Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote by mail in the U.S. congressional elections, according to the Vatican press office, which confirmed a report by the Chicago Sun-Times. The pope is registered as a voter under his civil name, Robert Francis Prevost, in New Lenox, Illinois.
The Vatican presented the decision not only as a personal act but also as an appeal to American citizens. It said Leo considers participation in democratic processes both a right and a civic duty, and that he has voted whenever he was eligible to do so. The pope also reportedly voted while living in Peru, where he holds dual citizenship.
The move appears to make Leo XIV the first pope publicly known to have voted in an election in his home country during his pontificate. The Catholic Church’s catechism describes participation in political elections as a moral duty for ordinary Catholics, linked to obedience to legitimate authority and responsibility for the common good. Whether the same principle should apply to a pope has long been debated.
Benedict XVI took a different position. After becoming pope in 2005, he did not vote in Germany’s federal election, despite still being registered in Pentling, Bavaria. Through his brother, Georg Ratzinger, he said that as sovereign of Vatican City he did not consider it appropriate to interfere in the affairs of another state. His private secretary reaffirmed that position before the 2009 German election.
The argument reflected a view held in Vatican and church circles that a pope’s participation in a political election could conflict with the neutrality or restraint expected of the office. There would have been no legal obstacle under either German law or canon law, however. Benedict’s reasoning focused instead on his position as head of state, even though the popes primarily present themselves as leaders of the Catholic Church and the Holy See, rather than Vatican City, conducts diplomatic relations.
Francis is reported by his Argentine biographer, Evangelina Himitian, to have last voted in a parliamentary election in Argentina in 1960. She suggested that he may have stopped voting because he felt somewhat like a father to everyone. There are no indications that John Paul II or his Italian predecessors Paul VI, John XXIII and Pius XII voted in elections in their home countries while serving as pope.
Leo’s vote has also prompted speculation about which party he supported. Some reports have assumed that he voted for the Democrats, partly because of his tense relationship with Donald Trump, although the president himself is not on the ballot in the midterm elections. The available records show that Leo took part in Democratic primaries in 2008 and 2010 and Republican primaries in 2012, 2014 and 2016. Illinois does not require voters to be party members to participate in a primary, limiting what those choices reveal about his political preferences.
His individual vote is unlikely to affect the result in Illinois, a state that has traditionally been a stronghold for the Democrats. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops welcomed the pope’s example, saying it encouraged citizens to meet their civic responsibilities. The broader reaction within the deeply polarized American Catholic community remains difficult to assess.
Sources: FAZ.