The new pope could also “reinterpret,” without rolling back, some of Francis’ more contentious progressive moves, such as his declaration permitting blessings for individuals in same-sex couples, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, the progressive archbishop of Luxembourg, told a handful of reporters including POLITICO in a side-room of the Nuova Chiesa church in Rome on Friday.
Some of the traditionalists have already expressed hope that Prevost will strike a more conciliatory tone. Edward Feser, a Catholic professor of philosophy at Pasadena City College, suggested on X that while the new pope’s theology skewed progressive, he seemed like a more “reasonable man [who] might have been talked out of Francis’s more problematic decisions.” Pointedly, Prevost has already met in person with the influential American cardinal Raymond Burke, a hardline Francis critic who consistently complained about the late pope’s efforts to curtail the Tridentine Mass, an older variety of the Latin mass favored by traditionalists.
That move has in turn set off unease among some moderates, with one worrying to POLITICO that traditionalists might become a “force in the Church” after Francis was able to largely reduce their influence.
MAGA holdouts
But none of that means Prevost will necessarily be able to satisfy the more vehement forces in MAGA world, who have already prejudged him as a subversive leftist after his comments on migration.
After Prevost’s ascension, Laura Loomer, an American far-right political activist and Trump adviser, ranted about the “woke Marxist pope” and claimed he “is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis,” adding that it’s “gross” that he is now in charge of the Vatican. Notably, Loomer is not Catholic, but Jewish, indicating the importance of the symbolism of the pope even for Washington’s non-believers.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and an ultraconservative Catholic, said Prevost’s election as the first U.S.-born pontiff had been a vote against his old boss. It was “the worst choice for MAGA Catholics,” Bannon said, calling the election of Leo XIV “an anti-Trump vote by the globalists of the Curia.”
But Cardinal Hollerich, who was close to Francis, said that wasn’t quite right. “We didn’t elect an anti-Trump, we elected a disciple of Jesus,” he said. However, “the fact is that he is an American citizen — so there is also this consequence.”
