Experts see the new pontiff as less confrontational than his predecessor, but willing to stand up for the church's teachings.

Prior to his election as Pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost's social media activity suggested criticism of President Donald Trump's immigration policies.

It has long been an unwritten rule of the Catholic Church that no citizen of a world superpower can be pope. The informal logic is that such an arrangement would risk putting preeminent temporal and spiritual authority into the hands of the same clan.