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WHAT DIRECTION FOR LEO XIV AND FOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?  
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Joanne M. Pierce, Maureen K. Day
May 9, 2025
The Conversation

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_ Will Leo XIV follow in Francis' footsteps or strike out in a new
direction? How will the new papacy affect how the U.S. Catholic Church
will navigate the storms that have buffeted it for the past decades?
Two experts provide insights. _

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WHY THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS CHOSE POPE LEO XIV

THE CONVERSATION
Joanne M. Pierce
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May 8, 2025

When 69-year-old Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost appeared on the main
balcony
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of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time as Pope Leo XIV on May 8,
2025, he was cheered loudly by the huge crowd of pilgrims, tourists,
local Catholics and other onlookers who had waited hours for the first
sign of white smoke and the official announcement.

As a specialist in Catholic history and ritual
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important this moment was for Catholics and others all over the world.
A new pope brings with him a sense of excitement often mixed with
uncertainty.

But the choice of the College of Cardinals came as a surprise to some
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Prevost is the first pope from the United States, and, traditionally,
the European-dominated College of Cardinals has had reservations about
choosing a cardinal from the U.S. for fear of too much American
influence in the church.

So, who is Prevost, and what might have influenced the cardinals’
vote?

Early experiences

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Prevost joined a Catholic religious order
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at the age of 20: the Order of St. Augustine, called Augustinians,
founded in the 13th century. Instead of withdrawing from the world in
isolated monasteries, members of this order travel as mendicants to
aid the poor as well as serve as missionaries
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teachers.

Prevost studied theology in the U.S. and Rome, and as a newly ordained
priest he spent a year in Peru. After a short return to the U.S. as an
official of the Augustinian order in Illinois, he returned to Peru as
a seminary professor to teach canon law, the legal structure of the
Catholic Church. He would stay in Peru for the next 10 years.

In 1999, he became the prior – that is, the head – of the local
Augustinian province in Chicago and was later elected prior of the
worldwide Augustinian order. This gave him a truly global experience,
since the Augustinians had some 50 communities spread across every
continent
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In 2015, Pope Francis appointed him bishop
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for the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru. In 2019, Francis appointed him a
member of several important Vatican dicasteries, or departments, where
he became very familiar with the central church administration. Most
importantly, he served as prefect, or chairman, on the Dicastery for
Bishops
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In fact, because of his lengthy pastoral experience in Peru and
service at the Vatican, some commentators had noted before Prevost was
chosen that
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if the cardinals were to elect an American pope, it would be him. His
service on the Dicastery for Bishops was considered especially
important, since members play a key role in selecting new bishops.

Global church

During the 20th century, especially after the Second Vatican Council
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– a series of meetings of the world’s bishops to modernize the
church, ending in 1965 – the popes began to name cardinals from
other parts of the world that were previously considered to be on the
periphery of the Catholic Church.

And this led to popes being chosen from outside of Italy for the first
time in centuries. Pope St. John Paul II was Polish
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first non-Italian pope since the 16th century. Pope Benedict XVI was
another non-Italian
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born in Germany, who had served as a Vatican official. Pope Francis
was born in South America
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to parents who were Italian-born immigrants to Argentina.

The College of Cardinals, which had few representatives from other
continents until recently, is now much more international. Some 80% of
the cardinal electors were named by Francis, many from countries that
had never before had a cardinal
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In reviewing his record, the cardinal electors might have taken a
number of factors into account. Prevost would be an effective
administrator as head of the church and was an expert in church canon
law. He had decades of experience doing pastoral work in South
America, as well as in North America. And as prior general of the
entire Augustinian order, he would likely have traveled widely to
visit many of the communities he supervised.        

The new pope appeared on the Vatican balcony wearing the traditional
papal garments: white cassock, short red cape, decorated red and gold
stole, and golden cross hanging around his neck. Francis, on the other
hand, had appeared dressed in the plain white cassock of a pope.

