TAMPA, Fla. — Pope Leo XIV, know as Robert Francis Prevost was selected Thursday as the new Pope of the Catholic Church.
He is the first American to lead the church.
Since we have a new Pope ABC Action News wanted to know how similar or different he would be to Pope Francis.
We spoke with Steve Okey, an associate professor of Theology and Religion at Saint Leo University about three distinct similarities that both Pope Francis and Pope Leo share.
Watch Wendy Ryan talk to Steve Okey
"He's been a strong supporter and advocate of the Synod on synodality, which has been this project over the last few years under Francis to help the Catholic Church be more of a listening church and more of a discerning church than maybe previously it had been. The second one is, he's expressed strong concern about environmental and ecological questions, in line with Pope Francis and his encyclical Laudato Si. And third, he's expressed a lot of concern for the poor, the marginalized. You know, people who are suffering,” said Steve Okey.
Okey also said Pope Francis generally seemed less judgmental about LGBTQ Catholics and was in favor of women being in roles of leadership within the church.
We don’t know how Pope Leo feels about those issues, but we will undoubtedly find out in time.
“It's a little nerve-wracking.”
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