Pope Leo XIV, previously Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, is the first American Pontiff to head up the Catholic Church at Vatican City. He is the 267th Pope in the almost 2,000 year history of the church. While originally from Chicago, Illinois, he took a global route to aspiring to his post and is now the first Pope from the United States.
Each Cardinal takes a new name upon being elevated to Pope and Cardinal Prevost took the name Pope Leo XIV as he shares Francis’ commitment to helping the poor and migrants. He was once the leader of his religious order, the Augustinians. As such he was called to live simply and devote himself to ministering to those in need.
Prevost defied a longstanding belief that Catholic Church leaders would never select a Pope from a global superpower like the U.S. as it already has considerable influence in world affairs. But, as we have reported last week, America has one of the largest populations of the Catholic Church in the world and gives the most financially to the church. America has some 53 million of the 1.4 billion Catholics of the world. The website Zenit reported that the United States gave $13.6 million (28.1%) of the church budget to the Catholic Church in 2023 making it the top giver of the world.
“The Ten Countries That Made the Most Financial Contributions to the Pope in 2023 | ZENIT – English”
As we have mentioned previously, church attendance and giving is down all over the world for reasons unknown. The phenomenon seems to have started with the COVID-19 Pandemic lockdowns of 2020. These factors of U.S. church attendance and giving from one of the largest contributing countries of the church may have been a factor in their selection of Pope Leo XIV.
In his first address to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV said in Italian, “We must seek together how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, dialogue, always open to receive like this square with open arms.”
He spoke to the crowd in a combination of Italian and Spanish but not his native English.
Many theologians and Catholics in the know are not sure what selection of this Pope will mean for the future of the church.
He is viewed as more of a moderate or centrist in the Catholic Church. Oddly, his U.S. voting record is said to be as a Republican but he is also a “Never Trumper”. A social media account with his name expressed criticism of Vice President JD Vance, who had asserted Christian theology could justify turning away migrants and strangers because it actually ranks caring for family first. The account posted on X said “J.D. Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
Despite his American roots, the 69 year old Pontiff, is viewed as a clergyman who transcends borders. Cardinal Prevost served for two decades in Peru, where he became a bishop and a naturalized citizen there. He then rose to lead in his international religious community, the Order of St. Augustine. Under Pope Francis, Prevost held one of the most influential Vatican posts, running the office that selects and manages bishops from around the world.
News of selection set the Internet on fire with seemingly a combination of both optimism and skepticism.
“Hope — or Dread? | FORWARD BOLDLY” – Christine Niles
While the positions of a Cardinal can change once he is Pope, this is what we have seen of Cardinal Prevost in his past positions and dealings within the Catholic Church:
- He doesn’t believe in embracing sexual deviancy in the church. “The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist.” – Pope Leo XIV
- He is Pro-Life.
- He does practice the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM).
- He has not been viewed as handling sexual abuse by priests as well as he should.
- He has taken the side of the MS-13 “Maryland Dad” Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
- He has shown support for BLM and George Floyd.
- He believes in the Climate Change agenda as did Pope Francis before him.
- He believes in open borders.
- He opposes female deacons.
- He is for gun reform in the U.S. in violation of the Second Amendment.
- He was for The Dreamers Act, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
- His position on the recent church financial scandals is unknown.
- His position on divorced Catholics returning to the church is unknown.
- His position on blessing individuals in same sex relationships is unknown.
CONCLUSION:
I am not sure what to make of this Pope Leo XIV for the future of the Catholic Church.
One thing I do feel strongly about, just as I predicted an American Pope prior to his selection, I will now predict if Pope Leo does not step up to undo the damage done by Pope Francis, I would expect more Catholics to leave the Catholic Church seeing it as irrelevant in not following Christ’s teachings.
I also have a problem with any clergy who does not take the side of President Donald J. Trump in this matter of George Soros’ open borders and what has happened here in the U.S. the last 4 years.
The Democrats did what they did for votes, not humanity. Thousands of illegal aliens have died and been trafficked into the U.S. for votes and commerce and the Democrats have cared little about the humanity of these individuals. On top of that, many American citizens have died at the hands of illegal aliens due to lack of border control and vetting as well.
All the different peoples of the world were created by God after the fall of the tower of Babble. From Google AI:
“The Biblical story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 recounts humanity’s ambition to build a city and a tower that would reach the heavens. United by a single language, people aim to establish a legacy and make a name for themselves. God, observing their unity and ambition, intervenes by confusing their language, leading to a diversity of tongues and scattering them across the earth, effectively ending the project.”
A good religious argument could be made that God does not want us intermingling by nations.
Pope Francis was negligent when he did not call out nations who emptied their prisons and insane asylums on the U.S. He was also negligent in not recognizing some enemy countries are sending sleeper cells of terrorists to the U.S. to carry out future terrorist attacks on our nation.
He and his Swiss Guard would never allow such an opportunity within the Vatican City. How could he, then, expect us to live any less than himself?
As God would say Himself, “YOU HYPOCRITE!”
I have hope Pope Leo is not another Pope Francis. Some of his words do make him seem like a moderate as seen here:
“All these immigrants continue to come. It’s a huge problem, and it’s a problem worldwide, not only in this country. There’s got to be a way both to solve the problem, but also to treat people with respect.” – Pope Leo XIV
Growing up I had a lot of friends and family who were Catholics more so than today. Now most of my Catholic family/friends are “lapsed Catholics”. I think the one thing I resent most about the Catholic Church today is they no longer ex-Communicate bad Catholics like they once did. Two examples would be Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi for their Pro Choice stances.
© 2025 by Mark S. Schwendau
