Aleja Hertzler-McCain

An American Pope Makes Catholic Teaching a U.S. Political Force

Paul Elie and Christine Emba argue that Pope Leo XIV has made longstanding Catholic teaching newly consequential in U.S. politics not by changing it, but by making it harder to ignore. As an American pope confronting an American administration, Leo has become a legible moral countervoice on war, migration, technological power, and human dignity, while his restrained style leaves unresolved the Church’s own disputes over authority, gender, and tradition.