Pope Leo XIV embraces elements of Francis’ vision; some views still unclear

A cropped version of the official portrait of Pope Leo XIV, published by the Vatican on May 10, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 14, 2025 / 12:12 pm (CNA).

Prior to his elevation to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV stayed out of the spotlight on certain reforms backed by his predecessor but maintained a close relationship with Pope Francis and support for pro-life values, the dignity of migrants, care for the environment, and a more synodal Catholic Church.

Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, was appointed as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2015 and took on major leadership roles in the Vatican from 2023 through 2025: prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops, where he provided guidance on appointing bishops and cardinals; and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, where he oversaw the Vatican’s relations with the Church in the region.

In the past, Leo has been critical of gender ideology, much like Francis. On issues related to homosexuality and same-sex blessings, Leo’s tone was very critical before his appointment as a cardinal but has since appeared to soften.

“He has not been a bishop of a diocese or a cardinal in the Roman Curia for long,” Susan Hanssen, a history professor at the University of Dallas, a Catholic institution, told CNA.

“He is not a ’senior cardinal,’” she said. “It was the choice of a relatively unknown figure.”

Joe Heschmeyer, an apologist at Catholic Answers, told CNA that Leo’s “liturgical motto stresses the need for our unity in Christ, so I have a strong hunch that one of the goals of his pontificate will be to restore more of a sense of unity and order to the Church.”

“One of the things that seems immediately clear about the new Roman pontiff is that he speaks clearly and gently,” he said. “Those are both crucial right now.”

*Promoting a culture of life*

Similar to Francis, Leo has been a consistent advocate for a culture of life. He has spoken out against abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty.

Leo became involved in the pro-life movement before joining the priesthood and was active in “Villanovans for Life,” the pro-life club at Villanova University, and has attended pro-life marches. He has also publicly spoken on the issue, including in social media posts.

In 2015, while attending the March for Life in Chiclayo, the now-pontiff posted on X that people must “defend human life at all times.” He also reshared several articles on X, including articles from CNA, about the sanctity of human life and opposition to abortion.

During a 2022 interview with La Republica, then-Bishop Prevost said that being pro-life for the entirety of life means that “the death penalty is inadmissible” and that seeking “blood for blood” is not the proper answer when trying to bring about justice.

*Gender ideology and same-sex blessings*

Prior to his pontificate, Leo spoke out about gender ideology and homosexuality.

While bishop of Chiclayo, the now-pontiff condemned the promotion of gender ideology in the public education system in Peru, according to the national Peruvian newspaper Diario Correo.

“It seeks to create genders that don’t exist, since God created men and women, and trying to confuse the ideas of nature will only harm families and individuals,” then-Bishop Prevost said in 2016, according to the article. 

“This campaign, apparently, is going to create a lot of confusion and do a lot of harm. We mustn’t confuse the importance of family and marriage with what others want to create, as if it were a right to do something that isn’t,” he said.

In 2012, when Leo was the prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, he said that Western mass media promotes “enormous sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel; for example, abortion, homosexual lifestyle, euthanasia,” while speaking in an interview with Catholic News Service.

Leo further criticized the negative media portrayal of members of the clergy who oppose “the traditional definition of marriage” in the same interview. He criticized the positive portrayal of “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.” He spoke about the need for the Church to learn how to evangelize in this environment.

However, after he became a cardinal in 2023, he told Catholic News Service: “Pope Francis has made it very clear that he doesn’t want people to be excluded simply on the basis of choices that they make, whether it be lifestyle, work, way to dress, or whatever.” He added that “doctrine hasn’t changed and people haven’t said yet we’re looking for that kind of change.”

After the Vatican authorized certain nonliturgical blessings of same-sex couples through the declaration Fiducia Supplicans, then-Cardinal Prevost said: “Each episcopal conference needs to have a certain authority” in determining how to implement the document, according to CBCP News. Prevost noted some African bishops believed “our cultural situation is such that the application of this document is just not going to work.”

