Pope Leo XIV will be known for many things, including being the first American pope and the first Augustinian pope, but he most likely will not be known for turning the Catholic Church in a more conservative direction.
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was elected 267th pope of the Roman Catholic Church May 8, is not the American U.S. conservatives wanted to lead the world’s largest Christian body. Based on past stances, he is not a supporter of the kind of TradCath identity espoused by those like Vice President JD Vance.
In fact, earlier this year, the future pope publicly rebuked Vance’s interpretation of ordo amoris, the Augustinian idea of “ordered love” that Vance said allows conservatives like him to love their own families before they love anyone else, leading also to Trump’s “America First” motto.
“JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” Prevost posted on X Feb. 3 with a link to a National Catholic Reporter article taking Vance to task.
In the linked article, Kat Armis says: “The problem with this hierarchy is that it feeds the myth that some people are more deserving of our care than others. It’s a framework that makes sense in a world governed by scarcity and fear, where protection comes at the expense of others. But Jesus never speaks of love as something to be rationed. He speaks of love as abundance — a table where there is enough for everyone.”
The new Pope Leo’s track record does not seem to follow the me-first mentality of Vance and his fellow TradCaths in America.
The New York Times explained: “A member of the Order of St. Augustine, he resembles Francis in his commitment to the poor and migrants and to meeting people where they are. He told the Vatican’s official news website last year that ‘the bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom.’”
In other words, the new pope likely will oppose the MAGA agenda of U.S. President Trump as much as Pope Francis did. Francis boldly and directly confronted Trump multiple times.
As BNG previously reported, the conservative Catholic movement has dark money behind it, linked to political provocateur Leonard Leo.
Trump had expressed public support for New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who has been reluctant to criticize Trump.
“Prevost was the least American among the American cardinals.”
“Prevost was the least American among the American cardinals, having spent most of his ministry as a priest and bishop in Peru, and in Rome as the general of the Augustinian order. The cardinals clearly wanted someone committed to Pope Francis’ reform agenda and someone with a demonstrated record for effective management,” wrote Michael Sean Winters in National Catholic Reporter.
Winters added: “The wealthy and well-organized conservative critics of Francis will be disappointed. Good. The new pope is not someone who will be seduced by their financial power. U.S. conservatives who disagreed with Francis would often cite the parochialism of his Argentine background and, especially, what they considered his Peronist streak. They said he misunderstood the U.S. That dog will no longer hunt.”
Prevost is a 69-year-old Chicago native who served two decades in Peru, where he became a bishop and a naturalized citizen. Until the death of Francis, he ran the office that selects and manages bishops globally.
As a member of the Order of St. Augustine, he shares Pope Francis’s Jesuit commitment to the poor and migrants and to meeting people where they are.
“Pope Leo XIV’s election is particularly meaningful to those of us who have spent our lives advocating for the rights of immigrants and refugees,” said Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
Leo’s life and ministry in Peru, where he served as a bishop and became a citizen, make him intimately familiar with the social, economic and political conditions that cause migration. That background also provides him insight into the poverty, hunger and injustice faced by marginalized people, she said.
“We pray he will have particular insight into how the church in the United States can live out the Gospel call to welcome the stranger.”
“Pope Leo XIV’s long history of working with marginalized communities, including immigrants, gives us confidence that he will continue to build on the church’s rich tradition of advocacy for the most vulnerable. As an American, we pray he will have particular insight into how the church in the United States can live out the Gospel call to welcome the stranger.”
He earned a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He speaks English, Spanish and Italian.
Some watchdog groups monitoring sexual abuse claims within the Catholic Church have said the new pope has a history of not handling such cases well. However, there are no abuse allegations against him personally.
Father James Martin, a Catholic priest and writer who frequently explains the inner workings of the church to the public, immediately posted about the new leader: “I know Pope Leo XIV to be a kind, open, humble, modest, decisive, hard-working, straightforward, trustworthy, and down-to-earth man. A brilliant choice. May God bless him.”
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