Jason Benell lives in Des Moines with his wife and two children. He is a combat veteran, former city council candidate, and president of Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers. A version of this essay first appeared on his Substack newsletter, The Odd Man Out.
As an atheist and critic of religion, I didn’t expect to be writing about the goings on in the Catholic Church regarding the new pope. The media is abuzz with coverage of the man the cardinals elected, Robert Prevost of Chicago. Since he has been critical of notable right-wing politicians and policy on social media, and is the first Pope from North America, some have argued his selection signifies a continuation of the “progressive” legacy of the late Pope Francis.
However, the evidence is simply not stacking up behind this claim.
A few tweets here (from an X account since deleted), a hedging of comments there, and not publicly going after certain groups does not make a religious leader a progressive.
It takes more than that, especially if you’re the head of a sovereign state like the Pope is. Remember, same-sex marriage remains illegal in Vatican City, women can’t hold high ranking office, and the church routinely blocks access to reproductive services anywhere it can. Not to mention the child abuse cases, which have run rampant through the Catholic Church.
Every single Pope, including the newly chosen one, has been complicit in covering up the abuse. Newsweek reported on allegations publicized by a group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP):
In 2022, when Prevost served as bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, three victims reported alleged abuse to civil authorities following no movement in the canonical case they filed with the diocese. The victims claim Prevost failed to open an investigation and sent inadequate information to Rome, while the diocese allowed the priest to continue delivering mass, SNAP claims.
The allegations against Prevost predate the death of Francis, yet in under 24 hours, the conclave saw fit to give this individual even more authority.
One would think an organization with an eye towards the future would find this kind of thing disqualifying, yet the highest levels of leadership in the Catholic Church find just the opposite.
Prevost and the church also maintain that women are lesser than men and ought not hold high religious office. The new Pope adheres to church doctrine, which has consistently held that members of the LGBTQ community are lesser in the eyes of their god and are not due the same blessings and respect as others.
Furthermore, high-level church leadership has opposed removing statute of limitations laws concerning sexual abuse crimes against children. Why would a supposed “progressive” head of the church not support doing that? And why is the highest level of church leadership dominated by men who hold that position?
We need to be clear on what this means for a purported spiritual and moral authority that has billions of followers world wide. I hope the honeymoon period for the first American Pope ends quickly. The Catholic Church has very serious problems, problems that any Pope could take massive steps to resolve very quickly.
For all of Pope Francis’ lip service to the concepts of acceptance, he did very little to make it possible with the authority he had. If anything, he kept the church treading water in the middle of the last century while the rest of us freethinkers moved on.
That is not progress. It actually seems more like a church this steeped in secrecy, authoritarian hierarchy, and archaic traditions would be diametrically opposed to any sort of progress.
Pope Leo XIV could tear down its gold-plated statues and gilded halls and secret vaults and use that treasure to feed the world. Since the new Pope has seen firsthand how love is love and equality under the law is extremely important, he could reject anti LGBTQ policies around the world, rather than just say things that are later walked back by a PR team.
He could unequivocally say that health care should be based on science and not the whims of the faithful. Finally, the church could, under an ostensibly progressive Pope, turn the corner on its decades of known child abuse from residential schools to contemporary allegations and live up to the purported moral authority to which the church claims to be.
You don’t have to be an atheist to know that hands that do are better than hands that pray. Let us all hope this new Pope understands that too. If the past Popes and the behavior of this new one are anything to go by, things aren’t looking good for any kind of meaningful positive change in the world from the Catholic church.
Top image, Pope Leo XIV on the loggia after his election, was cropped from a photo taken by Edgar Beltrán for The Pillar on May 8, 2025. Available via Wikimedia Commons.