What Does The First US-Born Pope Mean For The Church?

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🗓️ 14 May 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

On Sunday, Catholic churches across the world celebrated Mass while a new leader took the top seat in Vatican City. That new leader is Pope Leo XIV.

But when white smoke rose last week, some of the faithful may have been surprised when Robert Prevost walked out of St. Peter's Basilica victorious. He's the first US-born pope in history.

What do we know about the man now leading the church? What does it mean for someone born in the U.S. to be the pope?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When Malcolm Gladwell presented NPR's ThruLine podcast with a Peabody Award, he praised it for its historical and moral clarity.
0:10.0	On ThruLine, we take you back in time to the origins of what's in the news, like presidential power, aging, and evangelicalism.
0:18.0	Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR.
0:27.2	On Sunday, Catholic churches across the world held Mass with a new leader at the helm of
0:36.2	the Vatican. That's Pope Leo
0:38.0	the 14th. But when white smoke rose from the Vatican last week, some of the world may have been
0:43.0	surprised when Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo the 14th, walked out of St. Peter's Basilica on Thursday.
0:49.5	He's the first U.S. born Pope in history.
0:52.4	Through the ministry of Peter, you have called me to carry that cross and to be blessed
0:59.8	with that mission.
1:01.8	And I know I can rely on each and every one of you to walk with me as we continue, as a church,
1:09.6	as a community of friends of Jesus as believers, to announce the good news,
1:14.7	to announce the gospel. What do we know about the Chicagoan now leading the Catholic Church?
1:20.3	About 20% of Americans identify as Catholic, according to Pew Research Center. Meanwhile, Catholicism
1:26.6	is rapidly growing in Africa. According to the Vatican,
1:30.1	20% of the world's Catholics live in Africa. Between 2022 and 23, the number of Catholics on the
1:36.6	continent increased by 9 million. So how much influence does the Pope have around the world? Why is the U.S.
1:43.3	relationship with Catholic leadership important? I'm the U.S. relationship with Catholic
1:44.4	leadership important? I'm Jen White. You're listening to the WhatA Podcast. We'll be back in just a
1:49.8	moment. Stay with us.
1:55.4	On The Indicator from Planet Money podcast, we're here to help you make sense of the economic news from Trump's tariffs.
2:05.3	It's called in game theory a trigger strategy, or sometimes called grim trigger, which sort of has a cowboy-esque ring to it.
	...

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