The Catholic Church has a new pope, and for the first time, he is an American.

Pope Leo XIV was elected on Thursday, succeeding Pope Francis, who died in April. Leo, a 69-year-old native of Chicago, has held several roles in the Church, including serving as a bishop in Peru and leading the Order of St. Augustine. Most recently, he was the head of a board tasked with choosing new bishops. And according to his brother, Leo is a longtime White Sox fan.

While these biographical details are important and offer some insight into the man behind the title, they cannot tell us much about the biggest questions raised by Leo’s ascension: Where will he lead his Church? Will he usher in reforms? And how will he approach the many challenges facing the institution?

To answer those questions, and others, I turned to Michele Dillon, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Hampshire, and a scholar on the Catholic Church.

Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below.

What do people need to know about the new pope?

What’s very impressive is the range of experiences that Pope Leo XIV brings to the role.

He has been a missionary on the ground in Peru for 20 years, and so knows firsthand the needs of the local churches in poor peripheral areas that are a key concern and of great importance to the Church.

It’s also very important that he has, most recently, been head of the Dicastery — the department at the Vatican in charge of bishops — so, he really has been very strongly involved in vetting and making new appointments of bishops, as well as recommending bishop appointments across the whole world. The network of bishops [he developed] will be important, not just formally, but also informally. Presumably, he can literally get on the phone and ask a particular bishop in a particular diocese [for advice or information].

And it’s important to know that he’s an Augustinian, and was the head of the Augustinian order, so he brings that Augustinian tradition, which is a very significant part of the church — theologically, and in terms of the world today.

Of course, the very fact that he’s American is obviously a big surprise, but there’s always the uncertainty that every cardinal who goes in there, any one of them, can emerge as the pope. We’re always surprised who the next pope is.

In part, what tipped the balance in favor of his papacy is not only is he an American, but he is so deeply rooted in South America. I imagine that the South American and Central American cardinals would have........

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