This American pope

Summary

Consider This: This American Pope – A Historic Shift for the Catholic Church

Episode Release Date: May 8, 2025
Podcast: Consider This from NPR
Host: Mary Louise Kelly

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Historic Announcement: The First American Pope

In a stunning development that has reverberated across the globe, the Catholic Church has elected Robert Francis Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, marking the first time an American has ascended to the papacy. The announcement was made from the balcony above St. Peter's Square, where Pope Leo XIV greeted the faithful with the words, “La pace sia contuti voi. Peace be with you all” [00:24]. This momentous event has significant implications for the 1.44 billion Catholics worldwide, raising questions about the future direction of the Church under its new shepherd.

Background of Pope Leo XIV: Robert Francis Prevost

Scott Detrow:
Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, is a 69-year-old native of Chicago. His academic journey began with a mathematics degree from Villanova University, diverging into theology with degrees from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate from the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University in Rome [04:08]. Prevost's extensive international experience includes two decades in Peru, where he served as a missionary, pastor, bishop, and archbishop. Fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian, he has been a pivotal figure at the Vatican, leading the department responsible for selecting and appointing bishops. His role as a top advisor to the previous Pope, Francis, underscores his deep involvement in the Church's administrative and pastoral affairs.

Silvia Paggioli:
"The possibility of an American pope had always been considered a taboo," remarked Silvia Paggioli, NPR’s longtime Rome correspondent, highlighting the surprise and significance of Prevost's election [03:01]. Despite his American roots, Prevost's life has been profoundly international, spending only about a third of his life in the United States and dedicating much of his service to Peru and the Vatican.

Continuity or Change: The Future Path of the Catholic Church

One of the central debates surrounding Pope Leo XIV's election is whether he will continue the progressive path set by Pope Francis or steer the Church in a more traditional direction.

Scott Detrow:
"There was a fork in the road here. Conservatives were unhappy with the speed at which Francis moved on issues like migrants, women, LGBTQ issues," Detrow explains [05:26]. However, Prevost's close association with Francis suggests a continuation of his predecessor's vision, albeit potentially with a more measured approach.

Silvia Paggioli:
She notes that Leo XIV "follows very much the Francis legacy of primary concern for migrants, refugees, and victims of war," contrasting sharply with the stance of the current American administration under President Donald Trump [10:24]. This alignment indicates a deliberate choice by the cardinals to maintain the Church’s progressive engagement with global humanitarian issues.

Significance of the Papal Name: Leo XIV

The choice of the name Leo XIV carries historical weight. The last Pope Leo was Leo XIII, renowned for his 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum, which laid the foundation for the Catholic Church’s social doctrine by advocating for workers' rights and opposing both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism [06:35].

Silvia Paggioli:
"Leo XIII was called the 'social Pope' or the 'workers Pope,'" Paggioli emphasizes [06:35]. By adopting the name Leo XIV, Pope Prevost aligns himself with a legacy of social advocacy, hinting at his potential priorities and areas of focus.

Papal Leadership Style: Evangelist or Bureaucrat?

A critical question is whether Pope Leo XIV will emerge as an evangelist expanding the faith or a bureaucrat focused on Church administration.

Scott Detrow:
"He's used to preaching and teaching and caring for his flock," Detrow observes [09:09]. Prevost's background as a missionary and pastor suggests a hands-on, pastoral approach, while his extensive administrative experience within the Vatican indicates a capability to manage the Church’s complex organizational structure.

Jason DeRose:
He highlights Prevost’s dual experience, noting, "He understands that working with complex organizations like the Curia in complex ways takes work" [09:09]. This balance positions Leo XIV to effectively navigate both spiritual leadership and administrative responsibilities.

Geopolitical Implications: Navigating a Delicate International Landscape

Pope Leo XIV's election comes at a time when America's global role is under intense scrutiny, especially in the wake of the Trump administration's policies.

Silvia Paggioli:
She points out that the new pope was chosen as a "response to the US President Donald Trump and his administration's tough stance on immigration and many other issues" [10:24]. Leo XIV’s continued focus on humanitarian issues like immigration and refugees positions the Church in direct contrast to the prevailing American political climate, potentially influencing international relations and the Church’s role on the global stage.

Looking Forward: Questions and Expectations

As Pope Leo XIV begins his papacy, several key questions emerge about his priorities and potential reforms.

Scott Detrow:
"I wonder if he will continue the focus of the Francis papacy on migrants, on the poor, on the people who have the least control over their lives" [11:31]. Observers are keen to see where his first travels will take him and which issues he will highlight in his initial public statements.

Silvia Paggioli:
She raises the possibility of further structural reforms within the Church, such as "women deacons and the possibility of elder married men becoming clergy," suggesting that Leo XIV may continue or even expand upon Pope Francis's reformative efforts [12:12].

