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In a moment that has quietly rewritten papal history, Pope Leo XIV—the first American-born pontiff—cast a mail-in ballot in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections. The Vatican confirmed on October 30, 2026, that the Chicago-born leader, formerly Robert Francis Prevost, “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen” and has done so “whenever he was eligible to do so,” including during his more than two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru. The Holy Father, the statement added, “expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes.”
This is not merely a personal choice by a Chicago native registered in Will County, Illinois (at a New Lenox address linked to his brother). It is the first known instance of a sitting pope voting in a U.S. general election—and, according to papal historian Michael Walsh, likely the first time any pope has cast a ballot in a secular democratic election at all. “I don’t think popes have ever voted in a democratic election before,” Walsh observed.
A Break with Centuries of Tradition
For most of the Church’s history, the idea of a pope voting in a national election was unthinkable. From 1523 until John Paul II’s election in 1978, nearly every pope was Italian. After the loss of the Papal States in the nineteenth century, Pope Pius IX even issued the decree Non expedit (1874), discouraging or effectively barring Italian Catholics from participating in the new Kingdom of Italy’s elections amid tensions with the anticlerical state. Only in 1919 did Benedict XV lift that restriction.
Even after non-Italian popes became the norm, participation remained rare or nonexistent. John Paul II retained his Polish citizenship and powerfully influenced Poland’s path out of communism and into the European Union, yet he did so through moral witness and pastoral visits rather than a ballot. When Benedict XVI (the German Joseph Ratzinger) became pope in 2005, questions arose about whether he would continue voting by mail from his registered address in Germany. His brother clarified that the new pontiff, as sovereign of Vatican City, “does not consider it right to interfere in the affairs of another state.” Pope Francis, for his part, had largely stopped voting in Argentina decades earlier; as pope he never registered as an overseas voter.
Canon law neither requires a pope to renounce prior citizenship nor forbids retaining it. Recent popes have kept their original nationalities—Polish, German, Argentine—while acquiring the functional citizenship tied to their office in Vatican City. Leo XIV holds three: U.S. citizenship by birth, Peruvian citizenship acquired in 2015 as bishop of Chiclayo, and the automatic Vatican status that comes with the papacy. U.S. law similarly does not strip citizenship simply because a citizen becomes head of a foreign state; renunciation requires clear intent. Americans abroad, including those working for foreign governments, retain the right to vote absentee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
By requesting his ballot on October 3 (just days before lung cancer surgery) and submitting it, Leo XIV has chosen continuity over severance. He remains, in the eyes of American and Peruvian law, a citizen of those nations even while serving as sovereign of Vatican City, an absolute monarchy with no elections of its own.
The Church’s Teaching on Voting and Elections
Pope Leo XIV’s decision aligns closely with longstanding Catholic teaching on the responsibilities of citizens. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that it is “the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society in a spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom.” It continues: “Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one’s country” (CCC 2239–2240).
This obligation flows from the dignity of the human person and the call to serve the common good—the sum of conditions that allow individuals and groups to flourish. Vatican II’s pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes (no. 75) likewise encourages generous participation in the life of the political community while keeping the welfare of the entire human family in view. The lay faithful, in particular, are called to bring their faith into the public square rather than remain detached spectators.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops develops these principles in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. The document describes responsible citizenship as a virtue and participation in political life as a moral obligation. It does not endorse candidates or parties, nor does it provide a checklist of how to vote. Instead, it helps Catholics form their consciences according to the Church’s social teaching—centered on the dignity of every human person, the protection of life, the common good, subsidiarity, and solidarity. The bishops emphasize that Catholics must not support policies that promote intrinsically evil acts (such as abortion, euthanasia, or the redefinition of marriage) with the intent to advance those positions. At the same time, they recognize that voters often face imperfect choices and must exercise prudential judgment, weighing candidates’ commitments, character, and overall impact on human dignity and the common good.
In short, the Church teaches that voting is neither optional nor a purely private matter for those who have the right. It is one concrete way of loving one’s neighbor and contributing to a society ordered toward justice and the flourishing of all. The Church forms consciences; it does not dictate ballots. Pope Leo’s public affirmation of the “right and the duty” of citizens to participate, combined with his own quiet exercise of that duty, simply embodies this teaching in an unusually visible way.
What the Vote Means
The Vatican’s carefully worded confirmation frames the act as consistent with long-standing personal practice and a broader conviction about democratic life. Voting records show that as Robert Prevost he participated in both Democratic and Republican primaries over the years (requesting Democratic ballots in 2008 and 2010, Republican ones in 2012, 2014, and 2016) and cast general-election ballots in multiple cycles, including 2024, while living outside the United States. The secrecy of the ballot means no one knows—or needs to know—how he voted this year on Illinois races for governor, U.S. Senate, and local offices.
The deeper significance lies in the example. As the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops noted, “In voting, our Holy Father sets the example that encourages each citizen to exercise their civic responsibility.” At a time when many citizens treat voting as optional or pointless, the leader of the world’s Catholics has affirmed that participation is both a right and a duty. He has done so while recovering from surgery, from Rome, and while navigating the unique status of a pope who is still an American and a Peruvian.
Popes have long spoken about the common good, human dignity, migration, peace, and the moral dimensions of public life. Leo XIV has already done so on issues ranging from war to the treatment of migrants. By also casting a private ballot, he models the complementary truth that citizens themselves bear responsibility for the societies they inhabit. Civic engagement is not beneath the papal office; in a democratic age, it can be one quiet expression of the call to serve the common good.
In that sense, Pope Leo XIV’s mail-in ballot is more than a historical curiosity. It is a reminder, from the highest levels of the Church, that the life of a citizen includes the simple, weighty act of voting—and that even the Bishop of Rome has not set that duty aside.
