Gizzi: Skeptical Catholic Conservatives Have Hope in New Pope's Name

When Cardinal Robert Prevost faced the world from Vatican City on Thursday following his surprise election as the first-ever American Pope, conservative and traditionalist Catholics clung to one thing they knew about him that gave them hope he might be different from his late predecessor Pope Francis: the name by which he chose to be known, Leo XIV.

For the most part, there was initially deep concern and worry on the part of Catholics on the right. These stem from reports of the new Pope's history on X, which include numerous condemnations of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on the issue of illegal immigration, his Francis-like support of climate change, and his invoking of the name of Francis in his opening remarks at the Sistine Chapel.

But Prevost's choice of Leo is a sign of cautious optimism among Catholics who clashed with Francis.

"There was a lot of worry the new Pope would choose 'Francis II,'" conservative Catholic publisher Roger McCaffrey told Newsmax on the day of Prevost's election. "That would have sent a very bad signal to conservatives that he would continue the agenda of the Pope who always seemed to their enemy — whether the issue was illegal immigration to celebration of our Church's traditional Latin Mass [which Francis tried to suppress]."

In choosing Leo, Prevost invoked the name of the eponymous Pope from 1878 to 1903 who is famed for the encyclical Rerum Novarum — a powerful document that condemns socialism and calls on employers and workers to work together in harmony. Leo XIII, the last Pope to use that name, also wrote the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel that was said at the close of Catholic Masses until the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, so loathed by conservatives, ended its practice in the late 1960's.

"Leo was a brilliant choice for a name by the new Pope," Aurelio Porfiri, author of 70 books on music in the Catholic Church agreed. "Like a lot of other [conservative] Catholics, I was very skeptical about Cardinal Prevost when I heard he was elected. He was supported by [Chicago's liberal Cardinal Blase] Cupich and [ardent LGBTQ advocate] Father James Martin made me very skeptical. And when he spoke of synodality (a process initiated by Francis in which bishops and other church leaders engage with worshippers and try to reach consensus on issues), it made me skeptical."

But the choice of the name Leo and the use of the traditional Mozzetta garb when appearing on the balcony of the Sistine Chapel — something Francis pointedly did not do in 2013 — gave him some hope, Porfiri added.

Robert Moynihan, editor of Inside the Vatican, said the new Pope's background as a past superior of the Augustinian Order, should also give conservative Catholics some hope.

According to Moynihan, "this is a very traditional order — and certainly more conservative than the Jesuits [from which Francis came] — and Pope Leo, as an American, is clearly aware of the concerns of American Catholics. These include, of course, the late Pope's hostility toward the Traditional Latin Mass."

Whether these hopes of conservatives and traditional Catholics are realized or dashed by the new Pope should become apparent in the months ahead.