When white smoke began pouring from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney Thursday after as few as four ballots, many assumed that meant the sitting Catholic cardinals had selected the consensus frontrunner Pietro Parolin, who had served as Pope Francis’s Secretary of State since 2013, as the new pope. If there’s one thing you have to hand to the assembled leaders of the Catholic Church, it’s this: They do know how to surprise you.
When the curtains of a balcony on St. Peter’s Basillica were drawn an hour later, Parolin did emerge—to announce that Robert Francis Prevost had been elected pope. Few had thought that the Chicago-born Prevost—now known as Pope Leo XIV—was a contender. But there he was: The first American Pope in the history of the Catholic Church.
Prevost, like Parolin, was a close ally of Francis’s. Ordained in 1982, he has spent much of his time in Peru and was appointed by Francis as Bishop of Chiclayo in 2014. In 2023, he was appointed to the influential position of prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. As with Parolin, Prevost is seen as a continuity pick, given his close ties to his predecessor.
In his opening speech, the newly anointed Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to Francis, who had last been seen speaking on the same balcony shortly before Easter. “Let us keep in our ears the weak voice of Pope Francis that blesses Rome,” Leo XIV said.
“The pope who blessed Rome, gave his blessing to the entire world that morning of Easter. Allow me to follow up on that blessing. God loves us. God loves everyone. Evil will not prevail,” he said in Italian as he addressed a massive, multinational crowd of more than 100,000 people.
Prevost is seen as being to Francis’s right on LGBTQ issues. In 2013, shortly after assuming the papacy, Francis expressed openness toward gay parishioners, saying, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” Prevost, meanwhile, has been critical of what he has called the “homosexual lifestyle” and culture that encourages “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel.”
Like Francis, he is deeply critical of “gender ideology,” which he has said “seeks to create genders that do not exist.” Prevost’s record on what is arguably the single biggest issue in the church—rampant sexual abuse by clergy—is troubling. He not only provided housing to a priest who had been accused of abuse but provided him a residence that was near a Catholic school.
He is, nevertheless, considerably more moderate on social issues than many other contenders. Like Francis, he is outspoken about the danger posed by climate change and the need to provide ministry, support, and sympathy to migrants and the poor. Last year, in an interview with the Vatican’s news outlet, he distilled his vision of the church, which is one in which leaders are constantly in communion with the poor.
“The bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom,” he said, but is “called authentically to be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to walk with them, to suffer with them.”
Much has been made of an unconfirmed X account bearing Prevost’s name that has, among other things, repeatedly criticized Vice President JD Vance and expressed support for migrants. Even if that account is fake, it’s clear that the new Pope Leo XIV cares deeply about the plight of migrants, like Francis before him. Whether he has strong feelings about deep dish pizza or the Chicago Bears quarterback situation is another matter altogether.
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