There will now be 2 Americans wielding vast power on the world stage—one politically and the other spiritually, says CNN

When the newly elected pontiff walked onto the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, he shocked the world. For as long as anyone can remember, it’s been accepted that a conclave of cardinals would never choose an American, CNN writes.

As noted, the United States was often deemed too powerful — militarily, diplomatically, and even culturally — for one of its own to control one of the world’s most influential seats of moral authority: the Roman Catholic Church and its flock, which is currently more than three times the size of the US population.

Yet, on Thursday, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, whom his friends know as Bob, pulled off a feat many US believers thought they’d never live to see.

“Yet at this of all times, there is a fascinating question: Why did the cardinals pick an American? Only the electors inside the Sistine Chapel fully understand the dynamics that led to Leo succeeding the late Pope Francis on the conclave’s second day. But it seems an extraordinary coincidence that the first American pope arrived at just the moment when the United States, under its new, second-term President Donald Trump, is turning on many of the foreign approaches, alliances and even domestic values,” the newspaper writes.

Prevost spent decades as a missionary and spent 20 years in Peru, where he is a naturalized citizen and served as a bishop. He speaks multiple languages and made no reference to his US heritage in his first public appearance as pontiff, instead speaking in Italian and Spanish and sending a greeting to his “dear diocese of Chiclayo, in Peru.” It was as if the new pope was sufficiently separate from the country of his birth that there was no way he could be perceived as an instrument or endorsement of its policy or authority.

At a time when the US administration is cutting assistance to the sick, for instance in the evisceration of USAID programs in Africa, the new head of the Roman Catholic Church has made serving the poor his vocation.

“It would be superficial to argue Leo’s election is a rebuke of Trumpism. Yet it’s also impossible to ignore that the Roman Catholic Church mastered the techniques of high politics centuries before the United States won its independence. Whatever the motivations of those who chose Pope Leo, events in the Vatican on Thursday have created a fascinating situation. There will now be two Americans wielding vast power on the world stage — one politically and the other spiritually — and the implicit comparisons and potential disagreements between Trump and Pope Leo will be impossible to ignore,” the newspaper writes.