Bobbleheads, t-shirts and political pressure for first US-born pope

Progressive Catholics cheered the fact that, as cardinal, Prevost re-posted articles on social media criticising Trump’s anti-immigrant stance, which concerned Trump supporters.

After the election of Pope Leo XIV, the electronic scoreboard at the stadium of the Chicago White Sox – the baseball team he reputedly supports – posted a photo of the new pope, and fans started appearing at games wearing homemade mitres.

At the Augustinian-run Villanova University, where Robert Prevost graduated in 1977, the bells rang for hours on the day of his election. Bobbleheads in the image of Pope Leo and tee-shirts showing him eating a hot dog went on sale. President Donald Trump called the election of the first US-born pontiff a “great honour”.

Americans generally reacted with enthusiasm to the election of Cardinal Prevost as pope, even as it became clear that he had spent two-thirds of his life living outside the country of his birth. “Pope Leo XIV’s election is particularly meaningful to those of us who have spent our lives advocating for the rights of immigrants and refugees,” said Anna Gallagher, executive director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. 

Progressive Catholics also cheered the fact that, as cardinal, he had re-posted articles on social media criticising Trump’s anti-immigrant stance and of Vice President J.D. Vance’s attempt to justify government policies by citing St Thomas Aquinas’ teaching on the ordo amoris.  

Those posts made Trump supporters anxious.  Former Trump senior advisor Steve Bannon predicted there was “definitely going to be friction” between Pope Leo and Trump. “It is shocking to me that a guy could be selected to be the Pope that had had the Twitter feed and the statements he’s had against American senior politicians,” he said.

The former Republican senator Rick Santorum also expressed disdain for Leo for using “buzzwords of the left” in his remarks from the loggia of St Peter’s after his election.  “I have very little optimism about him being as pope,” Santorum said.

Organisations advocating for gay and lesbian Catholics also voiced “concern” about the new pope. Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, issued a statement citing statements critical of the “homosexual lifestyle” then-Bishop Prevost made in 2012.

“Pope Francis opened the door to a new approach to LGBTQ+ people; Pope Leo must now guide the church through that door,” DeBarnardo said.  

Cardinal Robert Prevost OSA from United States is Pope Leo XIV

College of Cardinals – America’s stars, bars and stripes

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