It was long assumed that an American pope was an impossibility. Vatican insiders would dismiss the idea of a pope from the world’s preeminent superpower as completely out of the question and barely even worth a thought.
That was until around 7 p.m. Rome time on May 8, 2025, when Cardinal Dominique Mamberti emerged on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to announce to the world that Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost had been chosen by the College of Cardinals to be the 267th pope and the successor of St. Peter as the head of the Catholic Church and had taken the regnal name Leo XIV.
The election of Pope Leo XIV was as much a signal to the faithful of the Catholic Church that aspects of the pontificate of Pope Francis would continue as it was a message to the world that the first American pope could only be someone who had spent the majority of his adult life and priestly ministry in Latin America. And whose active social media presence included critiques of President Donald Trump‘s administration and Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert.
Before his election, Leo had effectively become a Vatican bureaucrat. In 2023, Francis appointed him to lead the Dicastery for Bishops, the Vatican office charged with assisting the pope in the appointment of new bishops all over the world.
In the coming days, weeks, months, and years, Leo will lay out his agenda, and the character of his pontificate will become more clearly known. But the moment his new name was announced and he stepped out on the balcony, he made clear that, while he would continue aspects of the Francis agenda, his pontificate would be its own.
In 2013, the newly elected Francis, a name no pope had ever taken, appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica wearing only a white cassock. Both of those details were stark deviations from tradition. Taking a previously unused name (John Paul I notwithstanding, who took the names of his two immediate predecessors) had not happened in centuries. As for the vestments of a new pope, the newly elected pontiff typically wears a white garment known as a surplice over his white cassock, as well as a red capelike garment called a mozzetta and a gold-decorated red stole. Francis wore only the cassock and briefly put on the stole when he blessed the crowd.
But Leo emerged on the balcony wearing the full complement of vestments for his new office. And unlike Francis, who greeted the crowd with a jovial “buona sera” or “good evening,” Leo began his remarks to the crowd with “peace be with you,” a far more religious greeting. And with those two actions, he tied himself far closer to the many popes who came before Francis than to Francis himself.
In choosing the name Leo, however, the new pope sought to tie himself to Leo XIII, who was pope from 1878 until he died in 1903 and was known for his critiques of socialism and capitalism.
But as much as Leo’s public appearance gave the impression that he is not a carbon copy of his predecessor, it is hard to interpret his election as anything other than at least a partial message from the College of Cardinals to the Trump administration.
POPE LEO XIV: CARDINAL ROBERT PREVOST BECOMES FIRST-EVER AMERICAN PONTIFF
In one of his last posts on X before becoming pope, Leo questioned the morality of Trump’s willingness to deport illegal immigrants to a prison in El Salvador. In February, he shared an article that criticized Vance for invoking the “ordo amoris” to justify the administration’s deportation agenda. How the first American pope engages with the government of his home country and its outspoken Catholic vice president will be a major source of fascination worldwide.
No one knows yet exactly what kind of pope Leo will be. Pope Pius IX was famously elected as a liberal reformer in 1846, but by his death in 1878, he was seen as a conservative reactionary. Pope John XXIII was supposed to be a transitional pope, but he called the most consequential event in recent church history: the Second Vatican Council. In an office full of surprises, Leo is already one himself.
Jeremiah Poff is Restoring America editor for the Washington Examiner.