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 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.

Berkley Center Senior Research Fellow Abraham Skorka and Senior Fellow Andrew Prevot were featured in the recent event, "Remembering Pope Francis," hosted by the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and the Office of Mission and Ministry at Georgetown University. Rabbi Skorka and Prevot were quoted in Catholic Review's coverage of the event, and Prevot's reflections were also featured in a Black Catholic Messenger article.