The new pope is a cosmopolitan. He has French, Spanish, Italian, and Cuban roots. His ancestors came from New Orleans. The term “Creole” is used for people of mixed European, African, and indigenous descent.
Like many Creole families, Leo XIV’s grandparents may have moved to Chicago to escape the racial persecution in the southern United States. Pope Leo was born in Chicago on September 14, 1955, as Robert Francis Prevost. He was the youngest of three brothers; his mother was a librarian, and his father was a school principal. It was clear from the beginning that Robert would become a priest; even as a small child, he loved to play Mass. Bob, as he is known to his family, is still close to his middle brother, John, and maintains contact with his eldest brother, Louis. But Louis and Robert have differed on their political views: Louis is an ardent MAGA supporter while the new Pope seems to be more a center moderate with left leanings on some social issues.
Leo XIV was elected Pope on May 8, 2025, becoming Bishop of Rome and sovereign monarch of Vatican City. As a member of a religious order, he was Prior General of the Augustinian Order from 2001 to 2013 and Bishop of Chiclayo in northwestern Peru from 2015 to 2023. Most recently, he was a cardinal of the Roman Curia. He has three citizenships—US, Peruvian, and Vatican—and speaks English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and can read Latin and German.
His stated goals include continuing the initiatives begun by Francis, the Synodal Way, caring for the poor, the marginalized, refugees, and victims of war. The so-called Global South is just as close to his heart as it was to his predecessor. His main theme is the unity of the universal Church, both within ecclesiastical structures and in its outreach to the world, promoting peace. He considers climate policy to be an obvious need in order to preserve creation. As far as reforms are concerned, whether it be the admission of women to the priesthood or the abolition of celibacy, one should probably not get one’s hopes up. He is skeptical of certain lifestyles, including families with a non-heterosexual parent. As a mediator, he feels called upon to act as a balancing force. In Asia and Africa, the Catholic Church is known to be completely unsympathetic to European positions. Even before his official inauguration, Leo XIV took a position in a remarkable address to the media that can be considered groundbreaking. Right at the beginning, he refers to the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matt. 5:9). The following train of thought is devoted to this beatitude. This is followed by a clear statement on freedom of opinion and freedom of the press:
“Let me, therefore, reiterate today the Church’s solidarity with journalists who are imprisoned for seeking to report the truth, and with these words I also ask for the release of these imprisoned journalists. The Church recognizes in these witnesses—I am thinking of those who report on war even at the cost of their lives—the courage of those who defend dignity, justice, and the right of people to be informed, because only informed individuals can make free choices.”1
This is an astonishingly political statement right at the beginning of a pontificate, and it is to be hoped with all our hearts that this commitment will be followed by corresponding actions and that the Church will also use its power in secular affairs to promote these ideals. The new pope has thereby dispelled ideas such as those recently expressed by Julia Klöckner, the new president of the German Federal Parliament, who called for more restraint on socio-political issues, saying that churches should focus on their actual vocation, faith.
The Pope is talking about speech! About the ideal of truth and goodness that is expressed in the Word-become-flesh—and thus also its opposite. He even goes two steps further. In the first step, the world of speech is presented as reality-creating, and in the second step, as the actual space of creation in which all our lives are currently undergoing a decisive process. Essentially, the Pope is talking about the Logos in our present moment. Communication as communion.
“We are living in times that are both difficult to navigate and to recount. They present a challenge for all of us, but it is one that we should not run away from. On the contrary, they demand that each one of us, in our different roles and services, never give in to mediocrity. . . . Today, one of the most important challenges is to promote communication that can bring us out of the ‘Tower of Babel’ in which we sometimes find ourselves, out of the confusion of loveless languages that are often ideological or partisan. Therefore, your service, with the words you use and the style you adopt, is crucial. As you know, communication is not only the transmission of information, but it is also the creation of a culture, of human and digital environments that become spaces for dialogue and discussion.”2
What the Pope’s speech ultimately outlines is nothing less than a new concept of the public sphere and thereby the future cultural sphere of humanity.
“[L]et us disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred; let us free it from aggression. We do not need loud, forceful communication, but rather communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice. Let us disarm words and we will help to disarm the world.”
If our so-called news media were to develop in this direction and individuals on the Internet were likewise to take these words to heart, then, already today, we’d probably all be a little happier. A pope who points the finger at this burning wound of our times offers hope.
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Image Pope Leo XIV. Photo: Edgar Beltran/Pillar Media
Footnotes
- Pope Leo XIV, “Address of the Holy Father Leo XIV to Representatives of the Media” (speech, Audience Hall, Vatican City, May 12, 2025), Vatican.
- See footnote 1.
