NEED TO KNOW
- Pope Leo XIV voted quite a few occasions in his house state of Illinois, together with in Republican primaries earlier than Donald Trump turned president.
- Most just lately, he voted through absentee poll within the 2024 presidential election.
- The brand new pope beforehand made feedback discouraging acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals, however in his first tackle as pontiff, he confused the necessity for a church that may “obtain everyone.”
Pope Leo XIV, the primary pope from the US, was a recurrent voter in his house state of Illinois.
The brand new pontiff, elected on Might 8 to succeed the late Pope Francis, voted many occasions in Will County outdoors Chicago, Illinois, in keeping with voting information obtained by The New York Times. He final voted in the latest presidential election in November 2024 through absentee poll.
Pope Leo, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, voted in three Republican primaries in Will County between 2012 and 2016, and voted in zero Democratic primaries throughout that time-frame. He didn’t vote within the 2020 presidential election or the 2022 midterm election, in keeping with Will County information.
Illinois voters don’t register with a selected occasion, so the brand new pope’s political affiliation in the US has not been formally documented.
TIZIANA FABI/AFP through Getty
Months earlier than he was elected the brand new pope, Leo took to social media to criticize Vice President J.D. Vance, a Catholic convert.
Vance acknowledged in a Jan. 29 interview, “There’s a Christian idea that you simply love your loved ones and then you definitely love your neighbor, and then you definitely love your group, and then you definitely love your fellow residents, after which after that, prioritize the remainder of the world. Numerous the far left has fully inverted that.”
In response, Leo took to X to share an opinion piece from NCR Online and restate the article’s headline: “JD Vance is mistaken: Jesus does not ask us to rank our love for others.”
Antonio Masiello/Getty
The brand new pope has beforehand made feedback apparently discouraging acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals. In 2012, he criticized Western norms for fostering “sympathy for beliefs and practices which might be at odds with the gospel,” per a Might 2 report by The New York Times, citing the “gay way of life” and “different households comprised of same-sex companions and their adopted youngsters.”
Moreover, whereas in Chiclayo, Peru, Leo discouraged training on gender ideology, claiming it “seeks to create genders that do not exist,” he instructed a neighborhood outlet, in keeping with the Instances.
Nonetheless, in his first public tackle as pope, Leo emphasised the necessity for a church that “builds bridges, establishes dialogues,” and the power to “obtain everyone that wants our charity, our presence, dialogue and love.”
