Christopher Hale writes:

For the first time ever, the most famous American in the world is not the president or a Hollywood icon or tech billionaire—it’s the Pope.

This is more than a Catholic triumph; it’s a cultural watershed for the United States. In a society that often equates American influence with might or money or celebrity, now our foremost representative on the global stage is a humble man in white robes, preaching love, justice, and mercy.

Back home in the U.S., the news of an American pope set off a flurry of excitement—and a scramble to claim him in our own image. Within hours, politicians on both sides of the aisle were applauding the new pontiff’s election, each with their partisan subtext. Progressive Democrats pointed out his strong record on social justice, immigrant rights, and poverty, hoping to cast him as one of their own. Conservative Republicans, meanwhile, highlighted his orthodox Catholic stances on issues like abortion and religious liberty, eager to claim a spiritual endorsement of their platform. (Though some in the MAGA contingent are seemingly ready to criticize him already.) This tug-of-war to politically appropriate the pope was perhaps inevitable.

Yet it misses the mark of who Pope Leo XIV really is. Like any good priest, he is going to comfort and challenge all of us, regardless of politics.

In Vatican circles, the early consensus is that Pope Leo XIV may become to Pope Francis what Paul VI was to John XXIII, or what Benedict XVI was to John Paul II. In other words, he is seen as a man who can bring structure, discipline, and tangible reforms to consolidate the prophetic vision of his predecessor. Pope Francis lit an evangelical fire in the Church’s conscience over the past decade, preaching about the peripheries, mercy, and care for the poor.

Pope Leo, a calm lawyer-bishop with years of governance experience, seems aptly cast for that role. His job now is to take Francis’s lofty ideals and hammer them into lasting policy. If Francis was the dreamer, Leo will be the doer….

For an American Catholic like me, that hint of shared culture is both charming and reassuring. It reminds us that the papacy isn’t an abstract institution; it’s held by a person, and now that person happens to hail from our own shores.

Pope Leo’s election has instantly made the rituals of the Vatican feel a touch more familiar to Americans—and perhaps made the idea of holiness feel a touch more attainable….

Don’t be surprised if he soon uses his moral pulpit to gently, but firmly, push back against the siren song of authoritarian leaders — be they on the international stage or lurking in our domestic politics. His voice, coming from an American who cannot be dismissed as “anti-American,” might uniquely rally the conscience of our people. At the very least, his example of servant leadership—prioritizing the poor, dialoguing with opponents, renouncing worldly power—is a much-needed antidote to the cynical power-grabs we’ve grown accustomed to.