The Roman Catholic Church’s first American pope is likely to continue many priorities of his predecessor, the late Pope Francis—including ongoing dialogue with the Anglican Communion—while striving for unity in an increasingly divided world, observers from both Christian denominations tell the Anglican Journal.
Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected as the new pope May 8, taking the name Leo XIV. Born and raised in Chicago, Leo served as a friar in the Order of St. Augustine and spent decades in Peru as a missionary, parish priest, and diocesan official, serving as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. He holds dual U.S.-Peruvian citizenship and is the first pope born in North America as well as the first from the Augustinian Order.
Archbishop Anne Germond, acting primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, said in a May 9 statement that Anglicans rejoiced with Roman Catholics on the election of Leo XIV as pope and sent prayers and well-wishes.
“The Anglican Church of Canada and the Roman Catholic Church in Canada have been engaged in dialogue for more than 50 years, growing in awareness on areas of theological agreement, finding numerous ways to express our unity in mission and contributing to the theological work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission,” Germond said.
“Encouraged by Pope Leo’s commitment to building bridges, we look forward to continued fruitful dialogue. May his leadership be a blessing to all the faithful.”
Fine-tuning the work of Francis
Michael W. Higgins, a Roman Catholic scholar, author of the 2024 book, The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of St. Francis and a member of the Anglican Journal editorial board, says Pope Leo has made clear he will continue many priorities of Francis’s pontificate—particularly around synodality, which refers to the church as a community of believers gathered together in collegiality and specifically to bringing Catholic laity into more decision-making.
Francis, Higgins says, sought to redirect many challenges facing Catholics by helping the church become more participatory and democratized in its governance operations. The synod of Roman Catholic bishops colloquially known as the Synod on Synodality, which concluded in October 2024, marked the culmination of these efforts during Francis’s papacy.
Higgins expects Leo to maintain Francis’s commitment to social justice. During his papacy Francis focused on climate change and concern for the poor. He encouraged interfaith dialogue and most recently called for an end to the war in Gaza.
Leo XIV’s choice of papal moniker is significant, Higgins says—recalling Pope Leo XIII, who reigned from 1878 to 1903 and expressed support for workers including the right to fair wages, safe working conditions, and to form trade unions. Similarly to how Francis was often referred to as “the people’s Pope,” Leo XIII became popularly known as “the Social Pope” or “the Pope of Workers.” Leo XIV comes from a working-class background in Chicago, Higgins notes.
Canon Scott Sharman, the Anglican Church of Canada’s animator for ecumenical and interfaith relations, likewise says the new pope may seek to build on the example of Leo XIII, who helped define Catholic social teachings in the 19th century.
“In the same way that Leo XIII led the Catholic Church, and others, in thinking through how to preserve humanity and spirituality during things like the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, etc., many anticipate that Leo XIV wishes to see the Church be a renewed voice for this same kind of attention in the face of the social, economic, technological, and ecological challenges facing us in the early part of the 21st century,” Sharman says.
“Perhaps this emphasis on being someone who believes that Christian doctrine is most faithfully expressed through the social and ethical values and commitments is the best way to sum up Pope Leo’s expected worldview,” he adds.
Sharman is wary of trying to pinpoint Leo’s views on a spectrum of progressive or traditionalist. “If forced to identify what his driving ideology is, I think I would be inclined to say that, for him, it seems to be simply the gospel,” Sharman says. “In that way, he appears to be quite traditional and conservative, wanting to emphasize a continuity of the Christian faith and message across the generations and up to our time.
“However, as an Augustinian friar, he has undoubtedly been formed in the art of translation and dialogue, seeking to employ every means available to communicate and live out the Good News of God in the languages and actions that most effectively convey it to those of various cultures and contexts and points of view. In that way he might be taken as quite attentive to a progressive approach to mission and service.”
Yet Higgins says Leo has made symbolic choices likely to appeal to traditionalists, pointing to his first appearance as Pope on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica. “Style is intricately connected with substance,” Higgins says. “And optics matter in a visual-focused world, like we have particularly in the media.”
