Where Pope Leo Stands On Specific Issues

White smoke emerged from the Sistine Chapel Thursday afternoon after a short two-day deliberation, and onlookers watched while Robert Prevost, the first American pope in history, walked across the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in a white cassock.

More than 100 cardinals gathered to elect Pope Leo XIV as the new leader of the Catholic Church, ushering in a transformative era for the religious institution that will be distinct from its direction under Pope Francis.

Much remains to be known about Pope Leo, who is seen as a centrist. The Illinois native has dual citizenship from the U.S. and Peru, and spoke Italian and Spanish during his first address to the public, during which he emphasized peace. 

His election is, in part, a departure from Pope Francis, who was regarded as a progressive. Francis is remembered for his acts of humility and inclusion, such as: washing the feet of migrant refugees—including Muslims, Hindus, and others—and voicing support for a greater role for women in the Church. He is perhaps most remembered for his stance on LGBTQ+ Catholics: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?” Francis said in a striking 2013 statement. Francis was also a prominent voice in the call for global peace, using his last message at Easter mass to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Pope Leo will serve about 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide—many of whom come from the global south—during a period marked by decreases in Catholic Church attendance and great political conflict. 

Here’s what we know about the new Pope’s stance on these issues: 

The LGBTQ+ Catholic community

The Catholic Church has been firm on its stance that homesexuality is a sin, and same-sex couples cannot be married within the Church.

But in October 2023, a letter by Francis in support of the blessings of same-sex unions on a case-by-case basis was made public. “We cannot be judges who only deny, push back and exclude,” Francis wrote to a group of conservative cardinals. “As such, pastoral prudence must adequately discern whether there are forms of blessing, requested by one or several people, that do not convey a wrong idea of a matrimony. Because when one seeks a blessing, one is requesting help from God.”

Leo’s stance on LGBTQ+ Catholics marks a departure from the late pontiff, according to the College of Cardinals report. In October 2024, Prevost voiced the need for greater conversations between each “episcopal conference” to discuss the blessings and apply them in a way that aligned with cultural differences across the globe as some countries still criminalize homsexuality. 

“The bishops in the episcopal conferences of Africa were basically saying, that here in Africa, our whole cultural reality is very different … it wasn’t rejecting the teaching authority of Rome, it was saying that our cultural situation is such that the application of this document is just not going to work,” Prevost reportedly said. “You have to remember there are still places in Africa that apply the death penalty, for example, for people who are living in a homosexual relationship … So, we’re in very different worlds.”

In a report assessing his opinions regarding queer couples, The New York Times cited a 2012 statement from Leo in which he expressed dismay at the way media and pop culture expressed “sympathy for beliefs and practices that contradict the gospel.” 

Francis was openly critical of laws criminalizing LGBTQ+ people, calling them “unjust,” and was generally seen as a supporter of greater inclusion in the Church. 

Helping migrants

Pope Leo’s stance on migrants falls in line with that of Francis. Jesus Leon Angeles, a coordinator of a Peruvian Catholic group who personally knows Prevost, told Reuters that the new pontiff had always shown care for Venezuelan migrants in Peru. More than 1.5 million Venezuelan migrants live in the South American country as a result of economic instability.  

Francis was a strong supporter of migrants, expressing his support for the community in a February letter to U.S. bishops. The letter came after the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, which has been marked by calls for mass deportation, attempts to end birthright citizenship, an undocumented immigrant registry, and other anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric. “Your work in defending migrants is deeply rooted in the mission of Christ and the history of the Church,” Francis wrote. “The legitimate regulation of migration must never undermine the essential dignity of the person.”

Equality for women

Pope Leo has been firm in his stance against the ordainment of women, falling in line with Pope Francis’ own opinion. 

“Something that needs to be said also is that ordaining women — and there’s been some women that have said this interestingly enough — ‘clericalizing women’ doesn’t necessarily solve a problem, it might make a new problem,” said in October 2023 during the Synod on Synodality. 

However, he did point to the appointment of women to higher leadership positions under Francis as evidence that women contribute “a great deal to the life of the Church.” 

Pope Francis similarly signaled greater support for women in leadership throughout his 12-year papacy, giving them the right to vote during synods and appointing women to senior positions, while noting that they could not become priests.  

Still, Francis made pointed actions to show his support. In 2024, he washed the feet of Roman prisoners from a female prison, marking the first time a Pope had only washed the feet of women. 

Climate change

Pope Leo will continue Francis’ legacy as a steward of climate change. The pontiff has made statements calling for the Church to take greater action against the destruction of the planet. “Dominion over nature” should not be “tyrannical,” he said during a November seminar, instead emphasizing the need for a more reciprocal relationship with the Earth. 

The seminar came about at the request of Pope Francis, who called on the Church to act with “compassion” in regards to climate change, referring to the mistreatment of the planet as a “structural sin.” The late pontiff made connections between climate change and its disproportionate impact on the developing world. 

“We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social,” Francis wrote. “But rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental.”