He is not quite as far left as Francis was. But he has taken lefty positions on migration and climate. He agrees with Francis’ contention that the handling of divorce within the Catholic church ought to be liberalized.
His position on LGBTQ issues is to the right of Francis. Unlike Francis, he is not a Jesuit– the Catholic order that is furthest left.
It is suspected that this choice is intended to challenge Trump on migration, which is a huge money-maker for the Catholic Church and its charities.
You can see and hear the new pope speak at approximately the 1:08 mark in the video below. There was nothing particularly striking in his comments which were overall fairly generic:
Listening and reading his Twitter history, he seems to be a radical, extremist, leftwing social justice warrior, who hates Trump and Vance.
And maybe hates his own country, as he pointedly did not use English in his first words to the world as Pope.
We’ll see.
JayCee, most Protestants don’t accept or necessarily understand the attention and adulation granted the pope. What he thinks about all of these things really ought not matter to the greater world, although it matters greatly to Catholics. I expect he probably will try to throw his weight around and hamper what Trump and Vance are trying to do on migration. I saw today that he was one of the instigators of the promotion of the new D.C. cardinal who is also big on migration. Some commentators are speculating on why he chose the name Leo, or why he wore the vestments he did today. I don’t know what to say about that.
This is all mumbo-jumbo to me. Good luck to Pope Leo.
My understanding is that he was a cardinal for less than two years , Fred. It seems he was likely tapped on the shoulder and groomed for this role, at least among some of the key players (like Francis himself).