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The liberal consensus in America for decades has held that religious belief can and ought to be separated from political action. National and political identity have largely been seen as taking precedence over religious affiliation within the public square, to the degree that there is a conflict between the two. Such an attitude is perhaps best crystallized, ironically enough, by America’s first Catholic president: John F. Kennedy. 

But in an address to French political leaders released last week, Pope Leo XIV expressed a profound objection to this mindset. His remarks, the first he has made directly to politicians, set a new precedent for resolving the tension that political, national, and religious affiliations breed in the mind of a lawmaker.

Speaking to Catholic politicians representing the French cities of Créteil and Paris, who arrived in Rome on pilgrimage, the pope bluntly rejected the proposition that political leaders could separate their public mission from their interior convictions. 

“There is no division within the personality of a public figure,” the pope said. “Rather, there is the politician who, under the gaze of God and his conscience, lives out his commitments and his responsibilities in a Christian manner.”

Christianity, the pope continued, is fundamentally impossible to reduce to private devotion, “for it entails a way of life in society” which is both objective and imbued with the love of Christ. 

The pope also took aim at the French idea of laïcité, a core principle of France’s current secular government, intended to effectuate a formal separation of church and state. In words poignant to the American ear, the pope empathized with the plight of Catholic politicians serving under such a paradigm. Virtuous political motivations are “all the more meritorious since it is not easy in France, for an elected official, because of laïcité … to act and to decide in coherence with faith in the exercise of public responsibilities.”

The pope’s remarks come amid a striking re-emergence of Catholic faith and right-wing populism in France. This Easter, the French Bishops Conference reported a 45% increase in conversions since the same date in 2024. This, for France, is the highest number recorded since these numbers were first tracked over two decades ago, and young adults now constitute the largest segment of converts by far. Simultaneously, the populist right-wing Rassemblement National (National Rally) party in France is now leading presidential polls after, for the first time in polling history, becoming the most-favored party among French Catholics, a liberal voting bloc in previous generations.

The French context for Pope Leo XIV’s address mirrors the American paradigm in several ways, especially in the hybrid demographic shift toward Catholicism and right-wing, populist, anti-immigration political movements. The progress of these deeply entwined movements depends largely on young citizens disaffected with the liberal consensus both in France and America. The outcome: an emerging Catholic-motivated right-wing political basis of affiliation.

Much attention has been focused on JD Vance and his impending status as America’s next right-wing presidential candidate. Without a doubt, Vance could be a watershed figure. Not only would he be the first real Catholic to hold such an office, he would be the most reactionary right-wing figure to do so. Yet Vance is a nuanced figure. While publicly citing and defending key moral and philosophical truths of the faith (such as the idea of an “ordo amoris”), Vance has also drawn ire from traditionalist figures for declining to kiss the Pope’s ring — a traditional sign of fidelity and respect — in his meetings with Leo XIV. 

The statements of Leo XIV can be seen, to a degree, as a direct refutation of Kennedy, who famously stated during his campaign that “I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic.” It isn’t inconceivable at all that Leo, born and raised in Chicago, had Kennedy’s statements top of mind when he delivered his remarks implicitly condemning JFK’s stance. 

To Vance’s credit, he, too, has rejected such a view. In an interview with Ross Douthat of the  New York Times earlier this year, Vance criticized those who treat religion and policy as two totally separate matters, proposing instead an approach that makes “a prudential judgment informed very much by the Church’s teachings as reflected by these leaders.”

Like Vance, Leo has reaffirmed fidelity to perennial principles as the primary duty of a Catholic politician, calling on Catholic leaders to “deepen your knowledge of doctrine — particularly of social doctrine — which Jesus taught to the world, and to put it into practice in the exercise of your responsibilities and in the drafting of laws.” 

The foundations of Catholic doctrine, the pope continued, “are fundamentally in harmony with human nature, with the natural law that all can recognize, even non-Christians, even non-believers. [Politicians] must not therefore fear to propose it and to defend it with conviction: It is a doctrine of salvation.” 

Unlike Vance, however, Leo has gone a step further in enjoining steadfastness to Christ and His gospel upon lawmakers. “I [am not] unaware of the pressures, the party directives, the ‘ideological colonization’… to which politicians are subjected,” the pontiff said. Nevertheless, he continued, “They need courage: the courage at times to say, ‘No, I cannot!’ when the truth is at stake. … Only union with Jesus — Jesus crucified — will give you the courage to suffer for His name.” 

An emerging order under an American Catholic president and an American Catholic pope may still be years in the making. It is not inevitable. But today, with Pope Leo’s address to French politicians, we might just have an initial glimpse into what such a future would entail. 

Frederick Woodward is a junior studying political economy.