The Right Wanted a MAGA Pope. Let's Check In on How That's Going.

"The new American pope, Leo XIV, has somehow managed, in the four months since his election, to stay mostly out of the news. His predecessor, Pope Francis, had been committed to expanding the church's modern appeal, reaching out to divorced and LGBTQ+ Catholics and expanding the church's identity beyond Europe. He made enemies along the way, cracking down on the traditional Latin Mass, which had become associated with dissident traditionalism."

"The conflict revolved around an award that U.S. Cardinal Blase Cupich planned to give Durbin, a Democrat who is retiring at the end of his term, in recognition of his advocacy for immigrants. When about a dozen bishops and other conservative Catholic figures objected, citing Durbin's record of supporting abortion access, it became big enough of a story in Catholic media for Leo to be asked about it. The pope, while speaking in Italian to reporters on Tuesday, offered to take one question in English."

Leo XIV, an American, was elected to stabilize the church after Pope Francis. He has maintained Francis's priorities — climate change, Gaza, migrants — while using careful, noninflammatory language. He has extended olive branches to traditionalists by meeting a leading critic twice and permitting the Latin Mass in St. Peter's Basilica. He has presented himself as neither reformer nor reactionary on gay rights and has largely avoided U.S. culture wars. That restraint broke amid a dispute over Cardinal Blase Cupich's planned award to retiring Senator Dick Durbin, which sparked objections over Durbin's abortion record and became prominent in Catholic media.

Read at Slate Magazine