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“WOKE MARXIST POPE” is how Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist who was reported to have advised US president Donald Trump on national security decisions, reacted to the election of Pope Leo XIV.
“He is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis,” she added.
“Catholics don’t have anything good to look forward to. Just another Marxist puppet in the Vatican.”
THIS IS THE NEW POPE!
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) May 8, 2025
His name is Robert Prevost.
He’s the first American Pope.
He is anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis.
Catholics don’t have anything good to look forward to.
Just another Marxist puppet in the Vatican. https://t.co/S45vZ8IaKM
The criticism of Francis began from his very first appearance as pope from the central balcony of St Peter’s in 2013 when he decided to ditch the red velvet mozzetta and instead opted for a simple white cassock.
The mozzetta is a short, cape-shaped garment, covering the shoulders and reaching to the elbow.
For some, Francis opting not to wear it was a scandalous way to mistreat the office.
The mozzetta represents the pope’s temporal power, something that didn’t sit right with Francis.
For many, Pope Benedict XVI’s love for traditional papal attire made him the figurehead of a traditional and old-school form of Catholicism.
Francis chose not to wear it to underscore his rejection of earthly power, but some conservative Catholics feel that a pope should strive to embrace, rather than reject, tradition.
The red mozzetta was back for the first appearance of Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost.
A picture speaks a thousand words… pic.twitter.com/E2aEfR5v8Q
— Fr David Palmer (@FrDavidPalmer) May 8, 2025
“He wore the red mozzetta, I think we are so back,” read one post on X with 12,000 likes.
But why are some conservatives so against Francis and how have others reacted to Leo XIV.
We’ve looked at the reaction from conservative Catholics online in the 24 hours after the former cardinal appeared on the balcony, and also took a trip around St Peter’s Square to assess the mood of Americans in real life.
Francis restricted the use of the Traditional Latin Mass, which has become a tipping point in the culture wars within the Church.
While his predecessors Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II had been more lenient towards the Latin Mass, Francis came down strongly and only allowed it to be celebrated with special permission from the Vatican.
When Francis first issued the restrictions in 2021, he said the good will and leniency shown by his predecessors had been “exploited” by some for ideological reasons.
One Catholic commentator remarked that if Pope Leo XIV “is a champion of Traditional Latin Mass, this will not be Francis 2.0″, such is the importance of this issue for some within the Church.
The Second Vatican Council in the early to mid ‘60s sought to modernise the Church and foster greater dialogue with other Christian denominations and religions.
It also allowed for Mass to be said in any language, not just Latin, and a wish to return to the Latin Mass is essentially a wish to return to a more conservative Church.
In his memoir, Hope, Francis writes of one discussion with a Cardinal in the US, who was approached by two newly ordained priests who wanted to celebrate Mass in Latin.
He asked if they understood Latin – they didn’t, but said they would study it.
“Before you learn Latin, see how many Vietnamese migrants are in the diocese – and study Vietnamese first of all,” said the Cardinal.
The cardinal then noted the number of Spanish speaking parishioners and remarked: “After Vietnamese and Spanish, come back to me and we’ll talk about Latin.”
It’s done. But it could have been a lot worse. More discussion coming. In the meantime, here’s the first reaction: pic.twitter.com/mMtBIZRDdz
— Michael J. Matt (@Michael_J_Matt) May 8, 2025
Another Catholic commentator remarked that conservative Catholics shouldn’t be “depressed” because Leo XIV is “seen as something of a bridge builder on the Latin Mass issue” and that the “war on the Latin Mass will be reduced”.
“Yes, he thanked Francis, but that’s protocol and I’m not trying to sugarcoat this, it’s somewhere in the middle.”
Meanwhile, Benedict XVI was sometimes referred to as “God’s Rottweiler” because he was seen as being a strict enforcer of Catholic doctrine, something which pleased conservatives.
Francis on the other hand was a man of gestures who had a more pastoral way of leading the Church.
“If someone has the answers to all the questions, this is proof that God is not with them,” Francis said in his memoir, Hope.
“It means they are someone who exploits religion, who uses it for themselves.”
But many conservative Catholics will claim that the Church does have the answers to all the questions and that the pope ought to be forthright in providing them.
But tougher challenges would follow for Francis’s papacy – he was labelled a heretic by some cardinals for allowing the blessing of same-sex couples in certain circumstances, and some cardinals said they would not allow for such a blessing.
The now-Leo XIV approved of this document.
However, the New York Times has reported that back in 2012, the then-Cardinal Prevost expressed dismay at the way media and pop culture expressed “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel.”
These “beliefs and practices”, he said, included “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.”
Meanwhile, some cardinals, such as New Yorker Timothy Dolan, called for the next pope to have “more clarity in teaching and refinement of the Church’s tradition”.
Many view calls for “clarity” as a call to undo some of the welcoming strides Francis made towards divorced Catholics and the LGBT community.
So while some in conservative quarters praised Leo XIV for a return to “tradition” in wearing the velvet mozzetta, many others were upset.
“Utterly disastrous,” posted one account on X with close to 50,000 followers.
The post, which garnered over 2,500 likes, added: “It’s hard to see how the Vatican could have chosen a worse Pope.”
Charlie Kirk meanwhile is founder of Turning Point USA, an organisation that advocates for conservative politics within education.
