EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an extract from NCS Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb’s new ebook, “American Hope: What Pope Leo XIV Means for the Church and the World.” It might be printed on March 26 by Headline in the United Kingdom and Hachette in the United States.
On Saturday May 3, 2025, one week after the funeral of Pope Francis, President Donald Trump posted an AI-generated picture of himself wearing the white cassock and miter of a pope. The picture appeared on his Truth Social platform and was re-shared by the White House’s official X account. Within seconds it had gone viral. Just a few days earlier, when requested by reporters who he wish to see elected as Francis’s successor, the president had quipped, “I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice.”
The response from Catholics round the world different from disquiet to outrage. The AI picture, as is so typically the case with Trump’s posts, was each tongue-in-cheek and provocative. For Catholics, it was, at the very least, disre-spectful. Nor did the picture go unnoticed by the cardinals who had began gathering in Rome forward of the conclave set for May 7 – the election course of that might determine the new pontiff. Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David – an outspoken Filipino prelate who had acquired demise threats when he had criticized President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drug struggle – replied to Trump on Facebook saying, “Not funny, sir,” which he translated into ten totally different languages. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who was identified to be pleasant with Trump, stated the picture “wasn’t good,” however when requested by Reuters if an apology was wanted, replied, “Who knows?”
Trump’s publish solely appeared to accentuate the media curiosity in the papal election proceedings. More than 4,000 reporters have been descending on the Vatican to cowl the occasion and the cardinals discovered themselves mobbed as they walked to conferences. The public’s curiosity, too, was unusually excessive as a result of of the recognition of the 2024 film “Conclave,” a thriller that depicted the worldly ambitions of males in vying to develop into pope.
During his hold forth, Francis had shaken up the College of Cardinals – the physique that might appoint his successor. He had made its membership extra worldwide and various to mirror the indisputable fact that the Church was altering. For years its axis had been shifting away from Europe and the West to embody the rising numbers of Catholics in Africa and Asia… The typical knowledge had at all times been that the cardinals wouldn’t select an American pope. Given the huge energy of the United States politically, culturally, and economically, the cardinals have been unlikely to elect a pope from that nation. But one thing had modified since the election and re-election of Trump on an America First agenda. There was a definite sense that the position of the US in the world was shifting.
Just a few days earlier than the conclave began, I interviewed Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the retired archbishop of Bombay and a massively revered determine throughout the Church in Asia. Could there be an American pope, I requested? In the previous, he stated, this was “unthinkable.” But then he paused and stated, “There could be an American pope… why not?”
There was in actual fact an American title on my shortlist of “papabili,” somebody who may develop into pope: Cardinal Robert Prevost. I knew him as the chief of the Vatican’s highly effective workplace for the division for bishops, which performed an important position in appointing bishops and in holding them to account. And I had just lately been listening to his title talked about…
I had met Prevost on one event in Rome. He had struck me as considerate and a superb listener. A low-key determine who didn’t give interviews, somebody who appeared at peace with himself. And, intriguingly, though he had been born in Chicago, he had spent many years of his life working as a missionary and bishop in Peru. He was, you might say, “an un-American American.”
As the cardinals ready to enter the conclave in early May, the fierce criticisms some of them had had of Francis melted away. The focus now was on how the subsequent pope may proceed his predecessor’s reforms and, crucially, exhibit a prophetic spirit which engaged with the world.
Alongside their discussions, the cardinals had additionally been assembly privately for dinners in the eating places of the Borgo Pio medieval quarter close to the Vatican and at each other’s flats and residences in Rome. Any cardinal perceived to be campaigning overtly on his personal behalf was instantly disqualified so the politics have been refined. Alongside the papal candidates, papabili, there was a gaggle of influential and well-connected cardinals know as “kingmakers” who sought to carry totally different electors collectively and canvass help. The “kingmakers,” I used to be instructed, weren’t afraid to talk frankly when requested their opinion on candidates.
At this level, the consequence of the election was anybody’s guess, however there have been identified frontrunners, amongst them Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was the Holy See Secretary of State and an skilled Church diplomat from Veneto, northern Italy. Parolin gave the impression to be the main “unity” candidate: he wouldn’t row again on Francis’s primary reforms however may cautiously reorder priorities. For the “diversity” group, there was the charismatic Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines, who ran the Vatican’s evangelization workplace. He would signify sturdy continuity with the Francis agenda.
