New pope faces pressure to continue climate and Indigenous advocacy from Francis’ legacy

Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, steps into a role shaped by Pope Francis’ outspoken defense of climate action and Indigenous rights, raising questions about whether he will maintain that trajectory.

Anita Hofschneider and Ayurella Horn-Muller report for Grist.

In short:

• Pope Francis reshaped the Catholic Church’s position on climate change, tying environmental degradation to social and moral failure, especially in his 2015 encyclical Laudato si’, which emphasized the protection of the poor and the planet.
• He acknowledged the Church’s role in colonization, endorsed Indigenous languages in worship, rejected the Doctrine of Discovery, and promoted Indigenous rights as integral to climate justice.
• Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, has a background in Latin America and has voiced support for environmental protection, but has not yet shown a strong climate record, leaving observers watching closely for signs of continuity or divergence.

Key quote:

“Ignoring the original communities in the safeguarding of the Earth is a serious mistake, not to say a great injustice.”

— Pope Francis

Why this matters:

The Catholic Church, with its 1.4 billion members, holds extraordinary moral and institutional influence across continents, especially in the Global South where environmental degradation often collides with systemic poverty and historical colonization. Pope Francis made the unprecedented move to frame climate change not as a distant ecological problem but as a human and spiritual crisis, linking fossil fuel-driven destruction with injustice toward the world’s poorest and Indigenous peoples. His efforts inspired global movements for faith-based climate justice, even as they stirred resistance from conservative factions within the church, particularly in the U.S. Now, with Pope Leo XIV stepping in amid the Trump administration’s rollback of climate and Indigenous protections, many are watching to see if he will push past polite rhetoric into action.

Related: Pope Francis, who used faith and science to call out the climate crisis, dies at 88