the new Pope is a factor in American politics. First, there are his previous criticisms of Trump.
Pope Leo, then Cardinal Prevost’s, last public activity on X was in April, when he reposted an essay from Bishop Evelio Menjivar, an auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, who condemned the administration’s legally questionable immigration enforcement tactics.
And then there is the MAGA-world reaction. Laura Loomer wrote on Thursday on social media that Leo’s style would be similar to that of his predecessor, Pope Francis, whom she described as “anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist.”
Steve Bannon, a Trump ally, echoed Loomer’s comments and predicted friction between this new Pope and Trump.
That would be a good thing.
