Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born leader of the Catholic Church, has cast his ballot in the US midterm elections through a mail-in vote submitted in Illinois, Chicago, the Vatican confirmed on Friday.
The vote marks the first known instance of a sitting pope participating in a political election. The pope’s ballot includes several key contests, including Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s bid for re-election, the race to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Dick Durbin and a House race between Democratic Rep. Jonathan Jackson and Republican challenger Christian Maxwell. The pontiff’s mail-in ballot will be transported from Vatican City to Joliet, Illinois, where it will be processed. The two repeatedly clashed over Leo’s criticism of the Trump administration’s tough immigration crackdown in the United States and the war involving Iran.
The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who has had disagreements with US President Donald Trump, believes in “the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” the Vatican said in a statement. Trump described the pontiff as “weak” on crime and “terrible” on foreign policy, while the pope declared that he was “not afraid” of the U.S. president.
