Cardinal Dr. Robert Prevost has officially taken the name Pope Leo XIV, becoming the first American head of the Catholic Church in history. And a tweet Prevost wrote earlier this year about Vice President JD Vance is going viral.
In February, Prevost amplified an op-ed published in the National Catholic Reporter in which author Kat Armas criticized the vice president (who converted to Catholicism in 2019) over his remarks suggesting there was a hierarchy of Christian priorities. Vance told Fox News in late January: "There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that."
Prevost's tweet repeated the headline of the op-ed: "JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others."
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"[The Apostle] Paul reminds them: love starts close. It moves first toward those in front of us, ensuring widows were not abandoned while preserving the church's resources for those truly without support," Armas wrote in the op-ed. "But make no mistake — this isn't about love confined to bloodlines or geographic boundaries. It's about love rooted in responsibility, expanding outward. And it was subversive even then."
Prevost/Leo XIV's tweet lit up social media, with various journalists and commentators like Democratic strategist Matt McDermott celebrating "our new woke pope."
"Well this will be fun," Independent D.C. bureau chief Eric Michael Garcia tweeted.
"Get in loser we're combing through the new pope's old tweets," Business Insider senior politics reporter Bryan Metzger tweeted.
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Dan Cluchey, who was a speechwriter for former President Joe Biden, also celebrated the tweet by observing that the "new pope already upholding the only tradition that matters: s----ing on JD Vance."
"STOP STOP IF I START LIKING THE CHICAGO POPE ANY MORE I'LL FORGET THE REFORMATION," tweeted theologian Dr. Laura Robinson.
Tahra Hoops, who is the director of economic analysis at the Progress Chamber, combed into the op-ed Leo XIV tweeted and opined that he was "abundance-pilled," referring to the political theory that public policy should be oriented around making sure all members of society have a high standard of living.
President Donald Trump has not yet commented on Leo XIV's tweet, but delivered a statement on his Truth Social account writing: "Congratulations to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who was just named Pope. It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope. What excitement, and what a Great Honor for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!"
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