Conclusion: A New Chapter for the Catholic Church

Pope Leo XIV's election marks a pivotal moment in the history of the Catholic Church. With his rich international experience, alignment with Pope Francis's humanitarian focus, and the symbolic weight of his papal name, Leo XIV is poised to navigate the Church through contemporary challenges both within and beyond its spiritual domain. As the world watches, the actions and decisions of this first American pope will undoubtedly shape the future trajectory of Catholicism on a global scale.

Produced by Tyler Bartlam in Rome, with contributions from Conor Donovan, Daniel Burke, Courtney Dorning, Tin Beat Ermias, and executive producer Sammy Yenigun.

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For more insights and updates, listen to NPR's "Consider This" and explore additional resources at plus.npr.org/considerthis.

Transcript

[Mary Louise Kelly]

These words we expected to hear this week.

[Scott Detrow]

Annuncio vobis gaudium manium, Latin for I.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Announce to you a great joy. We have a pope.

[Scott Detrow]

Abemus papam.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

These words we were not expecting.

[Jason DeRose]

Oh, my goodness. The pope is from Chicago.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

My co host, Scott Dutrow in Rome, reacting there in real time to the news that Robert From Pope Francis Prevost, an American cardinal has been named pope. He has taken the name Leo xiv. He is the first American pope. And minutes after he was named, he stepped to the microphone on the balcony above St. Peter's Square and greeted the church he now leads La pace sia contuti voi. Peace be with you all. Consider this 1.44 billion Catholics have a new shepherd. Who is he and where will he take them? From npr, I'm Mary Louise Kelley.

[Jason DeRose]

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[Mary Louise Kelly]

It's consider this from npr. My co host Scott Detrow has been in Rome this week talking to Catholics about what they hoped for in a new pope and talking to Vatican watchers about who they expected to be named Pope. Well, now that we have one, I'm going to turn it over to Scott and The rest of NPR's team set up at the edge of St. Peter's Square. Scott spoke with NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose and with NPR's legendary longtime Rome correspondent Silvia Paggioli.

[Jason DeRose]

Sylvia, I will start with you on American Pope.

[Silvia Paggioli]

It is totally amazing. I was totally flabbergasted. The possibility of an American pope had always been considered a taboo, given the immense power of the United States, the superpower on the world stage, the geopolitical leader. And now here we are with the first American as head of the worldwide Catholic Church. It's also true that Robert Francis Prevost spent only about a third of his life in the United States, and he spent some two decades in Peru and has been based here at the Vatican for several years now as head of the department that chooses and appoints bishops. He's had extensive international experience, and Prevost is a polyglot, in his first words to the faithful, to the city and to the world. He spoke mostly in Italian and then in Spanish, with special greetings to the people of Peru, where he spent so much of his lifetime. Today, in his first words as pope, he did not speak in English. I wonder if that was on purpose, a way of presenting himself as a citizen of the world without a specific national label.

[Jason DeRose]

JASON what do we know about Robert Prevost now?

[Scott Detrow]

Pope LEO well, Robert Prevost is 69 years old. He was born and raised in Chicago. He has an undergraduate degree from Villanova University in Pennsylvania, and he majored in mathematics there, not in religion. He entered the Augustinian religious order, rising to the head of that order eventually. He has degrees in theology from the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, and then he came to Rome to study at the Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University, where he received his doctorate in theology. He spent time working in Peru as a missionary, also as a pastor, as a bishop, as an archbishop. He's also taught. He's taught canon law, he's taught patristics, he's taught moral law at the Catholic seminary. There's and he speaks, as Sylvia said, English, Spanish and Italian and teaches in all of those languages. He's also served at the Vatican in administration, working with clergy and bishops, very familiar with local bishops around the world. Part of his work was to vet nominations to become bishops. So we'll know a lot of people in those local administrative areas around the world. Also served on the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where he served as a missionary. And he has deep pastoral experience, missionary experience, teaching experience, administrative experience, really sort of the whole package. And was a top advisor to Pope Francis.

[Jason DeRose]

And this was a big question going into this conclave, would the church stay on the path that Pope Francis set for the past 12 years, or turn back, revert, go in a different, more traditional direction? This seems to be a big clue about what the cardinals were thinking.

[Scott Detrow]

Well, I think there was a fork in the road here Conservatives were unhappy with the speed at which Frank Francis moved on issues regarding, say, migrants or women or entering politics, LGBTQ issues. They said it caused confusion and disunity. One of the biggest questions had been this. Did Francis go too far too quickly? Well, given Provost's closeness to Francis, I think that the cardinals decided to go with someone in Francis mold, though, someone who might move at a slightly slower pace than Francis. Francis did, but still moving in that same direction. Liberals were worried that there would be a backlash against Francis and cardinals would choose to go in a more conservative direction. But, Scott, that doesn't seem to have been the case.

[Jason DeRose]

Sylvia, a lot of attention on the name Leo. Pope Leo xiv. Tell us about, tell us about the name Pope Leo in the Roman Catholic Church's history, how important this is.

