Pope Leo is walking in Frances' shoes, but is likely to step on his own path
One of the most exciting images after Pope Francis' death is a close-up photo of his shoes as he lay in a coffin inside St. Peter's Basilica. They were scratched, worn and worked, and were proof of the Catholic church he wanted – to go to the edge and serve the most vulnerable and most rejected paper traps.
Two weeks later, when Pope Leo Xiv stepped into the middle stage of the Vatican Auditorium to speak to journalists, he also wore simple Oxfords – like Francis, Francis, submitted traditional Pope Red Slippers.
But while he might wear Francis’ shoes, early signs suggest that his own style and direction indicate his footwear – spanning ideology and combining traditional Catholic signals with political consciousness shaped by cross-cultural experiences and global power dynamics.
Some familiar news, some new news
In his self-deprecating joke in Midwest English, Leo sent a clear political message in his first major speech to the media.
He called for the release of incarcerated journalists, praised war journalists, urged the use of AI, and condemned the ideological noise in the media. He called on journalists to provide space for the weak – “those who have no voice.”
Francis, by contrast, used his first meeting with journalists to thank them for reporting on the conference contest and pushed for the push to convey the “true nature of the church.” As the pope, he cleverly mocked journalists who asked tricky questions and made clear his dislike for negative reports in interviews, once condemning journalists’ “Coprophilia’s disease” (a obsession with feces).
Leo, speaking to world diplomats in the Holy See this week, called for peace and said it was not just a lack of conflict, but a need for work and diplomacy. He also reiterated the Catholic teaching that the family is rooted in the union of men and women, and that the “unborn older people” have equal dignity.
Leo's biography has been reflected in his choices over the first few days as Pope.
Before Francis became Cardinal in 2023 and appointed him to lead the Vatican’s powerful bishop, Dicastery, many believe that the pope from the United States is impossible – politically, the global church is aligned with the world’s dominant superpowers.
But Leo politics is in stark contrast to our President Donald Trump – Donald Trump, about immigration, poverty, media freedom and climate change, not to mention tone. His support for immigration rights includes a powerful (now deleted) tweet condemning Vice President JD Vance, who will be a VIP at the Pope’s inauguration on Sunday.
Leo is positioned as a moral counterweight when many fear that the United States will turn to authoritarianism. Observers say this position may have helped secure his election in Cendave's secret ballot.
Even his earlier appointment to lead the bishop Dicastery put him in a strong position to reshape the American bishop’s cultural war with a focus on issues like homosexual marriage and abortion.
“I don’t think it was accidental for Pope Francis to choose me,” he told the BBC in his new role of global Choosing Bishop in 2022. “I’m American, and I think I do have insight into the church, going into the United States…to look at the challenges facing the American church.”
Leo's reputation is a left-right centrist. “But Trump's second term is not just a change in the government; it is a change in the regime. It shuts down the cooperation between the government churches on refugees and immigrants and improves so-called religious freedom.”
Faggioli said this American political moment, once taken for granted freedom, may require a balanced definition of Leo to step out of his comfort zone.
Nevertheless, he showed a willingness to make a clear stand in other geopolitical situations. Francis named Russia as a slow invaders against Ukraine and therefore failed to use the invasion as an act of colonial aggression. But in an interview in 2022, Leo (Bishop Robert Prevost then) described the war as “a real invasion, imperialism essentially, Russia seeks to conquer territory for power reasons.”
Watch | Leo calls for peace in Gaza Ukraine:
His first Sunday prayer since he was elected at the conference was Pope Leo XIV's call for an end to the war and killing innocent people in Ukraine and Gaza. He also called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Despite a widespread focus on Leo Americans (from “Bob in Chicago” memes to love of the White Sox), he is a Peruvian citizen, where he was a missionary and later a bishop of Chichlo.
“The Latin American Cardinal sees him as a member of himself, not Engel,” said Thomas Reese, pastor and senior analyst at Jesuit News Services. “I think they went into a meeting that was completely united behind Prevost, which made the situation different.”
Leo saved English the next day
In Peru, he also served as a key objection to Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, a very conservative group of Catholics headquartered there, openly hostile to Francis. (In January as one of the pope’s last actions, Francis dissolved the group, which was plagued by sexual abuse and financial scandals.)
Leo's Peruvian identity is also exhibited from the balcony, overlooking thousands of balconies in St. Peter's Square an hour after the white smoke rose, when he spoke in Italian, Latin and especially Spanish, a subtle transformation of his identity from his homeland to the country he adopted and the wider global south. Only the next day, during the Mass of the Cardinal in the Sistine Church, he spoke his English.
If his language chooses to nod to Frances’ global south-family church, his ornate wire (the clothes Francis likes ordinary, often reused) will contrast, which some interpret as a gesture toward the traditionalist faction. His message—focused on listening and compassion—apparently echoed his ex.
“He is a new generation of pastors and a powerful collaborator of Francis, who is fully acknowledging the process of the Francis,” said Andrea Vreede, a long-time Vatican correspondent. He refers to the driving force of Francis that lowers the church's hierarchy and provides more voice to ordinary members, including women, including women.
His choice of the name Leo XIV links him to Pope Leo XIII, author of the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, “Of New Things,” a foundational text of Catholic Social Teaching and a cri de cœur against the exploration of workers during the Industrial Revolution.
“He stood in the union of labor unions, workers, unprepared people at the time,” Rees said. “I think Pope Leo will be the prophetic voice of justice, peace and protection of the environment. I think it's now the DNA and pope of the Catholic Church.”
The observer noticed a connection with St. Francis of the same name as Assisi of the previous pope. Francis' intimate companion, Friar Leo, the 12th-century brother, was responsible for writing down many of Francis' prayers, letters, and doctrines, and was considered the main contributor to the most important early texts of the Saints.
While the name of the new pope shows gestures to the past, early signs promised a leader who will also draw his own lessons for the Roman Catholic Church.
