MANILA, PHILIPPINES – When Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected as the 267th Pope on May 8, 2025 — taking the name Leo XIV — many wondered whether his papacy would chart a course closer to Pope Francis’ vision of an inclusive, justice-focused Church, or whether it would reaffirm centuries-old conservative stances.
As the first American pontiff and a long-time diplomat in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, Pope Leo XIV brings both a global perspective and a track record that has raised hopes and concerns alike among women’s groups, LGBTQIA+ advocates, Muslim communities, and indigenous peoples.
From diplomat to pontiff
Born in the American Midwest in 1956, Robert Prevost rose through the Church’s diplomatic ranks, serving in Peru, Cuba, and later heading the Vatican’s relations with the United States. His 430-plus posts on social media reveal a pontiff-to-be who prizes a “culture of care,” equitable stewardship of the environment, and solidarity with “those on the margins.” Yet within the Church’s institutional constraints, his record on reproductive rights, gender teachings, and same-sex blessings has proved more conservative than Pope Francis’s famously open-armed approach.
Women’s rights: progress and pushback
Throughout his career, Cardinal Prevost has occasionally highlighted the critical role of women in Church life — urging dioceses to expand female leadership in lay roles, parish councils, and Catholic charities. However, he has consistently upheld the Church’s stance against the ordination of women as priests or deacons, aligning with previous papal teachings that limit sacramental ministry to men.
In 2018, he acknowledged Pope Francis’s move to study the possibility of women deacons, but offered no public support for changing the Church’s doctrinal position. For many Catholic feminists, this position signals a continued institutional resistance to full gender equity within the Church’s hierarchy.
Prevost’s frequent anti-abortion posts — most notably his 2023 plea to “Rescind the HHS Dept. Mandate Requiring Catholic Employers to Provide Contraceptives/Abortifacients” — further reflect his conservative theological leanings. In the Philippines, where reproductive health remains a frontline issue, this could pose challenges for policy reforms seeking expanded access to services.
“Being pro-life doesn’t mean denying women choice. The Church must evolve, because the world has. I hope Pope Leo XIV listens and leans into justice and compassion,” Angel Romero, a prominent figure from reputable women’s rights organizations in the Philippines said.
As Filipino women continue to push for legislative and healthcare reforms — including stronger implementation of the Reproductive Health Law — the direction Pope Leo XIV takes could either fortify their struggle or further entrench resistance from Church-aligned sectors.
LGBTQIA+ community: a balancing act
Pope Francis’s refrains of “Who am I to judge?” and his historic approval of blessings for same-sex couples redefined the conversation — but Leo XIV’s track record is murkier. In a 2012 address to Peruvian bishops, then-Bishop Prevost lamented that Western media “foster sympathy for beliefs and practices… at odds with the gospel,” specifically naming “the homosexual lifestyle” and “alternative families.” Yet more recently, he voiced support for Francis’s blessing ritual, while emphasizing that local bishops must interpret such directives “in accordance with… cultures.”
“We recognize that Pope Leo XIV has held conservative views on LGBTQIA+ and women’s issues, which raised concerns. But his active support for grassroots, marginalized communities gives me hope. Leadership rooted in compassion can evolve. We remain watchful, yet open to a Church that truly embraces all,” Mujer LGBT+ Organization President Toni Gee Fernandez said.
Muslim and indigenous relations
With over 6 million Filipino Muslims — mainly in Mindanao — religious harmony is a priority for Manila’s bishops. As nuncio in predominantly Muslim regions, Prevost convened interfaith dialogues and backed Vatican-funded education programs that brought Muslim and Christian youth together in peace building workshops. Indigenous communities, too, felt his outreach: in Peru he co-sponsored a pastoral initiative recognizing ancestral wisdom and land rights, aligning with Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ on caring for our common home.
Standing up — and standing back
Prevost’s diplomatic flair sometimes meant confronting political heavyweights. He publicly challenged U.S. Senator JD Vance’s anti-immigrant rhetoric in 2022, decrying exclusionary policies as “undignified to human persons.” Yet on gender-ideology debates in Latin American classrooms, he sided with conservative bishops in opposing the introduction of gender studies, warning against “confusing… genders that don’t exist.”
This centrist-conservative blend suggests a pope keen to preserve doctrine while engaging modern challenges — yet always mindful of local contexts. For many Filipino Catholics, this means Pope Leo XIV could both champion interfaith cooperation in Mindanao and resist reproductive-health bills in Congress.
What lies ahead for Filipino Catholics?
The Philippines, where 80 percent of the population identifies as Catholic, looks to Rome for moral leadership. Under Leo XIV, parishes may see intensified catechesis on life issues — and stricter limits on services viewed as “contrary to Church teaching.” At the same time, the papal endorsement of environmental stewardship and interfaith dialogue could reinvigorate Catholic social-action networks that aid typhoon survivors, indigenous land-rights movements, and peace efforts in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.
For women’s rights activists, the question is whether Pope Leo XIV will follow through on commissions to elevate female voices, or revert to the Church’s traditional guardrails. For LGBTQIA+ Catholics, the nascent blessing rites may offer pastoral solace, but true inclusion—ordination, marriage equality, anti-discrimination measures — remains uncertain.
A papacy of possibility–or peril?
Pope Leo XIV inherits a Church at a crossroads: beset by secularizing trends, entangled in political strife, yet still a beacon for billions. His diplomatic instincts and concern for the marginalized hold promise for deepening dialogues with Muslim and indigenous communities in the Philippines. Yet his conservative leanings on abortion, gender, and same-sex families may temper the progressive momentum ushered in by Francis.
Ultimately, the equality movement in the Philippines — and beyond — will watch closely. Will Pope Leo XIV steer the Church toward greater justice and inclusion, or will he reinforce boundaries that exclude? The answer will emerge in synods, encyclicals, and local bishops’ pastoral decisions. For now, Filipino Catholics can only hope that the new pontiff heeds Francis’s call to “walk at the peripheries,” bringing God’s love — and real human equality — to every corner of the world.