Certainly, he had not chosen the simplicity of Francis. Was this a
sign that he would be more of a traditionalist?

His choice of a papal name, I believe, could indicate a different
point of view. Pope Leo XIII wrote a groundbreaking encyclical in
1891, “Rerum Novarum
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subtitled “On Dignity and Labor.” In this he stressed the rights
of workers to unionize and criticized the conditions in which they
worked and lived. He also championed other rights the ordinary worker
deserved from their bosses and from their government.

In his first remarks from the balcony, offering a glimpse into the
direction of his papacy, Leo XIV stressed the role of Catholics and
the church as peacemakers and bridge-builders, in dialogue with other
religious traditions and cultures. His first words were “Peace be
with you all
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describing this peace as “a disarmed peace, a disarming peace.” He
further urged Catholics to act together “without fear … united
with one another … to build bridges” through dialogue and outreach
– to bring peace to the world.

He may not follow exactly in Francis’ footsteps, but he will likely
continue walking in the same direction.[The Conversation]

Joanne M. Pierce
[[link removed]],
Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, _College of the Holy Cross
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This article is republished from The Conversation
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the original article
[[link removed]].

EVEN WITH LEO XIV, US CATHOLICS STAND ‘AT A CROSSROADS’

THE CONVERSATION
Maureen K. Day
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May 7, 2025

_Shortly after 6 P.M. in Rome, the longed-for sight appeared above the
Sistine Chapel: white smoke._

_Over the course of a day and a half, the more than 130 members of the
College of Cardinals had come to a decision on who should lead the
world’s 1.4 billion Catholics. On May 8, 2025, they elected Cardinal
Robert Prevost, who chose the name Leo XIV – becoming the first pope
from the United States._

_The Conversation U.S. asked Maureen Day
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University of Southern California who has written several books about
the contemporary church, to explain what Catholicism looks like in the
U.S. at this high-stakes moment._

HOW IS CATHOLIC IDENTITY AND PRACTICE IN THE U.S. CHANGING, COMPARED
WITH A GENERATION AGO?

In 1987, the year of the first American Catholic Laity survey
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American Catholics said that faith was “the most” or “among the
most” important parts of their life. Now, only 37% say the same.

Others are leaving the Catholic Church completely. The General Social
Survey [[link removed]], a national
survey conducted every year or two since the 1970s, asks people about
the faith they grew up with, as well as their present religious
identity. According to our analysis of its data
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1973 only 10% of Americans who grew up Catholic had changed religions,
and another 7% had left religion altogether. By 2018, each of those
percentages had increased to 18%.

A Pew Research Center study conducted in 2024 found that for every
American who converts to Catholicism, another 8.4 leave
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The only reason that Catholicism is able to maintain a relatively
steady share of the U.S. population – about 20%
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– is due to the high percentage
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of immigrants and migrants who are Catholic
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So my co-authors and I chose the title of our 2025 book,
“Catholicism at a Crossroads
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quite intentionally. The church has been facing a variety of
challenges for decades, both nationally and across the globe
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It’s not just about disaffiliation, but also issues such as the
sexual abuse crises
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and bishops’ decreasing influence on lay Catholics’ personal
decisions
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In response, church leaders have mostly offered minor adjustments,
such as encouraging parishes to become more family- or young
adult-friendly. They have not yet made larger shifts that could
substantially alter some of those trend lines.

SOME OF YOUR WORK FOCUSES ON WHAT YOU CALL ‘CULTURAL CATHOLICS’
− DEFINED AS CATHOLICS WHO ATTEND MASS LESS THAN ONCE PER MONTH. HOW
WOULD YOU DESCRIBE CULTURAL CATHOLICISM IN THE U.S. TODAY?

A big concern of Catholic leaders right now is decreasing Mass
attendance
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as weekly Mass is an important precept of the Catholic Church
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Sunday Mass is a place for Catholics to participate in the sacraments,
strengthen their faith and build relationships with other Catholics.

