Gongloff: Pope Leo XIV seems a worthy heir to Francis’ climate advocacy

In picking a new leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, the Vatican had a chance to honor the late Pope Francis’ legacy as the greenest pope in modern history.

In choosing the American (and Peruvian) Cardinal Robert Prevost — henceforth known as Pope Leo XIV — his fellow cardinals appear to have seized that opportunity. Humanity’s hope of avoiding the worst of climate change can only benefit.

We’ll learn more about the pope’s views in the days to come. But he is on record telling...