Berkley Center

Senior Fellow José Casanova joined other Georgetown University experts to reflect on the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a 69-year-old Chicago native, as Pope Leo XIV—the first American to lead the Catholic Church in its nearly 2,000-year-old history.

Senior Fellow Paul Elie writes for the New Yorker about his hope that Pope Leo XIV will be a "pontiff of peace" as the world faces what his predecessor Pope Francis called "a third world war in pieces." Elie also contributed to the New Yorker's daily newsletter shortly after Pope Leo was elected and joined the New Yorker's Critics at Large podcast to discuss his recent reporting from the Vatican on the historic election of Pope Leo.

Senior Research Fellow E.J. Dionne writes in the Washington Post that the selection of Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, means there will be no turning back from the direction charted by Pope Francis, who made Prevost a cardinal in 2023.

Senior Fellow Paul Elie writes in Vanity Fair about a remarkable photograph the Jesuit priest and author Rev. James Martin, S.J., took at the Vatican synod in October 2024. Elie describes the photo as an image of the Catholic future that Pope Francis brought near—and that the next pope ought to carry forward.