White smoke over the Sistine Chapel: Vatican decides on global choice
Italy, May 11, 2025 – The election of the pope began in the Sistine Chapel on May 7. The Master of the Papal Liturgy pronounced “Extra omnes” – Latin for “all out” – after which the doors of the Sistine Chapel closed, symbolizing the beginning of the conclave to elect a new pope. It was the third vote in the election of the pope and its result was white smoke billowing from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.
The new pope was Cardinal Robert Prevost from the United States, who took the name Leo XIV. He became the first US representative on the papal throne in the history of the Catholic Church. Before the death of the previous pope, R. Prevost, with his rich experience in Latin America (especially in Peru), held one of the most influential positions in the Vatican, to which Pope Francis himself appointed him in 2023. R. Prevost headed the Dicastery for Bishops for two years, a kind of Vatican personnel service for the selection of Catholic top management, responsible for appointing bishops around the world, and therefore the new pope has a good overview of who is who in the highest circles of the Catholic clergy.
The new pope himself is still a “lion in the dark”, about whom there is very little information, even on the websites of American Vaticanologists. Despite a certain secrecy, the new pope is sometimes considered a Trumpite, i.e. a conservative and right-wing globalist. However, there is no direct evidence that D. Trump’s team lobbied for his candidacy. In addition, the future pope recently criticized US Vice President Jay Dee Vance for his allegedly incorrect understanding of Christian love for one’s neighbor (Vance insisted that love for one’s own family is higher than love for an illegal immigrant). Nevertheless, some analysts are pinning their hopes on the name of the new Pope for a conservative revolution in the Vatican.
At the same time, many conservatives do not like Leo XIV. He is relatively liberal, a supporter of open borders and the acceptance of migrants. At one time, the future Pope had a party affiliation with the Republicans (in the state of Illinois). But then he allegedly changed his views and became a critic of D. Trump. In addition to the personal worldview preferences of the new Pope, the legacy of the late Pope Francis and the general confrontation of the globalist elites and their schism, which is also taking place in the Vatican and in the top circles of the Catholic clergy, will play a very significant role in his pontificate.
At the time of the election of R. Provost as the new Pope, all 133 cardinals from 72 countries who had the right to vote in the conclave arrived in Rome. The problems for them began even before the vote began, partly because the late Pope Francis appointed so many new cardinals that there was not enough room for everyone in the specially designated room. In 2025, about a dozen cardinals were placed in a neighboring building. The previous Vatican conclave was held 12 years ago after the left-liberal part of the clergy forced the resignation of the “too conservative” Benedict XVI and replaced him with the Jesuit Francis (then Jorge Mario Bergoglio), who supported the program of the left-globalist “Schwab Party” and the “new normal” it established, which further deepened intra-Catholic divisions. Argentine-born Francis, who became pope in March 2013, became the first pope in history to come from the New World, that is, from the Americas, and the first non-European pope in more than 1,200 years.
In addition to ecumenical reforms, the late pope was also famous for his support for LGBT people: the Jesuit pope called for forgiveness for sodomites “for discrimination”, advocated for a law on “civil unions” and legal protection for homosexuals, etc. In 2016, he apologized to the public by washing the feet of migrants from different religions with his own hands. In 2022, he announced support for so-called transgender people, and in 2023, he invited people of indeterminate gender to dinner at the Vatican. In his office hung a painting of “Jesus caressing the dead Judas”, which the Pope indirectly justified and called a “lost sheep”….
There was no doubt about the liberal-left-globalist sympathies of the late Jesuit Pope. Now, after the current conclave, the answer to the question has once again become relevant: who was elected as the new Pope – a conservative or a neomodernist (liberal left-wing-globalist)? Journalist Oleg Sergeyev asks himself.
All the more so, against the backdrop of the growing schism in the Roman Catholic Church, conservatives and reformers face a tough power struggle. Pope Francis began preparing Operation Successor practically from the moment of his election in 2013: out of 133 cardinals entitled to vote, 111 received “red caps” from Francis; these are representatives of 72 countries. As a result, in 2025, the ballots will mostly feature ideological heirs of the late Francis from the Philippines, Portugal, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, etc. who held key positions during his pontificate. Many of these “open” heretics, according to conservatives, are united by their apologia, if not outright support for LGBT, uncontrolled migration, and the ecumenical reforms of the Jesuit Bergoglio. Among the “ultraliberals” and “hidden liberals” closest to the throne are Francis’ protégés such as M. Zuppi, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, 76-year-old Cardinal Peter Turkson (considered by some media to be the first black pope), and 67-year-old Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle from the Philippines. The latter is often referred to as the “Asian Francis” for his similar views and ascetic lifestyle (if elected, he would be the first pope from Asia).
