China, finances and a culture clash — the challenges facing Pope Leo XIV

We have, for the first time, an American pope.

What that means for the Catholic Church could prove unpredictable.

The hopeful case is that the new Holy Father will come prepared to tackle two major challenges for the church: its rickety financial and management structure and its internal divisions.

He is regarded as a capable administrator, having been given a great many positions of responsibility over 43 years as a priest.

He has also been seen in the past as a low-key conciliator who chooses his words with care.

A pope who handles the unglamorous management work well and calms the waters of controversy could free parish priests and Catholics in the pews to focus on the important business of the faith.

The worry, given how the new pope has been cheered in progressive quarters, is that he’ll continue some of his predecessor’s bad habits, which frequently left faithful Catholics wondering what might change on them next.

The new pope has also often been publicly odds with Donald Trump and JD Vance, especially over immigration — conflicts that could initially overshadow his spiritual work, but may be long forgotten if the 69-year-old enjoys a long tenure in the chair of St. Peter.

Follow the latest on the election of Pope Leo XIV:

• Who is Robert Prevost? Meet Leo XIV, the first American pope
• Cardinal Robert Prevost elected first American-born pope, takes name Pope Leo XIV
• First American pope is from Chicago, and everybody has jokes about it: ‘All communion wafers will be deep-dish’
• Here’s why American-born Cardinal Robert Prevost might have selected Pope Leo XIV as his papal name

Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, was born in Chicago in 1955 and has lived in the city for most of the American portion of his life, with the exception of earning his college degree in math from Villanova.

He’s the first Augustinian friar to be elected pontiff, a major feather in the cap of the distinguished order that runs Villanova.

He served two terms as the Prior General, the head of the Augustinians.

He’s not a provincial Midwesterner.

One Italian newspaper described him as “the least American of the Americans.”

Fluent in Spanish and Italian, he introduced himself in both languages in his first appearance as pope without speaking a word of English.

He spent almost quarter-century in Peru, first as a missionary and then as a bishop, earning popularity with the Latin American clergy and surviving years of conflict in a country often torn between right-wing authoritarians and Communist guerillas.

He also spent more than a decade in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in canon law, ran the Augustinian order from an office near St. Peter’s, and has recently served as a key aide to Pope Francis, helping him vet candidates to be bishops.

Unlike Pope Francis, he does not come to Rome as an outsider.

His choice of Leo as his papal name may be a signal.

Pope Leo XIII, who held the papacy from 1878 to 1903, is known for his promotion of Catholic social teachings and advocacy for the rights of workers.

Some critics of electing an American pope argued that it was perilous to choose a citizen of the world’s greatest superpower to also head the church.

That’s a modern view: the Vatican is in Rome precisely because it was the seat of the world’s greatest empire.

There’s little risk that an American pope today would become a captive of kings or emperors as happened during medieval times.

Nobody expects him to be a pawn of Trump.

His greater challenge as a diplomat will be standing up to Xi Jinping, who claims the authority to appoint the church’s bishops in China.

Unlike Pope Francis, who often had to clarify or walk back statements he made off the cuff to reporters, the new pope has not traditionally been voluble or freewheeling on the issues of the day, which may have helped him climb the ladder of the church hierarchy.

Progressives hoping for radical changes on moral issues may be disappointed, as they were often disappointed in Pope Francis in spite of his progressive leanings.

As Bishop and Cardinal Prevost, the new pope sounded traditional notes on the sanctity of the life of the unborn and the perversity of progressive gender ideology.

But he is seen as sympathetic to the confused efforts by Pope Francis to find ways to allow priests to bless gay couples — an endeavor that divided churches along regional lines and has been characterized by waffling and double-talk from the Vatican.

Pope Leo XIV seems to be a humble man. It takes a certain amount of ego to run a big organization and compel it to take your orders.

Yet, we hope and expect that popes show the humility to listen to the Holy Spirit and carry forward the teachings of the ages even in times when they are out of fashion.

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review.