VATICAN CITY, Oct 2 — Pope Leo XIV initially impressed conservative Catholics after his election in May, as he embraced traditions shunned by his predecessor Pope Francis and steered clear of hot-button social issues that divided the 1.4 billion-member Church.
But his honeymoon with conservatives appears over after he unexpectedly took aim at United States (US) President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration policies, questioning whether they were in line with the Church's pro-life teachings.
"Someone who says I am against abortion but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States, I do not know if that is pro-life," Leo, the first American pontiff, told the press on Tuesday.
Some critics, who had praised the pope for his early reserve, expressed shock that Leo criticised the current champion of global conservatives.
Former Texas bishop Joseph Strickland, a fierce Francis critic who was relieved from duty by the late pope but has praised Leo, criticised the new pope on social media for causing "much confusion … regarding the sanctity of human life and the moral clarity of the Church's teaching."
"So tired of papal interviews. He should return to his previous silence," opined the Rorate Caeli blog, which had previously criticised Francis and praised Leo.
The Trump administration, which had been sharply critical of Francis but had rarely commented on Leo, also pushed back.
White house press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she rejected the characterisation of inhumane treatment of immigrants.
Pope likely undeterred by criticism
Vatican officials and papal associates said Leo cares especially deeply about the treatment of immigrants and is unlikely to be deterred by criticism.
But it could detract from his mission, expressed during his inaugural papal mass, to work for unity across a global Church that has become more divided and polarised in recent decades.
While the naturally cautious Leo will look to avoid repeated clashes with conservatives that could harden opposition to his agenda, he will not renounce his own set of values.
"Is he going to ruffle the feathers of American conservatives at some points? Yes, they should not be surprised that he does that," said Elise Allen, who wrote a biography of Leo for Penguin Peru and is the only journalist to interview the pope since his election, to Reuters.
Francis' and Leo's senior adviser Cardinal Michael Czerny said the new pontiff was following an instruction given by St. Paul, a 1st-century leader of Christianity: "Preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season."
"(Leo) encourages and challenges each local Church and each Christian, faced with complex and urgent issues, to live the Gospel," he told Reuters.
Leo was a relative unknown on the global stage before his election in May. He spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru, where Allen said he developed a desire to care for immigrants and speak up for social causes.
"He understands the priority of the abortion issue, but he is not going to be somebody who says that is far more important than immigration," she said.
Francis drew the ire of conservative Catholics throughout his 12-year papacy. He spurned much of its pomp, repeatedly clamped down on the traditional Latin Mass, and allowed priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis.
Leo distinct from Francis
Leo earned conservative praise immediately in the hours after his election by wearing a traditional red papal garment called a mozzetta, which Francis never wore, in his first public appearance.
He has since held separate private meetings with US Cardinal Raymond Burke and Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, two prominent critics of Francis who lost their Vatican jobs under the late pope. Burke once famously compared the Church under Francis to "a ship without a rudder".
Leo also allowed Burke to celebrate a Latin Mass in St. Peter's Basilica later this month, something Francis had previously refused.
The new pope also attracted some conservative criticism early in September for giving a high-profile private audience to a prominent US priest who ministers to LGBT Catholics.
Fordham University's Centre on Religion and Culture's director and academic David Gibson, who follows the papacy, said that conservative Catholics had grasped at Leo's attempts to foster unity as if he were endorsing their entire agenda.
"Leo was never going to do that. The two popes are different men, but both are men of tradition and of the centre," he said.
