The ascension of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost al Papado marks an extraordinary moment for American leadership on the world stage at a time when President Trump has transformed the country’s reputation abroad and fed the distrust among the allies for a long time.
But while two Americans now sit in Global Nogtous influence positions, Pope Leo XIV can sacrifice the world a different vision of US values of Trump’s approach to the United States, which has been executed through rigid tariffs, imperialist reflections and fixed cuts to foreign aid.
When he was presented to the world, the new Pope, who speaks five languages and is a naturalized citizen of Peru, emphasized his pluralistic background, making a point of speaking in Italian (representing his new constitution) and Spann (his old). He did not speak English and did not refer to the United States, even when some Catholics in the Plaza de San Pedro enthusiastically agitated the US flags. UU. (Friday he spoke with letters in English when he delivered his first homily).
There are indications that the first American pontiff disapproves some of the hard line positions of Trump’s administrations. A social media account under his name has again published critical messages of the president’s positions on issues that include immigration, weapons control and climate change. In February, the account shared a link to an article in the national Catholic journalist entitled “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus is not to classify our love for others.”
“We have this powerful moral voice that can face the other most powerful American voice,” said Charlie Sykes, an anti-trump conservative who is Catholic. “Donald Trump pants to the world as the Ugly American, and now we have another prominent American who can face it.”
Mr. Sykes said that Pope Leo’s defense in the name of migrants, in particular, could challenge Trump, who has had an aggressive campaign to deport them as quickly as possible.
“Part of Donald Trump’s appeal is that this is the great champion of Christianity and now he will have to explain it to an American partner who is the Pope,” Sykes said. “There are very few figures, if they have the platform and voice of the Holy See.”
John Prevost, the Pope’s brother, told the New York Times in an interview that he did not believe that his brother was evident to express his disagreements with the president.
“I know he is not happy with what is happening with immigration,” he said. “I know that in fact. How far he will go just to suppose, but he won just to sit. I don’t think it’s the silent.”
Even so, Vatican analysts say that Pope Leo is more reserved than his predecessor, and although they hope he will continue to defend migrants and the poor, some do not expect him to do it as such an open way as Pope Francis.
Trump and his supporters have also found aspects of the background of the new Pope that excite the issue, including his burning anti -abortion abortion and his opposition to a government plan in Peru to add teachings about gender in schools.
“He said and done some mixed things in the past,” said John Yep, executive director of Catholics for Catholics, a group that supports Trump. “Let’s see how it does. I don’t want to go to judgments from the beginning.”
In the hours since the selection of Pope Leo, the president has only had praise for the new church leader. Trump and Vice President JD Vance congratulated him in publications on social networks and celebrated his American inheritance.
“The president made his reaction to Pope Leo’s announcement yesterday,” said Karoline Leavitt, the White House Secretary, journalists on Friday when asked about Pope’s comments. “He is very proud to have an American Pope.”
It is not clear if Mr. Trump or Mr. Vance had been aware of Pope’s criticisms of his policies, but some of the president’s strongest supporters have already registered his disgust.
“He is Anti-Trump, Anti-Maga, borders Pro Open and a total Marxist such as Pope Francis,” Laura Loomer, the extreme right-right activist who has persuaded Mr. Trump to shoot some of her assistants for not enough loyal, in X. “Catholics have nothing good to wait.
Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and a Catholic devotee, praised Pope Leo’s commitment to the poor and said he hoped that he could unite American Catholics through partisan divisions.
“His vision based on values for the Church is quite different from what we see of some leaders, if you call them like this, in our country, but I do not hope that it gets involved in a political debate in the interview.” “
Although Pope Leo is an American by birth, he has spent most of his adult life, and now as the Head of State from another nation, remains to be seen what relationship with the United States. Pope Francis, who came from Argentina, never returned to his birthplace after becoming the church leader.
American Cardinals said at a press conference on Friday that Pope Leo’s American identity was not a factor in his selection. When he was announced, the Vatican did not mention his American nationality, but presented it as the second Pope of the Americas.
Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, DC, said the conclave was not seen as a “continuation of the US elections.”
“It was an electoral conclave,” he said. “It was a desire to strengthen the Christian faith among the people of God.”
Joe Donnelly, the United States ambassador to the duration of the Holy See, the Biden Administration, said that Pope Leo’s team transcended any nationality, but it would also be sero to demonstrate US values on the world stage.
“I think Pope Leo will be a wonderful reflection of America, or Chicago and all our hardware people,” Donnelly said. “It is a prototype of the history of American success, working hard, studying hard and being kind to others.”
The selection of the cardinals of an American Pope challenged the predominant belief that the Church would not choose a leader of the global superpower. In the days before the conclave, Catholic commentators speculated that the interruption of Mr. Trump of the global political and economic order caused a Pope born in the United States to be even more unlikely.
In fact, some spectators gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro in Thorsday were bewildered when their identity arose.
“An American?” Several murmured in Italian.
“I am surprised and disappointed,” said Adam Mocarski, 31, from Poland.
The immediate disappointment did not go to the new Pope, but seemed to reflect how much Mr. Trump has traveled the international feeling to the United States.
“Trump wants to divide,” said Francesca Elicio, 29, theater producer in Rome. “Trump has a negative effect not only in the United States, but in another country. Perhaps the idea was to have an intermediary that can save not only the Church, but throughout the world.”
Some analysts have postulated that the cardinals selected Pope Leo precisely due to Mr. Trump. The president stirred many Catholics, also some of his allies, when he published an image generated by herself dressed as the Pope after Pope Francis died.
“The president could be right when claiming credit for the selection, at least in part, given the photo he published on social networks,” said Rocco Palmo, an analyst of the Catholic Church. “Leo’s choice is the way of saying the cardinals”: “This is our process and we decide what is Catholic, not the White House.”
Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Elizabeth days Reports contributed from the city of the Vatican.