He has close to 5 million followers on X and said Leo XIV “has some not so great tweets about having willingness to have open borders”.
Pope Leo XIV: Registered Chicago Republican and pro-life warrior OR Open borders globalist installed to counter Trump? pic.twitter.com/1kKnaAdCNT
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) May 8, 2025
“Some people are saying he is super liberal, but time will tell,” Kirk added.
In February, Leo XIV shared a news article on X which read: “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”
Journalist Megyn Kelly expressed hope that “some 20-year-old ran the new pope’s X account and he never looked at it”.
Is it too much to hope that some 20-year-old ran the new pope’s X account and he never looked at it?
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) May 8, 2025
Before being hospitalised in February, Francis penned a letter to US Bishops which openly rebuked Trump’s stance on migrants.
He hit out at the “major crisis” of Trump’s deportation plans and explicitly rejected vice president JD Vance’s attempts to use Catholic theology to justify the administration’s crackdown on immigration.
Vance, a Catholic convert, had appealed to a concept called ‘Ordo amoris’ to justify his administration’s immigration crackdown.
In an interview with Fox News, he described it like this: “You love your family, and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country.
“And then after that, you can focus and prioritise the rest of the world.”
Vance claimed that the “far left” had inverted that.
But in his letter, Francis said that the “true ordo amoris” is that built on “the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception”.
Francis wrote that God is always close to migrants and refugees and described the program of mass deportations in the US as a “major crisis”.
The late pope also said it was impossible not to “express disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality”.
Meanwhile, Leo XIV’s brother, John Prevost, told ABC News on the night of the election that the new pope “will be looking out for the disenfranchised and the poor, and he will follow Pope Francis”.
In a nod to how Leo XIV intends to carry on the word of Francis, the new pope remarked that he wants a “synodal Church”.
This was in reference to the historic Synod on Synodality undertaken by Francis, which sought to give laypeople a greater say in the Church and its governance.
Leo XIV himself participated in the Synod.
But some high-ranking members of the Church rebelled, and even held their own counter-Synod to undermine Francis.
The new pope’s brother also remarked that “you won’t see a big difference” between Leo XIV and Francis and that “they believed in the same issues”.
“He might prove me wrong, but I don’t think there’ll be much of a tradition break from Pope Francis.”
Prevost added that his brother won’t be afraid to speak out on thorny issues.
Father James Martin is an influential US priest and editor at large of the Jesuit magazine American.
Speaking to The Journal yesterday in the Square, Fr Martin said it was important that Leo XIV referenced the Synod in his short speech.
“He participated in the Synod fully,” said Fr Martin, “and he sees it as a way of making the Church more inclusive, more welcoming and more listening.”
Our Synod table from last year, including on the far right, the modest, reserved, and highly intelligent man now known as Pope Leo XIV. pic.twitter.com/vvAj14Pwk0
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 8, 2025
He also remarked that Leo XIV is viewed as being the “least American of the Americans” due to his extensive time spent working in Peru.
Meanwhile, some conservatives have criticised the new pope for sharing social media posts by Fr Martin, who is seen as a liberal voice in the Church.
“Pope Leo XIV is going to stand up for those on the margins and the poor – that’s not political, that’s the Gospels.
“I was talking to some of his Augustinian brothers today who said he’s very moderate, and you really can’t describe him as liberal or conservative, and that probably is something that appealed to the Cardinals.
“But people asking is he left or right, progressive or traditionalist, liberal or conservative? The Church simply doesn’t think in those political categories.”
When asked about the new pope wearing the mozzetta, unlike Francis, Fr Martin said: “Who knows? They probably handed it to him as he went out to the balcony and he thought, ‘why not?’
“People are probably reading a little too much into it.
“On the other hand, maybe he’s trying to reach out to people who like traditional things, and that’s a good thing, to try to make them feel welcome in their own Church.”
And last night in the Square, it was hard to miss John Sanchez from New York, who was draped in an American flag.
Met John Sanchez from New York at St Peter’s Square, he was hard to miss with his big American flag. He says Pope Leo XIV will disagree with Trump on some things, and agree on others, but that the new pope is a man who will bring peace. @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/JjuJwLM9oF
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) May 9, 2025
He came especially for the conclave and said he “still can’t believe it”.
“God has blessed me to allow me to be here for this historic moment.”
When asked about past criticisms of Vance by the new pope, Sanchez said Leo XIV “agrees on some things with Trump and some other things he will disagree with and that’s normal”.
And when asked if he wants Francis 2.0, he said the new pope doesn’t need to follow anyone.
“He needs to be himself and I think he can work together with the progressive side and the conservative side.”
The Journal also spoke to Zelda from Arizona, who does want the next papacy to be Francis 2.0.
I also spoke to Zelda from Arizona. She came over especially for the conclave so that she could “pray for the pope that we all need” and that she’s got what she prayed for with Pope Leo XIV. @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/nmeaIP1OBT
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) May 9, 2025
She too came especially for the conclave and “to pray for the pope that we all need”.
While she wasn’t familiar with the former Cardinal Prevost, she has since read up on him and said “he is exactly what we prayed for”.
When asked about criticisms by conservative Catholics online that Leo XIV is too liberal, she simply replied: “I loved Pope Francis.”
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