Former Sen. Rick Santorum told Newsmax on Thursday he was not a fan that the new American pontiff did not speak in his native language.
"He's the first American Pope who's never spent any of his career in America," Santorum said on "American Agenda" while on scene in Italy, minutes after Pope Leo XIV was elected to lead the Catholic Church.
"He's talking Spanish. He's an American. And he didn't even speak in English. I mean, I don't know how you claim this is an American Pope if he won't even speak in his native tongue. That to me is very disturbing," said Santorum, a Catholic.
Santorum said the fact that the cardinals voted so quickly means Pope Leo will continue in the same vein as Pope Francis.
"They kept Pope Leo in the background. People knew very little about him," Santorum said. "And I think they were effective in working the conclave to get him elected actually pretty quickly."
Santorum criticized Pope Leo's initial speech, saying he did nothing to reach out to more conservative members of the church concerned about how he might govern. The former Pennsylvania senator said he is not worried about the future of the church, but he is not optimistic about Leo as a Pope.
"This too shall pass. Francis didn't change any doctrine. Pope Leo is not going to change any doctrine. It just won't happen," Santorum said. "What's [Pope Leo] going to do to help evangelize the church? What we've seen is every place that has gone left is dying. The church is losing membership, including in the United States and the places in the United States where it's strong and it's growing, just like in Africa. In Africa, Asia is where they are true to the gospel, where they're true to the teachings of the Magisterium of the church."
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Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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