On Oct. 3, the Will County, Illinois, election office recorded a request for a vote-by-mail ballot for Robert Francis Prevost, a registered voter in New Lenox.
On Oct. 30, the Holy See Press Office confirmed that Leo XIV had submitted his ballot for the Nov. 3 midterm elections, as he had always done “whenever he had the opportunity,” even during his years in Peru.
The statement, released in English, explained the gesture in light of the Pope’s conviction that “the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes” is fundamental.
The writings from the years when Prevost led the Order of St. Augustine contain a thread that runs directly to New Lenox.
In those pages, American elections come up exactly once.
On Oct. 21, 2002, the Prior General blessed the new chapel of the cloistered Augustinian nuns’ monastery in the town.
His homily opens with a survey of the morning papers: “terrorism, the rhetoric of a war with Iraq that may be imminent, economic hardship, the sniper terrorizing the Washington area, and, finally, the state and national elections.”
The midterms of Nov. 5, 2002, were two weeks away. Prevost offers no commentary, let alone guidance on how to vote.
He sets the elections in a world “increasingly preoccupied with economic return, political power, and the climb to success, in which the blessing of a chapel for a few nuns may seem utterly senseless.”
Then he adds, “And yet I would answer that it is precisely in such a context that our presence here this morning makes more sense than ever.” The nuns, he says, are “true beacons of light in our restless world.” Prayer finds its meaning inside the news that fills the papers, elections included.
On Jan. 8, 2022, in a homily delivered in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, he described societies “marked by corrupt and oppressive political structures and authoritarian models that prevent dialogue and participation.”
Participation is the key word in his idea of citizenship, and elections are one form of participation.
Illinois records show that Prevost voted in the Republican primaries in 2012, 2014, and 2016, and in the Democratic primaries in 2008 and 2010.
Illinois voters may choose which party’s primary to vote in without formally registering with that party, so the records offer no way to reconstruct his political preferences.
Pope Leo voted in the general elections of 2012, 2014, 2018, and 2024. The Holy See has now made the gesture public, presenting it as an act of fidelity to a duty that his election to the papacy did not suspend.
Twenty-four years ago, in New Lenox, the Prior General placed the elections on his list of the world’s anxieties and, beside them, the prayer of a small community.
Now, from the same town, his ballot goes into that world’s tally.
With thanks to Antonio Spadaro SJ and Global Catholic, where this article originally appeared.
