{"id":3566,"date":"2026-10-31T10:03:47","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3566"},"modified":"2026-10-31T10:03:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T05:03:47","slug":"pope-leo-becomes-first-pontiff-to-cast-ballot-in-us-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3566","title":{"rendered":"Pope Leo becomes first pontiff to cast ballot in US election"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Pope Leo XIV cast a ballot by mail in the US \u200bmidterm elections<\/a>, the Vatican press office said on Friday, a historic \u200cfirst for the American-born pontiff.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago,\u201d the Vatican said. \u201cThe Holy Father expresses his belief \u200bin the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic \u200bprocesses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Vatican did not say which candidates Leo had voted for.<\/p>\n

Leo, \u206071, was born in Chicago and is the first American-born pope. The pope \u200bvoted by mail under his birth name, Robert Francis Prevost, according to the Will County \u200bClerk\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s sagging popularity is hurting his fellow Republicans\u2019 chances of holding onto their majorities in both chambers of Congress in the November 3 election, with the public \u200bunhappy about the high cost of living and the Iran war.<\/p>\n

Trump repeatedly criticized \u200bLeo early in the new pope\u2019s tenure, calling him<\/a> \u201cweak\u201d and \u201cterrible\u201d on crime.<\/p>\n

The pope said in March<\/a> that \u200cGod \u2060rejects the prayers of those who start wars and have \u201chands full of blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, he termed Trump\u2019s threat to destroy the Iranian civilisation as unacceptable<\/a> and previously declined to join the US president\u2019s so-called \u201cBoard of Peace\u201d initiative for Gaza.<\/p>\n

Leo \u200bhas also urged a \u201cdeep \u200breflection\u201d on the \u2060way migrants are treated in the US.<\/p>\n

Voters in the solidly Democratic state of Illinois will select a successor for \u200bretiring US Senator Dick Durbin and choose whether to re-elect \u200bGovernor JB \u2060Pritzker.<\/p>\n

Leo was elected to lead the 1.4-billion-member Church by the world\u2019s cardinals in May 2025.<\/p>\n

The pope had the lower lobe of his right lung removed in surgery<\/a> on \u2060October \u200b13 and was diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma, the \u200bmost common form of lung cancer.<\/p>\n

Doctors say he will not need further therapy.<\/p>\n

He is set to \u200btravel to South America next week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Leo XIV cast a ballot by mail in the US \u200bmidterm elections, the Vatican press office said on Friday, a historic \u200cfirst for the American-born pontiff. \u201cIn keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago,\u201d the Vatican said. \u201cThe Holy Father expresses his belief \u200bin the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic \u200bprocesses.\u201d The Vatican did not say which candidates Leo had voted for. Leo, \u206071, was born in Chicago and is the first American-born pope. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}