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White smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney today and the bells of St. Peter’s rang out, signaling that the conclave was concluded after only 24 hours, and that 133 cardinals had elected a successor to the recently deceased Pope Francis.

Robert Francis Prevost, 69, who has chosen the name Leo XIV, is the 267^th pope and the first from the United States – Chicago, to be precise. But lest you get your hopes up that the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics will now be headed by a MAGA patriot, it’s telling that one Vatican insider describes Prevost as “one of the least ‘American’ of the American cardinals.” Having served for two decades in Peru, where he was a missionary, parish priest, teacher and bishop and became a naturalized citizen, he has spent much of his life outside the United States.

In fact, earlier this year Prevost took to social media to declare that Vice President JD Vance, a devout Catholic, was “wrong” to assert that God wants us to embrace “ordo amoris,” or a sort of hierarchical, “ordered” love. “You love your family. Then you love your neighbor. And then you love your fellow citizens… THEN prioritize the rest of the world,” Vance said. That statement sparked a major Catholic debate, with political conservatives generally siding with Vance. Prevost made his position clear by sharing an article online titled, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others.”

Many Catholics (and non-Catholics, for that matter) were praying for a more traditional, conservative choice after twelve years of the globalist progressive, Pope Francis. During his pontificate, Francis made landmark declarations that encouraged the Left, including allowing the blessing of people in same-sex unions and calling for more mass migration into already overwhelmed Western nations. One conservative Catholic author even persuasively argued several reasons “Why We Need a Pope From Africa” such as Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, a defender of the embattled, traditional Latin mass (but who, at 80, was a long-shot pick).

Just prior to today’s revelation that a pope had been chosen, Sheryl Collmer at Crisis Magazine online, a publication on Catholic issues, wrote that Francis’ tenure was “tragic” and nearly “destroyed” the church. She asked, “Will we have the heart and courage to rebuild the Church after the devastation of the recent past?”

Perhaps not, because Prevost’s career was apparently closely observed, if not steered, by Francis himself. According to GB News, “Francis clearly had an eye on him for years.” To summarize from The College of Cardinals Report profile of Cardinal Prevost: in 2014, Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, then Bishop of Chiclayo in 2015. Francis appointed him to one of the most influential Vatican posts in January 2023, running the office that selects and manages bishops globally. He held that post until Pope Francis died late last month. On September 30, 2023, Francis elevated Prevost to the rank of Cardinal.

It’s also notable that only those cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote in the papal conclave; there are currently 135 of these – the largest number in the church’s history – and Pope Francis appointed about 80% of them. Considering this, did a more traditionalist candidate ever have a chance?

On social issues, Prevost is viewed as progressive, particularly in his embrace of “marginalized” groups such as the migrants Pope Francis championed. The New York Times notes that Prevost “resembles Francis in his commitment to the poor and migrants, and to meeting people where they are,” whatever that last bit means.

He also supported Pope Francis’ change to allow divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion. It’s too soon to tell how willing Prevost will be to curry favor with the Alphabet lobby, or how woke he may or may not be (he has rejected, for example, the idea of ordaining women as deacons, stating that “clericalizing women” doesn’t necessarily solve a problem, and might even create new problems).

There is no question, however, that he aligns closely with Pope Francis’ progressive environmental priorities. Prevost has been outspoken about the need for urgent action on climate change. He recently stressed that the Church must move “from words to action,” warning against the “harmful” consequences of unchecked technological development.

Progressives are already throwing their support behind Prevost, rejecting the idea of Catholic unity, and eager to marginalize the conservative faithful. In an appearance on CNN News Central, Left-wing Catholic writer Michael Sean Winters of National Catholic Reporter told conservatives who are less than thrilled with a pope who may prove to be Francis 2.0 that “if he’s teaching the gospel in a way that doesn’t cohere with your politics, as a Catholic, you have to ask yourself if your politics need to change.”

Winters then dismissed those “very well funded and very well organized” conservatives as really “a minuscule part of the population and they have to do some soul searching, now.” He gloated, “I think they thought this archconservative was going to come in and role everything back. And clearly, the cardinals of the worldwide church said, no, we’re moving ahead.”

So, despite President Trump jokingly sharing online an AI image of himself as the new pope, it appears that conservative Catholics aren’t getting the anti-Francis they longed for. Until that day comes, it may be up to the rank-and-file faithful themselves to be “the ones we have been waiting for” and to press for “hope and change” – from the bottom up.

As Sheryl Collmer put it in Crisis, “Now we have work ahead of us. We have to rebuild the walls of the Holy City, consecrate what has been desacralized, and bring back the hope that comes with Truth—and only with Truth.” Whether Pope Leo XIV will lead that movement, or clash with it, remains to be seen.

Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior