Analysis: A surreal moment as America celebrates its first pope — and wonders what his election means

CNN

09-05-2025

Leo XIV was forged as much by the outside world as by the United States.
That may be why he's America's first pope.
When the newly elected pontiff walked onto the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square on Thursday, he shocked the world. For as long as anyone can remember, it's been accepted that a conclave of cardinals would never choose an American.
The United States was often deemed too powerful — militarily, diplomatically, and even culturally — for one of its own to control one of the world's most influential seats of moral authority: the Roman Catholic Church and its flock, which is currently more than three times the size of the US population.
Yet, on Thursday, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, whom his friends know as Bob, pulled off a feat many US believers thought they'd never live to see, sending outbursts of pride and pinch-me moments across the country of his birth.
This is not primarily an American story, although it could change the nation.
But hundreds of millions of believers around the world won't care that much that this is an unprecedented moment in US history. To them, Leo XIV is the Holy Father, who holds the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven as the Vicar of Christ.
Yet at this of all times, there is a fascinating question: Why did the cardinals pick an American?
Only the electors inside the Sistine Chapel fully understand the dynamics that led to Leo succeeding the late Pope Francis on the conclave's second day.
But it seems an extraordinary coincidence that the first American pope arrived at just the moment when the United States, under its new, second-term President Donald Trump, is turning on many of the foreign approaches, alliances and even domestic values that it has long observed as the world's most powerful nation. Could the cardinals have been making an implicit argument that there is another American path?
This is where the new pope's personal history may offer a clue.
Prevost spent decades as a missionary and spent 20 years in Peru, where he is a naturalized citizen and served as a bishop. He speaks multiple languages and made no reference to his US heritage in his first public appearance as pontiff, instead speaking in Italian and Spanish and sending a greeting to his 'dear diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru.' It was as if the new pope was sufficiently separate from the country of his birth that there was no way he could be perceived as an instrument or endorsement of its policy or authority.
For a new age — in which nationalism; a geopolitical creed of strong states preying on the weak; and authoritarianism are rising — the cardinals chose a pope born in a land where those earth-shaking changes are most obvious. Amid rising anger in Global South nations over economic disparities, and with hostility on the right against mass migration peaking in the US, the Roman Catholic Church again has a leader who lived his vow of poverty among the marginalized in Latin America, where many migrants to the US originate.
At a time when the US administration is cutting assistance to the sick, for instance in the evisceration of USAID programs in Africa, the new head of the Roman Catholic Church has made serving the poor his vocation.
It would be superficial to argue Leo's election is a rebuke of Trumpism. Yet it's also impossible to ignore that the Roman Catholic Church mastered the techniques of high politics centuries before the United States won its independence.
Whatever the motivations of those who chose Pope Leo, events in the Vatican on Thursday have created a fascinating situation.
There will now be two Americans wielding vast power on the world stage — one politically and the other spiritually — and the implicit comparisons and potential disagreements between Trump and Pope Leo will be impossible to ignore. If the papacy of the late Pope Francis is any guide, they are also likely to grow.
This will further intensify the debate about America's identify and values, which is already raging inside and outside this country. It may cause new reflect about what Americans stands for and its global role.
'I am an American, I love America, I love the values that we stand for,' said the Rev. Robert Hagan, a friend of the new Pope Leo, who described the new Chicago-born pontiff as a man of depth, strength and serenity. 'Sometimes we are not perfect, right, we have flaws,' Hagan told CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday. 'Sometimes the perception of us is rightly deserved, in terms of things that we could do better at and work on. But I think in Leo XIV, we have really what the best of what America stands for. For peace. For justice. That everyone has a role to play; that there should be opportunities for all.'
While Americans may be seeking reasons why one of their own was chosen, there are many other possibilities. Prevost's nationality could be incidental to his election.
The new pope became a powerful figure in the Roman Catholic Church during the papacy of Francis, when he moved to a key post in the Vatican — and his election is an implicit statement by the college of cardinals that the late pope's predominant concern for the poor and relatively progressive doctrinal themes of his tenure will be preserved,
Bishop Robert Barron, of Rochester, Minnesota, who also knows the former Prevost, told CNN's Erin Burnett at the Vatican that he was 'shocked' at the outcome of the election. 'I was telling interviewers the day before the conclave … they will never elect an American pope.' Barron added, 'America runs the world politically, economically, a lot of popular culture, they won't let an American run the Church. Well, I was wrong.'
But asked whether the cardinals had chosen to make a statement about America with the country moving away from some of its global relationships, Barron replied, 'I really think they chose the man. I think they recognized this man as uniquely qualified … he had an international feel, an American, yes indeed, but worked in Latin America, had been here for some years, speaks Italian fluently and knows the Curia. When you put all that together, you say, 'Well, there is a very qualified guy.''
Still, since this is America, the election of Leo is sure to become polarized. Some opinion formers of the Make America Great Again movement were already expressing dismay on Thursday on social media about his selection. Some conservatives had hoped for a new pope who would turn away from some of Francis's positions — for instance, on climate change.
The late pope also issued an extraordinary condemnation of the Trump administration's mass deportation policies and warned that they would deprive migrants of their dignity. He appeared to take direct aim at Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, over his defense of the program on theological grounds. Given Leo's closeness to Francis, there are already some expectations that he might hold similar views, although he may be less strident in expressing them early in his papacy.
Controversy is already surrounding reposts critical of Vance and Trump on immigration policy from an X account listed under Prevost's name. The account did not personally write any of the critical posts, but reposted articles and headlines from others. CNN has reached out to the Vatican, X and friends of Prevost, but has not been able to independently confirm the X account is connected to the newly elected Pope Leo XIV.
Trump was gracious when he learned of Leo's election on Thursday, telling reporters at the White House that 'to have the Pope from America is a great honor.'
While MAGA conservatives may have been hoping for a different pope, some liberals are sure to see his election and the Roman Catholic Church's decision to steer away from more conservative candidates as a rebuke to Trump's political creed and policies.
Yet the issues and divides that preoccupy the Catholic Church don't always fit snugly over the deeply dug political battle lines of US politics. While he made a significant shift in the Church toward acceptance of LGBTQ Catholics, Francis rejected other liberal positions such as the right to an abortion and the ordination of women priests. These are also questions that cleave the Church in the United States, as well as globally.
Those schisms, at a time of deep political angst — as well as raging wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and new clashes in South Asia — are the backdrop of a new papacy that will begin amid daunting global crises. That may have been on Leo's mind in his first speech as the head of the Roman Catholic Church as he pledged to serve Christ as a bridge to bring humanity together
'Peace be with you,' he said, in the first words ever uttered by an American pope.