Behind the scenes, nonetheless, Prevost had been quietly gathering help.
Cardinal Francis George, a former archbishop of Chicago, famously expressed skepticism about the risk of an American pope. George was a extremely influential, politically astute prelate who died nearly a decade earlier than Leo XIV’s election. A pope from the United States was unlikely, he argued, whereas the US continued to be the world’s dominant energy. “Look, until America goes into political decline, there won’t be an American pope,” he was reported to have stated.
The notion that no cardinal from the US may ever be elected pope was ingrained into Church considering, significantly in the Vatican. Just earlier than the conclave, Robert Prevost had discovered a second to drop a line to a good friend. “I am sleeping well,” he wrote, “relying on the belief that there will never be an American pope.”
In reality, this notion had existed even earlier than America grew to become an excellent energy. It was the new pope’s namesake, Leo XIII, who in 1899 denounced what he noticed as the errors of “Americanism.” He had resisted what he noticed as American particularism, and frightened that America’s deal with particular person liberty was undermining respect for Church authority.
That the subsequent pope to name himself Leo would come from the US is a exceptional historic turnaround.
Leo has adopted a mode that’s totally different from that of Pope Francis. It is actually extra low-key. Yet beneath what may appear a meek exterior lies a steely willpower. Leo is a lion who is aware of when to roar, and the second he decides one thing, it’s remaining. Unlike the politicians who’re full of bluff and bluster and may see no additional than the subsequent election, Leo is charting a course for the long run.
The first American pope in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year historical past didn’t provoke a flurry of diplomatic exercise from the White House. President Donald Trump instructed reporters afterward that “we were a little bit surprised and very happy” about the election of the first American pope. He described the information as a “great honor for our country,” saying that he regarded ahead to assembly Leo in what can be “a very meaningful moment.”
Yet the President of the United States had no direct contact with the first American pontiff in the aftermath of Leo’s election, nor in the early months of his papacy. Speaking at the finish of July, Leo confessed that he had “not had direct conversations or met with the president,” though he was not overly involved about this. Trump’s personal place towards the pope gave the impression to be one of respectful ambivalence.
While Trump talked a couple of attainable assembly with Leo a pair of months later, he stated he had nothing deliberate and appeared in no rush to make it occur. By distinction, his predecessor, Joe Biden, who was solely the second Catholic president after President John F. Kennedy, spoke with Pope Francis on a number of events throughout his time period, together with after Biden took workplace in 2020. In October 2021, that they had a 75-minute assembly in the Vatican.
Biden, in a single of his remaining acts as president, awarded Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction. The Biden–Francis relationship, whereas not with out disagreements on abortion and the struggle in Gaza, was marked by heat and mutual respect.
While Trump talks respectfully about Pope Leo, indicators of the underlying tensions are usually not exhausting to identify. Steve Bannon, a Catholic and an outspoken ally of Trump, described Leo’s election as the “worst pick ever.”
The pope, like many in the United States, has first-hand information of how political divides can have an effect on households. Disagreements over which means folks voted trigger heated conversations at the dinner desk, and in some instances result in feuds and household break-ups. The pope has two older brothers. His eldest sibling, Louis Prevost, is a MAGA supporter who has posted some inflammatory pro-Trump social media content material during which, for instance, he attacked former House speaker Nancy Pelosi. One Church supply instructed me that Louis’ spouse, Deborah, can be a MAGA supporter.
After his brother’s election as pope, Louis conceded that he would in all probability “tone it down,” and he has eliminated some posts and made his accounts non-public. But the Trump White House was fast to identify a chance. Louis and Deborah have been invited to go to and have been welcomed by President Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
“I really like his brother,” Trump stated of the pope. “His brother is a major, serious Trumper. You know that? He’s MAGA all the way.” Leo responded to those feedback by saying merely, “That’s fine,” including that Louis had been “very outspoken about his political viewpoints.” Trump has had extra direct contact with Leo’s brother – a MAGA supporter – than with the pope himself, who isn’t. Actions communicate louder than phrases.
But the pope, even in his circle of relatives, proves that it’s attainable to disagree and keep united. He exhibits that political variations don’t must have an effect on household concord. After Leo’s inauguration on May 18, Louis Prevost stepped ahead to greet his brother in St. Peter’s Basilica. The pair hugged one another tightly.