It took only four rounds of voting to decide on the new pope who took the name of Leo XIV, as a most likely continuation of the social ideas of the author of the famous encyclical Rerum novarum, which tried to stem the loss of working classes to the church and maintain its authority over the new democratic or bourgeois political institutions in a new way. Leo XIV was chosen to continue the direction set by Pope Francis: the notion of social justice rather than the authority of the church continues to be prominent, as are globalism and the development of the church in many new cultures and countries. In fact, this pope has spent most of his life in Peru as a missionary Augustinian, and only later in life became the prior of the Augustinian order in Rome, and was close to pope Francis.

But is the fundamental role of women going to change? Are we going to see women deacons and even women priests? Are the notions of abortion, celibacy, and homosexuality going to be discussed more openly? Will Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae encyclical letter of 1968 be dropped as a serious mistake of the past? Will the church formally recognize its lack of judgment and its criminality in sexual acts?

In the past few years, Robert Prevost was in charge of the choice of new bishops all over the world. He evidently was close to Pope Francis. So, the election of this American pope, a first, though not directly about the politics of the United States, may have much to do with the extraordinarily dangerous change in politics that we see in the US. It used to be conventional wisdom that the election of an American pope was impossible as long as it would add an authoritarian voice to the imperial power of the United States. But circumstances have changed and many consider the US a dwindling power. Furthermore, the stunning recent move towards fascism in the US may have encouraged the voters to choose a new pope who might lead the Catholic Church to abandon its authoritarianism and steer it in a crucial and risky new direction, namely namely that of a key thinker and actor of democracy and its values. It is likely then that he was chosen not only to continue Francis’ work, but also because his knowledge of the global situation, concern for the world, and belief in a century-old theological tradition–––beginning with the Trinity–––might lead him to initiate some radical changes in Rome.