After Cardinal Robert Prevost became the first American ever to be elected Pope on Tuesday and took the name Leo XIV, MSNBC’s Katy Tur picked and chose what aspects of his beliefs to amplify and which ones to downplay or ignore. Naturally, for MSNBC, she highlighted his “rebuking” of conservatives and Republicans, but not of liberals and Democrats.
Tur asked former Time managing editor and Obama Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel, “Do you foresee this having some legs in the American political landscape?”
Stengel was hopeful that it would, “Yeah. You summarized it well. I mean, it may indeed be a rebuke of some of those conservative ideas. I don't know that the cardinals are thinking about American politics as much as we are, but he's a different kind of American.”
He contrasted Leo with Trump, “He's a different kind of American. He represents values that are different than the values on the world stage of the MAGA Trump administration. Concern for the poor, concern for immigrants, all of the things that Francis talked about. I think it's a boon to the idea that Americans don't have to be this kind of autocratic model that we're seeing with the Trump Administration.”
Leo also claimed that Kamala Harris’s support for abortion meant the 2024 election was about the need to “choose the lesser evil.” He has also claimed that protecting society’s most vulnerable means “ensuring their dignity is upheld from the womb to the end of life” and “Bishops are called to be shepherds who defend the sanctity of life, ensuring no one — neither the unborn nor the aging — is left without the Church’s love and protection.”
Tur, however, wanted to stay with immigration, “He’s lived an integrated life. I mean, he's lived in many other places. He speaks multiple languages. He's an American who has not isolated himself in American—in America. He's not a nationalist. In fact, when he was rebuking JD Vance, he was rebuking the idea that Vance put forward, which is that in the Christian faith, you love yourself first, your family next, your community after that, and then everybody else. And the rebuke from Pope Leo XIV before he became pope was no, Jesus did not say that. There is an order to your love. This is a man who has been global as America in this moment is becoming much more insular.”
A few minutes later, Tur raised the subject of sexuality with the former head of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the U.S., Father Timothy Kesicki, “Yeah, I'm curious about, you know, Pope Francis was open to gay marriage, and there are a lot of gay and lesbian Catholics who felt like this was a real step in the right direction for them, renewed their faith in the Church, felt like they were a part of it, and there was worry, a lot of consternation about who might be chosen next and whether it would be somebody much more conservative who would take that away from them.”
Fact-check: Francis was not open to gay marriage. Nevertheless, Tur rolled on, “Where do you see Pope Leo XIV falling on this? I know he chose the name, it’s social justice, but do you expect that he's going to follow in the footsteps of Francis when it comes to LGBTQ issues?”
Kesicki tried to be delicate, “Well, we have not seen anything formally written by formerly Cardinal Prevost about this issue… So, I think what you're going to see is someone who is a deep listener, who is going to step into this new role, listening to the many pastoral concerns of the church. And he's going to kind of hold in balance the fundamental teachings of the Church with the pastoral needs of those in front of him.”
We may not have any formal writings, but we know that he believes that a “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children” are “at odds with the Gospel.”
It is also a matter of public record that Leo is opposed to “the promotion of gender ideology” because it “is confusing” and “seeks to create genders that don’t exist.”
Over the next several days, as Leo’s papacy is still a new story, expect the media to focus on his historical comments about Vance and how Leo is “a different kind of American.” However, that does not mean that they will hype the fact that he is also different from their liberal culture warrior selves.
Here is a transcript for the May 8 show:
MSNBC Katy Tur Reports
5/8/2025
3:32 PM ET
KATY TUR: Do you foresee this having some legs in the American political landscape?
RICHARD STENGEL: Yeah. You summarized it well. I mean, it may indeed be a rebuke of some of those conservative ideas. I don't know that the cardinals are thinking about American politics as much as we are, but he's a different kind of American.
TUR: I'm thinking of. I mean, he's thinking about American policy, if not politics.
STENGELL: Yeah. No, I think he's been, you know, righteous about that. You know, it reminds me that Joe Nye died this week. Joe Nye was the great Harvard political philosopher who came up with the idea of soft power. Soft power as opposed to hard military power, the power of culture, the power of influence. This has an enormous soft power index for America in a positive way, as Governor Kasich said.
He's a different kind of American. He represents values that are different than the values on the world stage of the MAGA Trump administration. Concern for the poor, concern for immigrants, all of the things that Francis talked about. I think it's a boon to the idea that Americans don't have to be this kind of autocratic model that we're seeing with the Trump Administration.
TUR: He’s lived an integrated life. I mean, he's lived in many other places. He speaks multiple languages. He's an American who has not isolated himself in American—in America. He's not a nationalist. In fact, when he was rebuking JD Vance, he was rebuking the idea that Vance put forward, which is that in the Christian faith, you love yourself first, your family next, your community after that, and then everybody else. And the rebuke from Pope Leo XIV before he became pope was no, Jesus did not say that. There is an order to your love.
STENGELL: Yeah.
TUR: This is a man who has been global as America in this moment is becoming much more insular.
…
TUR: Yeah, I'm curious about, you know, Pope Francis was open to gay marriage, and there are a lot of gay and lesbian Catholics who felt like this was a real step in the right direction for them, renewed their faith in the Church, felt like they were a part of it, and there was worry, a lot of consternation about who might be chosen next and whether it would be somebody much more conservative who would take that away from them.
Where do you see Pope Leo XIV falling on this? I know he chose the name, it’s social justice, but do you expect that he's going to follow in the footsteps of Francis when it comes to LGBTQ issues?
TIMOTHY KESICKI: Well, we have not seen anything formally written by formerly Cardinal Prevost about this issue. But first of all, I think we know that he understands the issue from his experience in the United States, as well as his decades in South America. He would have paid attention to every step Pope Francis took to love every member of the church. So, I think what you're going to see is someone who is a deep listener, who is going to step into this new role, listening to the many pastoral concerns of the church. And he's going to kind of hold in balance the fundamental teachings of the Church with the pastoral needs of those in front of him.
