Pope Leo XIV, formerly known as Robert Prevost, is the first American pontiff.

He was elected on Thursday, less than three weeks after the death of Pope Francis, and his elevation immediately made history. Leo grew up in Chicago, majored in math at Villanova University, and spent decades serving the Catholic Church in Peru.

Significantly, Pope Leo is also the first pontiff to hail from the Augustinian order, which was founded in 1244.

The Augustinians are a mendicant order, which means they rely largely on charitable donations for their needs. They prioritize community and missionary work, with a special emphasis on serving the poor and the weak.

Those beliefs may have influenced Leo’s decision, while he was still a cardinal, to share critiques of the Trump administration online, particularly on issues of immigration — which puts him at odds with another prominent American Catholic: Vice President JD Vance.

In a January interview with Fox News, Vance used his faith as a justification for the Trump administration’s America First agenda. “You love your family and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country, and then after that, you can focus [on] and prioritize the rest of the world,” Vance said.

Shortly after that interview, Leo shared a link to a National Catholic Reporter article titled “JD Vance Is Wrong: Jesus Doesn’t Ask Us to Rank Our Love for Others.”

Today, Explained wanted to get to know this new pope and better understand why the conclave selected him. So we called up Terence Sweeney. He’s an assistant teaching professor in the humanities department and honors program at Villanova University — not only the pope’s alma mater (class of ’77) but also the only Augustinian university in the United........

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