Why Hasn’t There Been an American Pope?
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The election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the first American pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church surprised many Vatican watchers, who had wondered if a U.S. passport would forever be disqualifying for the papacy. The answer as to why there hadn’t been an American pontiff before Leo XIV’s 2025 election is as much about math as it is geopolitics.
The math problem
Let’s start with the math. The Catholic Church has been around for about 2,000 years; the United States for 250. Beyond that, the U.S. didn’t even have a cardinal until 1875, when John McCloskey was elevated to that position by Pope Pius IX. Long-standing tradition (but not church rule) holds that only cardinals are in line to become pope. That means, of the 266 papal elections of varying types (there have been 267 popes, but St. Peter got the job because he received the only vote that mattered), just 12 have occurred when an American could reasonably be considered. And for a long time Italians had a bit of a monopoly on the job, with more than 200 popes hailing from Italy. Think about it this way: The first Polish cardinal was Zbigniew Oleśnicki, who was chosen by Pope Eugenius IV in 1439. In 1978 Karol Wojtyła became John Paul II, the first Polish pope, 539 years later. So the selection of an American pope after a mere 150 years of eligibility could be seen as seismic.
There’s more math to consider here: In the 2025 conclave there were 135 cardinals eligible to vote. Of those, only 10 were Americans. Compare that with 53 from Europe (17 from Italy alone), and you can see that American cardinals made up less than 7.5 percent of the pool of candidates.
The politics of an American pope
Not to get hung up on math again, but remember that in the history of the United States there have only been two Catholic presidents. (John F. Kennedy and Joe Biden, but you knew that.) Part of the argument against Catholic presidents has been concern that they would be bound by the teachings of the Vatican. The inverse of that is the political reason why some thought there would never be an American pope. That is, given the United States’ role as a global superpower, why give them the moral power associated with the papacy? Add to that concerns about the United States being a place that is inherently secular, embraces capitalism, and holds sprawling positions on the nature of families, and an American pontiff continued to seem like a long shot. (Although in 2013 two American cardinals—Timothy Dolan of New York and Seán Patrick O’Malley of Boston—did appear on some papal short lists.)
The election of Pope Francis in 2013 was historic; he was the first pontiff from South America. In the wake of his death, there was much speculation that the most diverse conclave in history would produce a pontiff from a part of the world—perhaps Africa or Asia—that had never had a pope before.
It turns out that’s just what the college of cardinals did.