Leo was the prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops during the cardinal appointment of Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, who authored Fiducia Supplicans. Yet, Fernández was a longtime friend of Francis and it’s unclear whether then-Archbishop Prevost had any role in his appointment.

Christopher Malloy, the author of “False Mercy” and chair of theology at the University of Dallas, told CNA he does not know what Leo “will emphasize in his pontificate” but said the “infallible teaching on the sexual act cannot change” and “God does not change his truth,” which is in line with Leo’s 2023 comments.

“The sexual act is ordained by God to be between one man and one woman who are married and who do not act against the end of the act, procreation,” Malloy said. “Any use of the sexual faculties that violates this principle is objectively evil and therefore harms the very persons engaged in the act.”

*Continuity with Francis: synodality, immigration, environment*

Leo promoted the Church’s Synod on Synodality in a 2023 interview with Vatican News. The synod brings bishops, priests, and laypeople together for conversations about how to approach certain issues in the Church.

“I truly believe that the Holy Spirit is very present in the Church at this time and is pushing us towards a renewal, and therefore we are called to the great responsibility of living what I call a new attitude,” then-Cardinal Prevost said. “It is not just a process, it is not just changing some ways of doing things, maybe holding more meetings before making a decision.”

On social media, Leo was outspoken in support of migrants and frequently shared posts that criticized President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. Three of his five posts on X this year were criticizing those policies, including one post sharing an America Magazine article on Francis’ response to Vice President JD Vance on a Catholic approach to immigration.

Leo also served on the board of directors for Caritas Peru from 2022–2024, which provides humanitarian assistance to migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. It established a shelter for Venezuelan migrants in 2019.

However, in a homily given in the Chicago area last August, then-Cardinal Prevost also acknowledged certain problems that come from mass migration. He spoke about a large number of migrants in the small Italian town of Lampedusa, calling it “a huge problem,” and added: “It’s a problem worldwide, not only in this country.”

“There’s got to be a way to both solve the problem but also to treat people with respect,” he said, adding that everyone is given “the gift of being created in the image and likeness of God.”

As a cardinal, Prevost also spoke about environmental concerns, stressing a need to move “from words to actions,” according to a Vatican News article at the time. He said that “dominion over nature” should not become “tyrannical” but must be a “relationship of reciprocity” with the environment.

Speaking to CNA, Heschmeyer said: “On issues like caring for the environment and immigrants, I think we can expect Pope Leo to sound a lot like Pope Francis (and the Catechism of the Catholic Church).”

*Some uncertainties remain*

The Holy Father may need to navigate other subjects that he has not publicly weighed in on at this time, including Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia, which opened the door to Communion for Catholics who have been divorced and remarried in limited circumstances.

Additionally, Leo will be tasked with managing his predecessor’s motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which restricts access to the Traditional Latin Mass.

“While there have been some rumors that he celebrates the Latin Mass, they remain just that right now: rumors,” Heschmeyer said when asked whether there have been any indications on how Leo might handle those restrictions moving forward.

“What is clear is that he seems to have a traditional sensibility in terms of liturgy and vestments, and his Latin (as seen in his blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s and in his first Mass as pope) seems crisp and clear,” he added.

Hanssen told CNA “there are a lot of cross-currents flying around the infosphere” and said it’s still unclear how Leo may handle certain topics of contention within the Church.

“Just as it was at the beginning of the Francis papacy, it is unclear how Leo XIV will position himself with regard to the John Paul II project of the re-evangelization of culture, what approach he would take to reinvigorating Christianity in secular, modern culture in first world countries, in the USA and Europe, because this has never been his primary field of pastoral work,” Hanssen said.

Heschmeyer encouraged Catholics not to follow Leo’s papacy by “looking for faults” on issues of contention but to rather focus on what can be learned from the Holy Father. 

“Spiritually, it’s so much healthier if you try to figure out what you can learn from him and how his leadership can help your own spiritual journey,” he said.