In contrast to Francis, who wore plain white attire, Leo donned traditional papal vestments including a bright red pellegrina, or shoulder cover, and ornate golden stole. While Francis lived in a simple apartment, Leo will take up residence in the apostolic palace traditionally occupied by popes.
“Both of these confirm, I think, a couple of things,” Higgins says. “One… that he sees some value in the raiment and the trappings and the profile of popes that preceded Francis that maybe he wishes to restore. This may be for aesthetic reasons, [it] may be for spiritual reasons.
“The other is this may be a sop if you like, to the traditionalists and the anti-Francis group among cardinals and others in the church, saying, ‘Well, I’m really not Francis. I’m going to continue these things which were specific to Francis. But I’m also going to set in my own style, and I know that you like some of the old vestments and old ways in which popes disported themselves.’”
Higgins cites a popular Italian saying, “A fat pope is followed by a thin pope”—meaning not all pontiffs are alike, and that each new pope often contrasts with the previous pope.
“Very often they react to what went before, but subtly … They never overturn the teaching of their predecessor,” Higgins says. “They nuance, reprioritize, whatever, but they don’t overturn. So a pope doesn’t come in and say, ‘Well, this is all wrong,’ and throw it out. Leo’s coming in and saying that he’s going to continue with Francis and affirming so many things of [his] legacy. That’s perfectly conventional and traditional, actually.”
Based on Leo’s tenure as prior general of the Order of St. Augustine from 2001 to 2013, Higgins says the new pope likely has experience dealing with divisions and strong opinions within his own order. That experience, he adds, could hold Leo in good stead navigating contentious issues within the Roman Catholic Church.
Attending the Synod on Synodality as a credentialed journalist, for example, Higgins found two issues came up that were highly controversial. One was the role of women in the Roman Catholic Church, specifically whether they could be ordained deacons. The synod shelved but did not dismiss the question. Its final report said this was an issue open for further discernment, which Higgins says rankled many conservative Catholics.
The other issue, he says, concerned acceptance of LGBTQ+ people and same-sex blessings—a question that has also caused divisions within the worldwide Anglican Communion. As with the role of women, the Synod on Synodality debated this issue but did not make any concrete decisions.
All these factors, Higgins says, likely weighed on the minds of the College of Cardinals when they elected Leo as pope.
“I think what they’re looking for is a pope—and they may well have it in Leo—who is going to in many ways be a pacifier, a stabilizer; somebody who will continue the work of Francis, but move very slowly, very moderately, because he doesn’t want to create a disruption, if you like,” Higgins says. “Not sure if that’s going to work. Somewhere along the line, he’s going to have to make really tough decisions.”
“We’re in the honeymoon phase right now… We don’t have his first encyclical, so we don’t know really what are going to be the priorities and directions,” Higgins adds. “He’s made it clear he’s going to stick with the Francis agenda, and I think that that’s right, but he’s going to have to fine-tune.”
Relations with the Anglican Communion
While the Pope of course does not have any official jurisdiction within the Anglican Communion, Sharman says, he may exert influence through moral suasion. The message Leo brings to the Roman Catholic Church, he says, may cause Anglicans to think more deeply about the social gospel and how this influences the ways they live out their faith in the world.
Sharman notes that the Pope was formed as a priest and bishop in ecumenical contexts—stretching back to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which fostered ecumenical outreach through its decree calling for the restoration of Christian unity.
Given that, Sharman expects from Leo XIV “a continuation of a general spirit of openness to dialogue and relationship between Anglicans and Roman Catholics, and perhaps even an increased attentiveness to what we can do together as fellow Christians in love and service to those on the margins and most in need. The old ecumenical adage ‘doctrine divides but service unites’ comes to mind.”
“Leo XIII was a somewhat controversial pope in connection with Anglican-Roman Catholic relations, having presided over the declaration of the invalidity and nullity of Anglican ordinations,” Sharman adds. “Perhaps Leo XIV will see it appropriate to revisit some of these questions in light of the 60+ years of growth in communion our two churches have been blessed by since then.”
In terms of Anglican-Roman Catholic relations, Higgins notes that Francis had a close relationship with former archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. The two took on the leadership of their respective churches around the same time, he says, and formed a strong bond. Their respective predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI and former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, had the same kind of relationship, albeit “a little more cerebral maybe than directly affectionate,” Higgins says.