One of the things Catholic leaders tend to attribute this drop in
attendance to is a broader trend of secularism. There might be some
merit to this, but it can’t be the whole story
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our analysis of General Social Survey data, for example, the
percentage of Protestant Christians who say they attend worship
services weekly was 35% in 1950 and 40% in 2023. Among Catholics,
however, weekly Mass attendance has declined from 63% to 30% in these
same years.

“Cultural Catholics” who say they attend Mass “a few times a
year” or “seldom or never” account for 53% of U.S. Catholics
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demonstrate strong ties to Catholic teachings in other ways. For
example, around 70% to 80% of cultural Catholics say that it is
“essential” or “somewhat essential” to Catholicism to help the
poor, have a devotion to Mary and practice daily prayer.

There are findings that can lend themselves to either a “glass half
empty” or “glass half full” interpretation. For instance, it
might be heartening to Catholic leaders to know that 62% of cultural
Catholics say it is important that future generations of their family
are Catholic – although this is much lower than the 89% among those
who attend Mass frequently.

And when these cultural Catholics imagine future generations of their
family being Catholic, what does that mean? Perhaps it entails simply
a few milestones, like receiving baptism, First Communion and possibly
Confirmation – the three sacraments that initiate a person into the
Catholic faith. The way many cultural Catholics are loosely tethered
to the church, without much involvement in parish life, is a great
concern for many Catholic leaders.

WHAT MAIN CHALLENGES DO YOU SEE FOR THE AMERICAN CHURCH UNDER THE NEXT
POPE?

I would argue that the American church’s biggest challenge is how to
heal the factionalism within itself.

On the one hand, there is a great deal of common ground
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among the most active Catholics, even with the diversity still found
here. According to our analysis, 20% of Catholics are “high
commitment”: those who say they attend Mass weekly, are unlikely to
leave the faith, and that the church is very important to them. These
Catholics are more likely to depart from their political party’s
position
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on an issue if it does not align with Catholic teachings. For example,
high-commitment Catholic Republicans are much more likely to support
the bishops’ position on making the immigration process easier for
families. High-commitment Catholic Democrats, meanwhile, are more
likely to be against abortion than are their moderate- or
low-commitment counterparts.

In other words, these high-commitment Catholics tend to be less
polarized and could find common cause with one another.

However, there are more extreme pockets – such as those who called
into question the legitimacy of Francis’ papacy
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– that are more militant about their vision of Catholicism. While
these Catholics are few in number, they are very vocal. There are
fringe groups that mobilized to try to change the direction of the
Catholic Church
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after Francis’ papacy, which they saw as a series of liberal
reforms.

Within more mainstream Catholicism, there are divides over styles of
worship, with media attention on some young Americans flocking to more
conservative or traditional parishes
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However, sociologist Tim Clydesdale
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scholar Kathleen Garces-Foley
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Catholics are split
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While some are attracted to churches with pastors who demonstrate
“orthodoxy,” a similar number prefer “openness.”

WHAT DO YOU WISH MORE PEOPLE UNDERSTOOD ABOUT CATHOLICISM IN THE U.S.?

I think the “missing piece” for many is the incredible diversity
of U.S. Catholicism
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from race and ethnicity to politics and practice. Many Americans tend
to associate the religion with one or two issues, such as abortion and
same-sex marriage, and assume that Catholics are fairly monolithic,
both in their demographics and their politics.

Catholics themselves can also forget – or never learn – that their
small slice of Catholicism is not the whole of Catholicism.

Recognizing and elevating what unites this vast family of Catholics,
both personally and collectively, is going to be critical as the
church moves forward.

_This article was updated on May 8, 2025 to include Pope Leo XIV’s
election._[The Conversation]

Maureen K. Day
[[link removed]], Research
Fellow, Center for Religion and Civic Culture and Institute for
Advanced Catholic Studies, _USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and
Sciences
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This article is republished from The Conversation
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the original article
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* Leo XIV
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* Catholic Church
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