Pope Leo XIV Becomes the First Pope to Vote in a U.S. Election. Christians Should Follow Him to the Ballot Box.

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

Pope Leo XIV has voted in the U.S. midterm elections, the Holy See Press Office confirmed Friday, Vatican News reported. The Chicago-born pope, an American citizen, is the first pontiff in history to vote in a U.S. election, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which first reported his ballot request on Thursday.

"Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so," the press office said in a statement published by Vatican News. It added that "in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago." The statement also said that "during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so."

The statement, as published by Vatican News, closed with this line: "The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes."

How the ballot request came to light

The pope, born Robert Francis Prevost, is still a registered voter in Illinois and requested a mail ballot Oct. 3 through the Will County clerk's office, the Sun-Times reported. "Robert Francis Prevost is on the list of individuals who requested a vote by mail ballot for the upcoming election," Kim Fladhammer, the clerk's office chief of staff, told the paper.

The Will County clerk's office told NBC News on Thursday that it had not yet received a completed ballot from the pope, whose ballot will travel from Vatican City to Joliet, Illinois. NBC noted the pope had lung cancer surgery this month. The Vatican's Friday statement said only that the ballot had been submitted.

Public records show Prevost voted in Republican primaries in 2012, 2014 and 2016 and in general elections including 2012, 2014, 2018 and 2024, according to NBC News. Illinois voters do not register by party and choose a party ballot at each primary. The Sun-Times reported he also voted in Democratic primaries in 2008 and 2010 and did not vote in Illinois' March primary.

His ballot includes the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Gov. JB Pritzker's bid for a third term, along with judicial and county races, the Sun-Times reported. Pritzker wrote on social media Thursday: "If the Pope can vote all the way from Vatican City, you can too!"

The vote comes after months of friction between the pope and the Trump administration. Leo has criticized the U.S. war against Iran and the administration's treatment of immigrants, and in April President Trump called him "WEAK on crime" and "terrible for Foreign Policy," NBC News reported. Leo told NBC he had "no fear of the Trump administration."

U.S. citizens living abroad and military members away from home can cast absentee ballots in federal elections, Vatican News noted. The election is Tuesday, Nov. 3, with all 435 House seats, 35 Senate seats and 36 governorships on the ballot.

Opinion: The pope did his duty. So should every Christian.

There will be plenty of guessing about how the pope voted. That is the wrong question, and nobody outside the Vatican knows the answer. A secret ballot is secret for popes too. The right lesson is the one the Vatican stated plainly: voting is not only a right but a duty.

Christians have sometimes treated politics as too dirty to touch. Jesus did not. Asked about paying taxes, He answered, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." A Christian owes God everything, and he also owes his country the ordinary duties of a citizen. In a republic, one of those duties is to show up and vote with a conscience formed by Scripture.

That cuts against both easy temptations. One is to stay home because no candidate is perfect. None ever is. The other is to treat a party as a church and a candidate as a savior. A pope who has clashed publicly with a sitting president still filled out a ballot, and a Democratic governor cited him to urge others to vote. Neither side owns him, and neither side owns the faithful. Dock Line has made the same point about the ministers serving at the polls this year in Clergy to Serve as Poll Chaplains in Nine States on Election Day.

It is fair to ask whether a head of state of the Vatican should vote in another nation's election at all. The pope answered for himself: he voted in the United States and in Peru whenever he was eligible, and the law allows an American abroad to do it. Agree or not, he did it openly and by the rules.

Many readers have already voted early. If you have not, Tuesday is coming. Pray first, read your ballot, and go. If a man running the world's largest church can mail a ballot from Rome weeks after lung cancer surgery, the rest of us can make it to the polling place down the road.