[Silvia Paggioli]

Well, the last Leo was Leo XIII, and he was known for his 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum of New Things. In it, he outlined the rights of workers to fair wages, safe working conditions, and the creation of trade unions. The document also affirmed the right to own property, free enterprise, and it was opposed to both socialism and laissez faire capitalism. Leo XIII was called the the social Pope or the workers Pope, and he is really seen as the founder of the Catholic Church's social doctrine.

[Jason DeRose]

So that's Leo xiii. Jason, what can we say at this moment about how Leo XIV might be his pope?

[Scott Detrow]

Well, I don't think we should predict, but we can know something about the way he worked as a pastor and bishop and archbishop, which might help us understand how he might be as, as a pope. I think he resembles Francis in his commitment to the poor and to migrants, though he has been criticized for not doing enough to address clergy sexual abuse at the local level. And I think that's true, Scott, of many in church leadership around the world. He told the Vatican news agency that a bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom, but rather a church leader who's called to authentically be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to talk with them, to walk with them. Francis might have even said to smell like. I think that's very much in the Francis mold. Also, as a cardinal, he had such broad international experience and experience here in Rome. I think he understands that while he might be from America, America is not the center of the world. He spent so much time in South America, specifically Peru. That would help him to really understand and bring the concerns of that region to the international stage. A couple of areas that I think progressives might not be too pleased by are. He's made some comments regarding LGBTQ issues. He's lamented what he's called the media's and the culture's sympathy with, quote, homosexual lifestyles. He's also criticized the government of Peru when it wanted to teach gender in schools. And he called the promotion of, quote, gender ideology confusing because it creates the idea that genders don't exist.

[Jason DeRose]

Jason, we talked about the question of sticking with Francis path or going back in another direction. The other crossroad the church in, based on the interviews we all did, was did the cardinals want to elect an evangelist or a bureaucrat, somebody to spread the faith or somebody to keep the trains running on time? What does this tell us?

[Scott Detrow]

Well, I think he worked as a missionary, he worked as a pastor, he worked as a local bishop. He has significant experience in many areas, you know, at that local level of missionary work and parish work. He accompanied people in their daily religious life, in baptisms, in funerals, in marriages. He's used to preaching and teaching and caring for his flock. But as a bishop, he's an administrator who worked at the regional level, as an archbishop, a larger administrator. He ran a religious order. That's more administrative experience. Also, though part of the Vatican Curia here, he worked to vet and appoint bishops. He has that very high level administrative experience. And I think that he understands that working with these of kinds, complex organizations like the curate in complex ways takes work. So really from the top to the bottom, a lot of experience.

[Jason DeRose]

Sylvia, An American has been elected pope. And this has happened at a moment where America's role in the world is in a really delicate, high profile place. The entire rest of the world is constantly reacting and responding to the Trump administration. It seems significant that the College of Cardinals would pick not just any American pope, but somebody who seems to see the world very differently than the sitting American president.

[Silvia Paggioli]

Very, very differently. The new pope follows very much the Francis legacy of with primary concern for migrants, refugees and victims of war. That's a concern that the current American administration does not appear to share. In fact, one of the first comments I heard here in the crowd was that Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV and the first American pope, was chosen by his fellow cardinals as the Catholic Church's response to the US President Donald Trump and his administration's tough stance on immigration and many other issues. I think it'll be very interesting to see where the new pope will travel first. Will he visit what his predecessor, Pope Francis, liked to call the peripheries? I wonder what will be his first destination on the geopolitical stage.

[Jason DeRose]

Jason DeRose, I'm going to ask both you and Sylvia this, but we're talking about all these things we think might be the case. We need to wait and see what happens when the pope starts to act, starts to act publicly. What are your biggest questions going forward in these next few weeks? About what Pope Leo's going to do, how he's going to focus.

[Scott Detrow]

I wonder if he will continue the focus of the Francis papacy on migrants, on the poor, on the people who have the least control over their lives. I think that that is something Francis brought to the attention of the world when his first papal voyage was to an island sheltering refugees. I will be very interested in seeing where he goes first and what some of his first words will be when he goes to those places. Does he visit a war zone? Does he visit refugees? Does he speak of and to and about women? All of those things I will be looking for.

[Jason DeRose]

Sylvia, any big questions that you have about how the Vatican could change under an American's leadership?

[Silvia Paggioli]

Well, it will be very interesting to see. We talked many times about Francis having done so many new things, revolutionary reforms, but there are some things he stopped short of in terms of the women deacons and the possibility of elder married men becoming clergy. We'll see. Will the new pope go further? Will he stop there? That's going to be one of the most interesting things in the future.

[Mary Louise Kelly]

Former NPR correspondent Sylvia Paggioli joined there by NPR's Jason DeRose speaking with my co host Scott Detrow from the edge of St. Peter's Square. This episode was produced by Tyler Bartlam in Rome and by Conor Donovan. It was edited by Daniel Burke, Courtney Dorning and Tin Beat Ermias. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigun. It's consider this from npr. I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

[Silvia Paggioli]

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