Clerics wave US flags through the speech of the newly elected Pope Leo XIV on the Vatican, Thursday, Could 8.
Francisco Seco/AP
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Francisco Seco/AP
The election of Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV to guide the Roman Catholic Church raised an instantaneous query:
What does this sign to the U.S. and President Trump?
On Fact Social, the president referred to as Leo’s election a “Nice Honor for our nation.” However there are apparent indicators Trump and the brand new pope — who in his first assertion urged peace and unity — are instantly at odds.
Like his predecessor, Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost, has advocated for serving to the poor and migrants. He has pressured the significance of defending the setting. He is referred to as for racial justice and lately criticized the views of Vice President Vance, a Catholic, on the church.
Leo’s election is “not a political assertion” by the School of Cardinals, “but it surely incorporates a political message,” Massimo Faggioli, a papal professional and professor of theology and non secular research at Villanova College, instructed Morning Version.
The church’s considerations in regards to the rise of nationalism
In a Feb. 10 letter to U.S. bishops, the late Pope Francis sharply criticized the start of the Trump administration’s promised mass deportations. Francis wrote that “worrying about private, neighborhood or nationwide identification … simply introduces an ideological criterion that distorts social life and imposes the desire of the strongest because the criterion of reality.”
All through his time in politics, Trump has characterised the arrival of migrants on the U.S. border as an “invasion” – at the same time as many have been displaced by financial uncertainty, violence and local weather change. Since returning to the White Home in January, Trump has shaken the world order, alienating long-time allies and seemingly cozying as much as autocratic leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Although the election of a U.S. pope appeared unimaginable to shut watchers of the church, the “Trump impact” on America and the worldwide international order, Faggioli mentioned, is likely one of the issues that “made the unimaginable potential.”
“America is a superb uncertainty for the Vatican as nicely,” Faggioli mentioned. “And electing a pope from america is a technique for the Vatican to discover what this new America means for the world and for the church.”
Andrea Gallardo, 20, from Texas, wears an American flag after Pope Leo XIV appeared on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica following his election, on the Vatican, Thursday, Could 8.
Paolo Santalucia/AP
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Paolo Santalucia/AP
The brand new pope’s relationship with Trump and the U.S.
Reverend William Lego, who leads the Saint Turibius Parish in Chicago and has identified the brand new pope most of his life, mentioned that as with all political chief, Leo and Trump can have an “fascinating relationship.”
Lego has identified Leo because the two have been in sixth grade. They attended highschool, seminary and Villanova collectively. He mentioned that Leo was at all times “centered on serving to individuals. He was at all times doing stuff, at all times very serviceable, as they are saying, very keen to do issues.”
Leo’s alternative “to dwell with and work with the poor … honed for him his calling,” Lego mentioned.
So far as what the church’s message to the united statesand the world is with Leo’s election, Lego mentioned he is not positive.
“If the church is open to the spirit, the spirit will search for on the time most likely the perfect or candidate to guide the church. And our position as Catholics all through the world is as soon as that expression of the spirit turns into public … our subsequent journey is we start to work collectively and proceed to find how the spirit is alive on this planet,” Lego mentioned.
He continued, saying “now with an American pope perhaps that place, from his perspective of energy, may very well be used for a advantage of all. There’s at all times two sides to a coin.”
This digital article was primarily based on radio tales edited by Ashley Westermann and produced by Nia Dumas.