Given his decades of ministry in Peru, he says, Leo’s exposure to Anglicans would have been limited since the latter denomination does not have a predominant presence in Latin America. Leo’s training, he adds, is also primarily in canon law rather than theology.
On the other hand, as prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops from 2023 to 2025, Leo was responsible for appointing bishops around the world, Higgins says—a very important position in the Roman Catholic Church and one that would have required extensive consultations with Francis. “Ecumenical considerations would’ve certainly surfaced in many such considerations, so he would not be unaware of Anglican sensibilities and Anglican-Catholic dialogue,” Higgins says.
The position of archbishop of Canterbury is currently vacant, following Welby’s resignation in January.
“I can’t imagine that [Leo] would depart from the very good relations that exist between Canterbury and Rome right now,” Higgins says, but adds, “I think he probably will have to have bring himself up to speed on the ecumenical agenda, particularly in relation to the Anglicans.”
Trump and the first American pope
Both Higgins and Sharman find significance in the election of Leo XIV as the first pope from the United States at this particular time.
In a May 9 opinion piece for The Globe and Mail, Higgins said the choice of an American pope was surprising because of the Vatican’s longstanding condemnation of “Americanism”—a heresy according to Leo XIII, referring to American cultural liberalism and the country’s separation of church and state. Historically, Higgins says, Rome has also been wary of secular governments, particularly those representing the great powers, interfering in its own spiritual power and therefore has tried to create as much distance as possible from them.
Today, however, “the American [Catholic] church has achieved a level of maturity” and wealth, Higgins says. Roman Catholics are highly represented in U.S. political structures, from governors to the presidential cabinet to the Supreme Court. “Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are now Catholics, most of them quite right-wing,” he points out.
Leo’s election as the first American pope follows shortly on the heels of Donald Trump’s re-election as U.S. president. Higgins believes the two events are not unconnected, given Francis’s outspoken criticism of Trump’s policies. He suspects cardinals may have elected an American in part “to serve as an antidote to the excesses of the MAGA crowd,” referring to Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.”
“Pope Francis had made it very clear in a direct, if not stern, letter to the American bishops, that [Trump’s] policies on immigration and the cutting back or the gutting of USAID [United States Agency for International Development] were appalling and immoral,” Higgins says, adding that Francis had urged the bishops to resist Trump’s initiatives.
In choosing an American pope, he thinks “the cardinal electors, seeing the moral disarray, at least in the United States, fearful of rising fascist instincts in the new right all over the world, including of course in their back door there in Europe, were looking for someone who could provide moral clarity and yet resistance to the worst features of the current American Republican administration and not be accused of being anti-American.”
Though Sharman says he can speculate only from a personal perspective on why the cardinals chose Leo, he notes that given current world events, the choice of someone born and raised in the United States to hold the Roman Catholic Church’s highest office must have been taken into consideration.
“While there is more to the world that what is going on in America, the social and political context of America still has an impact on pretty well everywhere else,” Sharman says. “And what is playing out in America at the moment really can be held up as a kind of crossroads moment for the whole human family and for what kind of path into the future we will choose.
“Will it be one of scarcity, competition, fear, and nationalistic self-protection, or one of generosity, sharing, peace, and human fraternity? From what we’re seeing so far, Pope Leo, like Pope Francis, has an opportunity to become a face for the latter, while many others in his homeland, and beyond, are being encouraged towards the former. I can’t help but believe that the cardinals were aware of setting up this contrast.”
From a broader Christian perspective, Sharman finds it heartening that so many people from outside the church were interested and invested in the election of a successor to Francis.
“In this day and age, I have to say I am grateful that the choice of who will take up the ministry of the Bishop of Rome still matters to people, or at least that we pay attention to it,” Sharman says. “I think this is because many people know—even if they’re not Catholic, or not really religious at all—that somehow it still matters for the sake of the common good in the world.
“It certainly matters to me as an Anglican, and as a disciple of Christ, because this individual will be among the most visible and influential faces to represent the Way of Jesus. That casts a shadow, for good and for ill, on me and on my faith tradition as well. So my personal feelings are initially ones of prayer, possibility, and hope.”
