Chicago archbishop says Pope Leo will focus on immigration, drug trade, rising sea levels

Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, said on Sunday that he thinks Pope Leo XIV will carry forward Francis’s commitment and focus on immigration, climate change and human trafficking.

“I think he’s going to help complete and complement our political agenda,” Cupich told ABC News’s Martha Raddatz in a “This Week” interview from the Vatican City.

“He’ll still talk a lot about the immigrants as well because he knows about the sufferings of people and the real needs that they have for a better life. And he knows too that people in Oceania, for instance, where the rising sea levels are just … overwhelming those islands, where people are trying to escape,” the archbishop continued.

“He sees the drug trade that’s happening in Central and South America, where there are weapons from the United States going there. He knows that those people need an option. And he’ll call for, I think, as the bishops have in the United States, fixing this broken immigration system,” he added.

In an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation,” Cupich said he thinks Pope Leo feels an “obligation” to speak about issues of the modern day — from artificial intelligence to global politics, as Francis did.

“He sees this opportunity right now in his service as Leo XIV to take up the challenge of a new technology, namely artificial intelligence, and what that means to humanity,” Cupich said.

“I think that he feels an obligation, as I think popes have in the modern era, to speak to the issues of the day, because we live in a world in which there are real challenges globally,” he added. “There is, I think, a fresh moment for us to examine, what are the human dimensions of immigration? How do we see global warming impacting us? How the issues related to the sufferings of humanity should impact all of us and make all of us aware and participate in solutions.”