The victory of Giorgia Meloni, at the head of an Italian populist movement, will pose new challenges for Pope Francis, writes Robert Royal of The Catholic Thing.

Meloni, who has been widely portrayed in the mainstream media as a “ultraconservative,” appealed to voters who are troubled by mass immigration and skeptical of climate-change measures—issues on which Pope Francis has taken a very different stand. Royal notes that the for Pontiff, “it would be hard for him to criticize a political coalition that enjoys broad public support.” Other prelates in Italy, he continues, “will now be in a difficult spot between papal preferences and popular sentiment.”