He was known just as Bob, a White Sox fan from the South Side of Chicago. Now a mild-mannered cardinal with a minimal social media footprint has become the first American pope in history.
Robert Francis Prevost, 69, has been declared Leo XIV and his predecessor sowed the seeds for his ascent.
It was Pope Francis who elevated him to cardinal in 2023. He took someone who was also a Peruvian citizen and promoted him to one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. It coincided with a fraught US presidential campaign that eventually saw Donald Trump return to the White House and politics north and south of the border consumed by the toxic topic of migration.
Francis at the time was sick but had actively reshaped the College of Cardinals that would pick his successor, possibly setting the church’s trajectory for decades.
As an Argentine, Francis was the first Latin American pontiff and had inherited the papacy from a traditionalist, Benedict XVI, who had made his own history by abdicating. Both were old men, co-existing for years in a new world redefined by technology and where conservatism was staging a comeback.
It’s in this context that a dark horse gets anointed.
The result in many ways is a marriage of those two conflicting papacies and shows the enduring power of a tiny city-state to keep playing four-dimension geopolitical chess and punching above its weight.
With his role in the making of Prevost, Francis has seen off the push to align Catholicism with the current far-right zeitgeist. But he’s also brought in an American who is both intellectually prepared – quoting St. Augustine no less – and who critically has age on his side and a certain charisma.
When Leo XIV spoke to crowds from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, his first message was against all forms of division and war.
“Build bridges, with dialog, through encounters, uniting everyone to be a single people, always at peace,” he told the crowd at St. Peter’s Square. “God loves you all and evil will not prevail.”
That’s a warning shot from a man chosen to represent Catholics at a time when culture wars are raging, conflicts across continents are unresolved and it’s unclear what role the papacy can play in any of it.
Born in Chicago, the city where former President Barack Obama is reorganizing a Democratic Party resistance against Trump, Prevost is a man of many guises.
He is a citizen of Peru and served there for 20 years, eventually becoming a bishop. His first speech as pope was delivered in Italian and Spanish.
“I’m sure he will put his own flavor, his own mark, but I also feel confident that he will continue to build on the honorable Francis,” Sister Barbara Reid, president of the Catholic Theological Union, said at a press conference.
A member of the Order of St. Augustine, the new pope also made sure he evoked the saint who is one of the church’s most influential theologians: someone who can tap into the braininess of Pope Benedict XVI and reference the early days of Christianity and its original mission.
Eyes on America
Trump had a bit of fun with an AI image of himself as pope and welcomed Leo’s nomination as a great honor. He has a complicated relationship with Catholics, which constitute an important part of the US electorate and broke in his favor in 2024.
According to the Pew Research Center, a think tank, around 20% of US adults identify as Catholic, down from 24% in 2007.
Yet scandals – in particular sexual-abuse cases that have stained the church worldwide – have been a factor in people leaving, according to surveys by the organization. A rising share of US Catholics are Hispanic, a slice of the population that has swung in favor of Trump.
The new pontiff, a word whose origin means “builder of bridges,” is likely to hit some early roadblocks.
Just weeks before being elected he picked a fight, albeit via a retweet, with Vice-President J.D. Vance, a recent convert to Catholicism. It was about how to define love.
The new pope is more reserved and conservative on some matters, including LGBTQ+ issues, than his predecessor Pope Francis, who was known for his friendly and iconoclastic approach.
Prevost remains a moderate and a choice of continuity, and can even be seen as Francis’ last legacy. He was called to the Vatican in 2023 by Francis to serve as an antidote to the machinations of the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s administrative arm.
In Rome, he was appointed to the powerful body that selects new bishops, helping Francis leave his imprint on the church. As an outsider with a mission, Prevost proved a loyal ally and once again a bridge to all the newcomers in search of an ally in Rome, a detail that likely helped with his election to pope.
He has in the past – and then again – spoken about unifying the Church.
That’s a much needed corrective to the current divisions between progressives and conservatives. Though Francis appeared to shun privileges and promote reform, he was also divisive.
Francis was criticized by the more orthodox wing for his stance on divorce and LGBTQ+ issues, but also derided by liberals who expected more from him and stronger position on abuses by clergy. He wound up pleasing neither side.
The choice of Leo XIV as a name offers clues to where the papacy is headed, according to Robert Orsi, professor of religion at Northwestern University. The most famous papal namesake was Leo XIII, a progressive who helped push the church into the modern age.
“Pope Leo XIII was also profoundly wary of nationalists, especially those who would divide the church over political disputes,” said Orsi. “The Pope Leo of the early 21st century, who spent most of his 69 years outside the United States, appears already to be calling Catholics back to a truly global, truly open-hearted faith.”
Practical Side
The new pontiff is not just a theologian with a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He also holds a degree in mathematics from the Augustinian-run Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
That may contribute to his practical side which likely won’t stop at unifying the church but seeks to have a hand in worldly matters.
Pope Leo XIV’s first speech asked for peace to the world – a fairly standard request but one that shows that the Vatican intends to not dial down its criticism of world leaders. This is not a man who wants to withdraw into academia.
The perception is that he will continue in the footsteps of Francis.
Yet, the choice of an American pope may also indicate a concern from the cardinals about the divisions within the US and Trump’s tensions with allies across the globe on matters ranging from tariffs to defense.
His having a foot in the US and one in the developing world also may have further ramifications. The US church is known for its fundraising skills, and having an American pope may bring in money to allow the new pope to do more for church causes across the globe.
Among these are migration – a hot button issue – along with climate change. As a former missionary to Peru, Prevost is sensitized to both.
He remains – for now – known as a reserved man from two cultures who has been tasked with something of a mission impossible: reconciling very different worlds.
As a candidate who was not at the top of any of the bookmakers’ lists for pope, there is only upside. Father Thomas Reese, a Catholic scholar, put it: “The Holy Spirit continues to surprise us.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
