It seems that the new Pope Leo XIV is a bit of a mixed bag. Generally considered progressive (granting that the Catholic church has a low bar to meet there), he railed against Trump and Vance's anti-immigration stance and was close with Pope Francis, being instrumental in removing a Texas bishop who railed against Francis's inclusive stance on LGBTQ+, divorce, and women in the church. However, in his earlier days before the papacy of Pope Francis (who was pope for the past 12 years), he was quite "confused" (to use his own words) about inclusiveness and rather ignorant in his views. The hope in progressive sectors of the church is that these views have changed over the past 12 years with Pope Francis, whom he supported well.

Now I'm not a Catholic but I do believe that the election of a Catholic pope is an important event in global affairs, just like the election of a US President can be, which has had all sorts of ripple effects on me as a Canadian. The Catholic church holds a lot of power and influence around the globe, not just to its 1.4 billion members.

And that really is a LOT of people, which means that it's important that their diversity is recognized and accepted, and they are ALL treated with dignity and respect.

So in that vein, the transformative progress in the church brought about by Pope Francis was important to the world, not just to Catholics. It was also important that the new pope could at the very least carry on this legacy, and not allow the church to fall into deep regression like the US has under Trump.

Now I'm not saying that Pope Francis was a bastion of inclusiveness in the world. But he was a bastion of inclusiveness for the Catholic church, which is a lower bar than much of the world.

Again not a Catholic so not the most versed, I did do a brief investigation into the candidates for pope, before this election was decided. The best case scenario I found was Peter Turkson from Ghana or the Filipino, Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, who were said to be the most progressive, but more importantly both are LGBTQ+ friendly and neither are white or even white passing. I guess the church wasn't ready for that yet, but such an election would have shown a surprising commitment to a new transformation in the church towards progressive views.

On the other hand, the worst case scenario I found was a traditionalist from Hungary named Péter Erdő. If he were elected, it would have been a clear message that the church now rejects the inclusiveness of former Pope Francis and wishes to regress to a time of bitter intolerance, undoing any progress in LGBTQ+ acceptance and women's rights (including divorce).

So we didn't get that cataclysmic result, thankfully... but neither did we get the good one. It seems we got quite a middle-of-the-road result, but will he at least be able to uphold the legacy of Pope Francis? It sounds like a possibility which is still in question.

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/05/american-bishop-robert-francis-prevost-decried-the-homosexual-lifestyle-he-was-just-elected-pope/

'While Pope Francis moved the Church’s relationship with LGBTQ+ people forward, asking early in his tenure, “Who am I to judge?” his successor has indicated he may not be as welcoming.

As a bishop in Peru, Prevost opposed a government plan for teaching about gender in schools. “The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,” he told local news media.

Prevost has also earned criticism over priests accused of sexual abuse.

In Chicago, activists say his office did not warn a Catholic school of a priest who church leaders said abused young boys for years. In 2000, the priest was removed from public duties to a monastery, a decision that would have required Prevost’s approval.

In a 2012 address to bishops reported by The New York Times, Prevost lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel.” He cited the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”

“We pray that in the 13 years that have passed,12 of which were under the papacy of Pope Francis, that his heart and mind have developed more progressively on LGBTQ+ issues, and we will take a wait-and-see attitude to see if that has happened,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic LGBTQ+ ministry.

In his role managing bishops, Prevost was instrumental in Pope Francis’ decision in 2023 to dismiss Bishop Joseph Strickland of Texas, who railed against the Pope’s inclusive message to LGBTQ+ people, and objected to his liberal views on divorce and the role of women in the church.'