DONALD TRUMP was not in the end chosen to be pope, as he had jokingly suggested. But on May 8th the cardinals of the Roman Catholic church did elect an American, breaking a taboo against the identification of a geopolitical superpower with a spiritual one.

It is unlikely that the American president will be overjoyed by the choice of Cardinal Robert Prevost. The new pontiff sent out a first message of his intent by choosing as his papal name Leo XIV: a homage to the last pope to adopt that name, who reigned from 1878 to 1903. Leo XIII was a progressive by the standards of his times. Known for his efforts to find an accommodation with the modern world, he was the father of the Catholic church’s social doctrine and the author of a seminal encyclical, Rerum Novarum (Of New Things).

DONALD TRUMP was not in the end chosen to be pope, as he had jokingly suggested. But on May 8th the cardinals of the Roman Catholic church did elect an American, breaking a taboo against the identification of a geopolitical superpower with a spiritual one.

It is unlikely that the American president will be overjoyed by the choice of Cardinal Robert Prevost. The new pontiff sent out a first message of his intent by choosing as his papal name Leo XIV: a homage to the last pope to adopt that name, who reigned from 1878 to 1903. Leo XIII was a progressive by the standards of his times. Known for his efforts to find an accommodation with the modern world, he was the father of the Catholic church’s social doctrine and the author of a seminal encyclical, Rerum Novarum (Of New Things).

But the cardinals also voted for unity and compromise. Pope Leo has a reputation for discretion and reserve. He is no radical. The cardinals who chose him eschewed others more clearly associated with the liberal wing of the church and voted instead for someone with a good chance of bridging the chasm that has opened in Catholicism between progressives and traditionalists.

Speaking vigorously and in good Italian from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, the new pope, who is 69, began his first address as pontiff with the words “Peace be with you all.” Repeatedly in the speech that followed, the tanned and bespectacled Leo invoked the concept of peace, coupling it with those of justice, charity and, in one instance, a church “open to all”.

The Chicago-born pontiff is scarcely typical of his fellow Americans. He has spent a large part of his life in Peru as a missionary, serving as a parish priest, teacher and later bishop. He became a Peruvian citizen in 2015 and thus has dual nationality. Leo headed the Augustinian order to which he belongs. And for the past two years, he has been in charge of one of the most important Vatican departments, which oversees the vetting of candidates for bishop.

Among the most pressing questions the cardinal-electors had to answer was whether, at a convulsive moment in international affairs, they wanted a pope ready to use the moral authority of the pontificate in the same way as his predecessor, to challenge the precepts of the new, populist right, notably in respect of migration. In electing Leo, who cited Francis in his first address, they have opted for a fair measure of continuity with the late pope’s approach. And the election of an exceptionally cosmopolitan American smacks of outright defiance of Mr Trump and his aggressive nationalism. On X, a social-media platform, then-Cardinal Prevost rebuked Vice-President J.D. Vance for his views on immigration. He also retweeted a post decrying the president’s attitude towards Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from America to El Salvador.

The American pope shares the environmental concerns of his predecessor and supports the decentralisation of the church that Francis encouraged (within strict limits). “Dominion over nature”—the task that God gave to humanity—should not become “tyrannical”, he told a seminar in Rome last year. It must be a “relationship of reciprocity”.

But Leo is firmly opposed to receiving women into holy orders as deacons, let alone as priests. And he is unlikely to be as welcoming in his approach to gay people as his predecessor was. In a 2012 address to bishops, he regretted the promotion of “sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel”, citing as examples the “homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children”.

The conclave once more validated the saying that “he who enters a pope leaves a cardinal”. Pietro Parolin, Francis’s secretary of state, had been the firm favourite of betters and bookies. The outcome also confounded predictions of a drawn-out election. Pope Leo was chosen on the fourth ballot on the day after the opening of the conclave. He becomes the 265th occupant of the throne of St Peter at a time of crisis and change. But in its two millennia the papacy has seen plenty of both.