Pope Leo’s challenge: How to build unity in a fragmenting world
| Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Paris, Toronto, Vatican City, Washington
The selection of Robert Francis Prevost as the first American pope stunned Vatican watchers around the world. Many had long believed that an American would never be chosen to lead an institution with 1.4 billion followers because the United States already wields so much global power.
Taking the name Pope Leo XIV, he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica as tens of thousands gathered below him. Chants of “USA! USA!” could be heard after the bells of the basilica stopped ringing in welcome of the new head of the Catholic church.
He spoke no English. “Peace be with you,” he said in Italian. He continued his message of unity in Spanish and Latin.
Why We Wrote This
Pope Leo XIV stepped onto the balcony and the world stage May 8 as a bridge builder. He is the first person from the United States to lead the 2,000-year-old church. At a time of global trial, the new pope offered a message of unity, peace, and global citizenry.
In a world of deepening conflicts – in Ukraine and Gaza, Sudan and Myanmar, India and Pakistan – the new pope committed to building bridges. It will be a tall order amid widening cracks in the post World War II global order.
With so much division in the world, “he wants us to open up to each other,” says Asuncíon Mbunga, a nun from Equatorial Guinea. “He made it very clear in his first message that his priority is peace.”
He is the son of a Navy veteran and local librarian and – according to his brother – a White Sox fan. But as one Vatican insider put it: “He’s the least ‘American’ of the American cardinals.”
Pope Leo XIV grew up in Chicago, but he spent 20 years as a missionary in Peru, taking Peruvian nationality in 2015. In fact, just as Americans raised flags and President Donald Trump and Chicago’s mayor issued congratulations, Peruvians shared memes of the new pope enjoying a fresh ceviche alongside an iconic Inca Kola soft drink.
He’s not only bicultural and speaks five languages. He bridges North and South America – a knitting together of cultures that is part of the reality of the 21st century for so many citizens, but that now faces backlash, sometimes violent. And at a time of fraught geopolitics and growing nationalism, he stood unwavering for unity. “Help each other to build bridges, with dialogue, with meetings, uniting us all to be one people, always in peace,” the new pope said today.
In choosing Leo XIV as the new pope, the Catholic cardinals’ conclave has sent the world a clear message of tolerance and a resolutely global perspective, church observers say.
“We have a pope who is a cultural synthesis,” says Fernando Alberto Armas Asín, professor of humanities at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. “He was born in Chicago, but later worked on the margins in South America. He’s an example of Catholic behavior on an international scale. He unites cultures.”
Like the late Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV is a ‘religious’ – a common term for a member of a religious institute. While Francis was a Jesuit, Leo is a member of the Order of St. Augustine. He’s taken vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience and lived in a community with other priests. And that “impacts the way he sees the church and the way that he sees the world,” says Father Dave Pivonka, president of Franciscan University.
It also means that, when it comes to the poor and marginalized, he is likely to follow the work of Pope Francis, who took strong stances for refugees and migrants, as well as climate justice.
The new pope’s choice of name, Leo XIV, refers to the last pope of that name. At the end of the 19th century, Pope Leo XIII championed workers’ rights, and his efforts to bring the church into line with contemporary thinking earned him the sobriquet of the ‘Social Pope.’
When the new Pope Leo addressed Catholics around the world, he did much of it in Spanish. For many, it underlined his commitment to the underclass across the global South. He made a point of calling out the diocese in Chiclayo, Peru, where he worked from 2015 to 2023. On Thursday afternoon, the central plaza was punctuated by honking cars, church bells tolling, and pedestrians breaking out in applause while passing the grand, buttery-yellow cathedral in the central square. Others crowded church doors chanting “Peru! Peru! Peru!”
He “learned to be a pastor here in [the north of] Peru,” says Juan Miguel Espinoza Portocarrero, an associate professor of theology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
Named by Pope Francis to head the Vatican office that nominates bishops worldwide, Leo XIV oversaw one of the more radical recent experiments in the Vatican, naming three women to the body. But Vatican observers say that – unlike Francis who caused some divisions, particularly with his more welcoming stance toward LGBTQ+ people – they expect more social conservatism from Leo.
“That famous quote, ‘who am I to judge?’ – I’m not sure [Pope Leo] is going to say things like that,” says Anna Peterson, professor of religion at University of Florida, referencing Francis’ statement that “if a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”
Still she sees Pope Leo’s selection as “a savvy choice.”
“They chose someone who’s got a foot in Europe, a foot in North America, a foot in Latin America,” Professor Peterson says.
On Thursday evening in Madrid, Ms. Mbunga and Sandra Bolivar are chatting about the new pope on the bus home from class at the San Damaso Ecclesiastical University, where the two women study theology.
Ms. Mbunga, who has been in Spain for three years, says she knows people who were hoping this pope would be the first African, rather than the first American. Africa has the fastest-growing number of Catholics in the world – 281 million, according to Vatican figures. But she tried not to get caught up in those debates.
“It’s a shock that he is American. Most people said he would be from Asia or Africa,” says Ms. Bolivar. But “having a pope from the United States is a good thing, because things are are very complicated there now.”
The pope has not been afraid of wading into politics. That became clear earlier this year, when the then-Cardinal Prevost took to social media to correct Vice President JD Vance over a doctrinal issue.
The new pope insisted that the theological notion of “well-ordered love,” promoted by St. Augustine, means that everything flows from God’s love. Mr. Vance, a Catholic convert, “completely perverted the doctrine by interpreting it to mean that we should love our neighbor before a foreigner, or a Mexican immigrant,” says Arnaud Alibert, editor in chief of the French Catholic daily La Croix.
“JD Vance is wrong,” Cardinal Prevost posted on X Feb. 3. “Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
“Pope Leo is not going to look for a fight with the Trump administration,” says Thomas Reese, a Vatican expert with the Religion News Service. “On the other hand, his job is to preach the gospel of Jesus, which means defending the poor, the hungry, and the refugees.”
“He is going to preach the Gospel, and if that gets politicians mad, Trump or anybody else, the cardinals don’t care,” Father Reese, a Jesuit priest, adds.
But, the Vatican insider notes, Pope Leo’s very Americanness may itself be an asset.
“He understands America and he can speak to the country, which is important in the Trump era,” says the insider, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.
Olga Donis, like the new pope, is bicultural. She grew up in Mexico and then moved to the states and became a U.S. citizen. Today, Ms. Donis is helping coordinate a pop-up food pantry that serves between 150 to 200 people. For $5, people can stock up on peppers, tomatillos, and cucumbers, along with other produce and pantry items. The lifelong Catholic, a child case manager with home health care in Los Angeles, says she doesn’t care where Pope Leo is from.
But she hopes he doesn’t get pulled into U.S. politics. And she hopes he stays focused on welfare issues for immigrants and the marginalized – and away from hateful rhetoric.
Brenda Mejia was getting ready to volunteer with an organization that supports underserved children when she heard the new pope announced on the radio. She went to Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church in LA’s San Fernando Valley. There she knelt to pray in the sun, in front of an outdoor shrine in the parking lot between the church offices and its K-8 parochial school.
Ms. Mejia is focused on the new pope’s commitment to unity, not his nationality. Still, this Chicago native sees a South Side-raised pope as a sign. “I heard the announcement and I literally got chills,” she says. “For me personally, it’s a reminder that, you know what? We gotta keep the faith.”
Nick Squires in Vatican City contributed to this report.