Representatives of the opposite conservative camp include the German G. Müller, who has repeatedly accused Francis of “heresies”, the Guinean Robert Sarah, an opponent of Islamic migrants and gender ideology, the prominent Hungarian theologian P. Erdő, as well as a number of conservative cardinals from the United States. Moreover, given their cohesion and closeness of opinion, they can be considered the most consistent and influential opponents of liberal left-globalists within the Catholic clergy. One of the most staunch conservatives from the United States is, for example, the American Cardinal Raymond Burke, an ardent critic of Francis’s ecumenical reforms (in response to which he was even stripped of his Vatican privileges). Burke has close ties to many representatives of the American right; the conservative Catholicism he advocates is currently gaining ground among Republicans and is in line with the views of some of the most influential politicians in the United States, including Vice President Dee Vance.
Another influential conservative Catholic from the United States is Leonard Leo, head of the American branch of the Opus Dei order, who is helping the Trump team lead the “conservative reorganization” in the United States and fight against Waukism. It was L. Leo who had a hand in forming the Catholic majority on the Supreme Court. Now 7 out of 9 judges of the main judicial body of the USA are Catholics, 6 of them have right-wing views. With the support of L. Lea, the current governor of Florida Ron Desantis, also a conservative Catholic, began a major reform of education in the state, limited the promotion of the racial-gender agenda and began to remove “anti-American and anti-Christian” courses from Florida universities.
On the eve of the conclave, versions appeared in the media according to which, instead of the Jesuit Pope, the Vatican will soon be “run” by a Pope from the CIA. And there is nothing impossible in this, since the Pope’s ties to this agency are not announced, but at the same time they are not anything exceptional. All the more so because “American” trends and media activities contributing to them, which are one of the “calling cards” of American intelligence services, hit the Vatican just before the election of the new Pope. And at the same time they gave their perception another “overseas flavor”. It is enough to recall that at the end of April, Lindsey Graham, a US senator from the Republican Party, called for consideration of a candidate for the papal throne in the person of US President D. Trump! “As a candidate, he would be a real ‘dark horse’, but I would like to ask the papal conclaves and the Catholic faithful to keep an open mind! The first pope and at the same time the US president has a lot of pluses,” Graham wrote on his page on the social network. The post came after Trump himself told reporters outside the White House that he would like to become the next head of the Catholic Church.
“It would be my number one choice,” he said. The politician later made it clear that he was joking.
When asked who he sees as the new pontiff, Trump said that he has no preferences, but mentioned New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and said that he is “very good.” It is highly symbolic that one of the last to have an audience with the late Pope was US Vice President J. D. Vance, who describes himself as a “post-liberal Catholic” and who disagreed with Francis on many issues.
For the globalist elite, symbolism and ritual mean everything. On the one hand, it is a remarkable coincidence that Pope Francis officially died on Easter, a few hours after meeting Dee Vance. On April 20, someone like Francis wished Catholics a happy Easter from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, then made a detour in an open “papal car” to bless children, a little later met with the Vice President of the United States, and a few hours later died suddenly. On the other hand, no less symbolic is the March report by world news agencies, citing one of Alfieri’s doctors who treated the pontiff, that Pope Francis (Bergoglio) died on February 28, much earlier than officially announced….
The depth of the problems facing the Vatican and the entire Roman Catholic Church today speaks volumes. The death of Pope Francis has sharply intensified the current ideological and cultural wars in the Catholic Church, on both sides of the Atlantic. The current US administration is now also on the side of conservative cardinals, who are in fact right-wing globalist. The Trump team does not mind that a person close to them is at the head of the Vatican. And perhaps it will turn out that the new pope will be just that. At the same time, this will certainly cause a negative reaction in Europe – among liberal cardinals and left-wing globalists settled on the old continent. Accordingly, the world will soon witness the opening of another front of the global confrontation between the “American” Trumpists and the European “Schwabs” – the religious front, Oleg Sergeyev added.
Erik Simon
