Guarded and formal: Pope Leo sets different tone

As he gears up for his first Christmas as leader of the world’s Catholics, Pope Leo XIV is starting to show more noticeable differences in leadership style with his predecessor Francis.

- 

Pope Leo has set a more guarded and formal tone than the charismatic Francis but is equally unafraid to speak his mind -- even on sensitive topics like social justice, poverty and immigration.

"The pope communicates by how he dresses, his gestures, his signals," Roberto Regoli, an Italian priest and a professor at the Vatican’s Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, told AFP.

Whereas "Francis’s style was very linked to his words" and improvisation, Leo XIV communicates emotions "with his face and his penetrating gaze". "He is not a physically imposing person,” he said, underlining his "soft" and "very assured" manner.

Robert Francis Prevost became the first US pope on May 8 and has so far differed little from his Argentine predecessor in terms of substance. He has only had to make a few nominations to top Vatican positions — usually seen as a good indicator of papal intentions — since his election.