It didn’t take long after Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, emerged onto the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday as the new leader of the Catholic Church for social media commentators on the right to begin decrying him as “Francis 2.0.”
This snap judgment was based largely on his social media history of reposting criticisms of President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance on immigration policy, as well as a few reposts of left-wing claptrap on climate change and race relations.
So does this mean the 69-year-old Chicago-born Pope Leo is going to be the next Pope Francis? The short answer is: probably not.
Setting aside the obvious fact that Pope Leo is far more conservative on issues like abortion and gay marriage than most MAGA influencers, I hazard this guess not because I’ve discovered a trove of old X posts where he praises Trump, owns the libs, and defends the Second Amendment. I say it because in his very first decisions as Supreme Pontiff, Pope Leo appears to be far more traditional and liturgically orthodox than his predecessor. In particular, he seems to have a special devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass.
This matters a great deal more than whether he has policy disagreements with Trump over things like immigration or gun control, and is a far better predictor of what kind of papacy he will have.
Pope Francis was infamously hostile toward the Latin Mass despite its growing popularity around world, especially among young people, converts, and Catholics committed to conforming their lives to the orthodox Catholic faith. His motu proprio Traditionis Custodes restricted the celebration of the Latin Mass, also known as the Tridentine Rite, which has been celebrated more or less unchanged since it was formalized in the Council of Trent in the mid-sixteenth century. This, more than any of his muddled pronouncements about climate change or immigration, divided the Catholic Church under Pope Francis.
In contrast, there are ample signs that Pope Leo will reverse course on the Latin Mass, lift restrictions on its celebration, and return it to its rightful place in the Holy See. If he does this, Catholics won’t have to worry about his pontificate being a continuation of the confusion and chaos that marked the reign of Pope Francis.
On a very deep level, liturgy determines doctrine, and defending the doctrine of the Catholic Church against those who would undermine and destroy it is a big part of what the papacy is for. Hence a restoration of the Latin Mass under Pope Leo would mean a return to doctrinal clarity and confidence, and a renewed papal resistance to the modernizing factions within the Catholic Church, such as the German prelates who for many years have been pushing for the ordination of women and communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics. Above all, the restoration of the Latin Mass will all but guarantee that this pope will not push doctrinal boundaries the way Pope Francis did, and will return the Holy See to its traditional role of defending the Catholic faith and evangelizing the world.
The signs are few, as it’s still very early, but they are telling. In recent days multiple Catholic commentators have reported that Pope Leo, when he was Cardinal Prevost, privately celebrated the Latin Mass for years, including at the Vatican in recent years, where he had a special indult from Pope Francis to do so. He also celebrated the Latin Mass at the USCCB and in Rome, and pictures are popping up on social media of then-Cardinal Prevost in traditional vestments.
Speaking of vestments, when Pope Leo first appeared on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica on Thursday, he was wearing traditional papal vestments: a red mozzetta and a stole over a white rochet and a new white cassock, restoring a tradition that Pope Francis had ruptured in 2013 when he chose to appear in a white cassock with nothing over it — arguably an ostentatious and rebellious act that conveyed a false humility. (In another break with Francis, Pope Leo intends to live in the Apostolic Palace, the traditional residence of popes.)
And it wasn’t just the vestments that spoke of tradition on Thursday. As Catholic commentator Michael Matt noted, the blessing Pope Leo gave the crowd from St. Peter’s Basilica was in Latin, using a formula that has not been used since Pope Pius XII in 1939.
On Friday, Pope Leo celebrated the first Mass of his pontificate with the College of Cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. The Mass was Novus Ordo, the rite established by the Second Vatican Council, but Pope Leo celebrated it in Latin. And there was another detail that suggested Leo is turning back to tradition. The Pillar, reporting on that Mass, included this detail: “The Vatican watcher Rocco Palmo noted that as Pope Leo arrived at the Sistine Chapel the morning after his election he held a golden ferula, or pastoral staff, made for Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 and seldom used by Pope Francis, though he used it at his first Mass in the Sistine Chapel in 2013.”
And then of course there is the name the new pope selected, Leo XIV. His namesake, Pope Leo XIII, was elected in 1878, during a time of political upheaval in Europe and great social changes ushered in by industrialization. It was thought at first that Leo XIII would be a liberalizing pope. He was not. Leo XIII ended up being a theologically orthodox pope who revived Thomism and came out firmly against modernism during his long reign, which stretched from 1878 to 1903 (the fourth-longest reign of any pope).
This was a time of tumultuous change, especially in Europe and the United States, where the industrial revolution had created a vast, impoverished underclass that was increasingly hostile to the Catholic Church and open to socialism. In response, Leo XIII issued his famous encyclical Rerum Novarum (“Of The New Things”), meant to address the dire problems of the modern industrial age. It became the basis for Catholic Social Teaching, affirming the dignity and rights of workers, the goodness of human labor, and the need for fair wages. It praised free enterprise and private property while condemning socialism and unrestricted laissez-faire capitalism.
In 1899, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, saying it was “the greatest act of my pontificate.” He also composed and popularized the Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel, one of the most widespread and well-known Catholic prayers in the world.
By choosing the name Leo XIV, this new pope is situating his pontificate at a similarly critical juncture in history, when modernism and technology threaten our humanity and western civilization itself. If he follows the example set by his namesake, the papacy will stand as a bulwark against these things rather than accommodate them or incorporate into the life of the Catholic Church.
For non-Catholics who reject the dogmatic claims of the Catholic Church and dismiss the papacy as a merely political office and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as just one Christian ritual among many, all of this might just be a Catholic version of Kremlinology. Ultimately, non-Catholics might not even care. But for Catholics, these are indications that Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate will not likely be a continuation of Francis’ divisive reign, and that, whatever his political views, he will defend the Catholic faith as a faithful father and shepherd of the church.
All Catholics should hope and pray for this, but so should all non-Catholics, whether Protestants or unbelievers, for the simple reason that the Christian faith is what undergirds western civilization, and without a clear, strong voice in the Holy See defending the faith, our civilization will not long endure.
Jesus Christ is King
