Born in the U.S., forged in Peru, chosen in Rome, Leo XIV will helm a church facing debt, division and decline

ROME — The new Chicago-raised Pope Leo XIV faces an immediate challenge in his native country: taming the brawling U.S. tribe of Catholics, riven by political divisions that have thwarted the will of his predecessors.

Less than a week after Pope Leo XIV took the helm as head of the Catholic Church, he is already making the first social media posts of his papacy and promising to maintain an active digital presence.

It seems that Cardinal Robert Prevost, the first American to lead the Catholic Church, has previously condemned President Donald Trump’s border policies

The new pope said he would be guided by a key document that his predecessor wrote listing the church’s priorities, including a “loving care for the least and the rejected.”

The U.S. is one of only a handful of countries that taxes citizens living abroad. Thus, thanks to his American passport, the 69-year-old Chicago-born pope, known until last week as Robert Prevost, will likely need to file a tax return to the U.S. government just like any other citizen, experts told Fortune.

The 73-year-old Florida man appears to be a staunch Trump supporter who uses his Facebook account to go on the attack.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Monday called for the release of imprisoned journalists and affirmed the “precious gift of free speech and the press” in an audience with some of the 6,000 journalists who descended on Rome to cover his election as the first American pontiff.