The newly elected pope Leo XIV, Robert Prevost, is addressed to the crowd of the main balcony overlooking Saint-Pierre square in the city of the Vatican on May 8, 2025. (Media Vatican via Vatican Pool / Getty Images)
With the announcement that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was chosen as a new Pope and head of the Catholic Church, the Ukrainians wonder what will be the surprise appointment of the Pontiff of American origin for their country.
The comments made by the new Pope, who took the name of Pope Leo XIV, quickly surfaced to form an idea of his opinions on immigration, homosexual rights, climate change and the current American administration. But without a similar public file of declarations on the invasion of Russia, the Ukrainians must examine its public comments and hope that the position of the world leader towards the current war will benefit their country.
“I am not aware of any declaration or actions that the current Pope made concerning the war in Ukraine,” said Father Ihor Yatsiv, spokesperson for the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, who is the responsibility of the Vatican leaders.
“We can therefore only operate that he is through his experience, his experience of human life, his service, where he was, where he comes from and, therefore, also after whom he comes.”
A potential sign of the Pope’s future policies is in the selection of his new name, one of the first decisions that a new pope takes. While Pope Leo XIV has not yet explained why he selected Leo, the new name of a pontiff often refers to the previous pontiffs of which they wish to follow in the footsteps.
“We identify Pope Leo XIV as a pope of hope for Ukraine.”
Pope Leo XIII, the most recent pope to use this name, is widely known for his defense of social policies and social justice.
He was “a pope who paid attention to vulnerable social, a pope who was standing on the side of the oppressed, a pope who defended justice and, therefore, spoke out against the powerful of this world,” noted Yatsiv.
“We identify Pope Leo XIV as a pope of hope for Ukraine,” added Yatsiv.
Many observers have noted that the selection of an American Pope – considered for a long time – is probably, in part, a response to current policies promulgated by US President Donald Trump and an increase in isolationism of his administration.
“Trumpism has broken many international taboos in recent months,” said Massimo Faggioli, professor of historical theology at the University of Villanova. “The conclave responded in kind by breaking another taboo: that it was not possible for a Catholic from the United States, a superpower, to become a pope, in order to avoid overlapping between the political and the direction of the church symbolically, at least, the heir to the Roman Empire.”
By selecting Pope Leo, the cardinals who voted may have aimed to counter Trump’s policies with a different message about what the exceptionalism and the greatness of the United States can resemble, Faggioli said.
“It remains to be seen what it means for a pope of the United States, in the world of the crisis of liberal and constitutional democracies today, to speak as chief of the Catholic Church and the Saint-Sert of Russia and Ukraine, in Israel and to the Arab world, in China and both Koreas,” said Faggioli.
Before his election as head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo had stimulated criticism aimed at the anti-immigration policies of Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, on X.
In February, he republished an article entitled “JD Vance is bad: Jesus does not ask us to classify our love for others.”
Pope Leo succeeds Pope Francis, who left a mixed inheritance on the war in Ukraine. His repeated calls for peace have often left the Ukrainians frustrated by his inability to call Russia as an aggressor or to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Although this reflects the Vatican’s commitment to neutrality, allowing him to play a humanitarian role and negotiate the exchanges of prisoners, he was also criticized as being influenced by the historical ties between Moscow and the Vatican.
After having announced that Cardinal Robert Prevost would replace him as a new church chief, President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Pope Leo on social networks, affirming: “Ukraine deeply values the coherent position of the Holy See in the maintenance of international law, condemning the military aggression of the Russian federation against Ukraine and innocent civilians. “
Pope Francis leaves a mixed heritage in Ukraine in wartime, overshadowed by historical ties of the Vatican-Moscow
Pope Francis, who died on April 21 at 88, leaves such a large and varied heritage as his global influence. However, in Ukraine, its history is far from positive. For many Ukrainians, the Pope’s heritage is shaped by his repeated mini-game of the gravity of Ukraine’s struggle for his survival in the war of aggression of Russia. His sweep calls peace in the past three years – of the call of the “brothers” of the Ukrainians and the Russians to urge Ukraine to “have the courage of the white flag” in
