Since Pope Leo XIV's election, on May 8, 2025, he has become a figure of fascination: the first American Pope, Chicago-born, and a citizen of Peru besides; a still relatively young Pope, at the age of seventy, who is at ease with e-mail and Duolingo and WhatsApp, and likes to play tennis at a Vatican palace in the southeast of Rome. “As he settled into the office, he was recognized as both a moral authority and a celebrity,” Paul Elie writes.
Then, this February, President Donald Trump launched a war against Iran, and Pope Leo publicly responded. In the media, the battle was joined: the President versus the Pope, and the White House has fed the narrative. Pope Leo has continued to denounce the war, and Trump, in kind, has continued to denounce the Pope. Read more about Leo’s first year as Pope: www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-popes-...