The selection of Pope Leo XIV, who was born in America and spent many years serving in Peru, means a papacy that is "inclusive and embracing" of the world's Catholics, C.J. Doyle, the executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, said on Newsmax Sunday.
"I think he's also going to be a very Marian Pope," added Doyle, interviewed on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend," referring to a deep devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. "He visited the Augustinian shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel and in his sermon for his first Sunday Mass, the Good Shepherd Sunday in the new calendar, he talked about having the Blessed Virgin Mary accompany us as we follow Jesus, so I think it's going to be a very, very Marian papacy."
The new Pope may also be a "bit more traditional" than the late Pope Francis was, said Doyle.
"I think he's going to follow Francis on issues of migration, synodality, the death penalty, climate change, things like that."
But in other terms, such as with LGBTQ issues, Pope Leo may be "more orthodox, more traditional," said Doyle, citing some of the new Pope's comments about gender identity.
"We're going to see somebody that's going to follow very much in Francis' footsteps, but at the same time is going to be perhaps a little more traditional in his orientation," said Doyle.
It was reported last week that Cardinal Timothy Dolan had a major influence on Pope Leo's selection, and Doyle said that would not be a surprise.
"This is very unusual," he said. "Everybody said you couldn't have an American Pope. And in a way, they were right. When you think of an American Pope, you think of an Irish American who was the archbishop in Boston or in New York. This is a very unusual American Pope from Chicago, but he spent about a third of his life in Italy and about a third in Latin America, and the rest here. So he's an American Pope, but he's an American Pope that is well connected in the Third World."
Pope Leo also made a deliberate decision on the day he was selected to appear in the traditional papal vestments, meaning he was not emulating Pope Francis, said Doyle.
"Francis's papacy could be very divisive at times and controversial," he said. "I think this guy is very intelligent and is going to be very prudent, and I think he's going to avoid some of the missteps that Francis engaged in that kind of unnecessarily antagonized people."
Pope Leo was picked after just two days of conclave voting, showing that he was a "compromise choice" between church factions, said Doyle.
"He isn't identified with one particular bloc, and to the extent that he supports Francis, he's done so without really offending or antagonizing the more conservative cardinals," said Doyle.
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