How could Pope Leo XIV reshape the Catholic Church?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2025
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Recently elected Pope Leo XIV is the first pontiff from the United States, just as the country's president is shaking up the global order. With both the US and the Catholic Church deeply divided, what does Pope Leo’s selection mean for Catholics in the US and worldwide?
In this episode:
- Hoda Abdel-Hamid (@hodaaje), Al Jazeera correspondent
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Amy Walters, Sonia Bhagat, Ashish Malhotra with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Kisaa Zehra, Tamara Khandaker, Chloe K. Li, Remas Alhawari, and our guest host, Natasha Del Toro. It was edited by Alexandra Locke.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editor is Hisham Abu Salah. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, what are 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide learning from this new Pope? |
| 0:18.0 | His message already is very appealing. |
| 0:21.7 | Peace. |
| 0:23.3 | Peace in the world. |
| 0:24.3 | And we need that. |
| 0:26.0 | We need peace in our world. |
| 0:31.1 | We look back at the first week of Pope Leo the 14th and what having a Pope from the United States means. |
| 0:36.1 | I'm Natasha D'Oro, and this is the take. |
| 0:46.0 | I'm Heardt-Abd al-Hamed. |
| 0:48.4 | I am a senior correspondent for Al Jazeera English, and I'm based in Qatar, but I'm very lucky I get to |
| 0:57.0 | travel a lot around the world. And you get to spend a lot of time in Italy, which I'm very, |
| 1:02.1 | very jealous about. And you grew up in Italy, is that right? Yes, I grew up in Rome. Yes, indeed. |
| 1:09.0 | Oh, beautiful. You know, Hoda, it's really great to have you here |
| 1:13.5 | with us today. Thursday is going to officially mark the first week of Pope Leo the 14th, born |
| 1:20.0 | Robert Francis Prevost. He's from Chicago, which is right in the middle of the United States. |
| 1:25.1 | And there's many things about him that are really |
| 1:27.7 | unique. But before we get into all of that, you know, you grew up in Italy and you've actually |
| 1:34.3 | seen many different popes come and go in St. Peter's Square, covering some of them as a journalist. |
| 1:42.5 | So from your up-close view, what stood out to you this first week? |
| 1:48.0 | Well, I mean, it was very surprising, first of all, that he was elected so quickly. |
| 1:55.9 | It's quite an exciting time, and it happens every single time. |
... |
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