By Joshua McElwee
ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Pope Leo said on Friday he had decided to cast a ballot by mail in the US midterm elections in an historic first for a Catholic leader because he feels pride in being a US citizen and wanted to do his civic duty.
"I'm proud to be an American and to exercise the right," Leo, the first US-born pope, told a journalist aboard his flight from Rome to Uruguay, where he is opening an ambitious 12-day trip across South America.
Leo, born in Chicago as Robert Prevost, is likely the first pope to ever vote in a secular election while pontiff. Previous Catholic leaders, including Pope Francis, Leo's predecessor who was originally from Argentina, had refrained from voting.
Local officials in Will County, south of Chicago, had confirmed last week that Leo requested a mail-in ballot for the midterms. The Vatican said on October 30 that the pope believed "in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes."
Asked by a journalist his thoughts on the election results in Texas, where Democrats won the governorship and a US senate seat as part of a national wave of electoral success, Leo said he had no comment.
The pope, leader of the global 1.4-billion-member Church, typically avoids any overtly political statements. Leo however has previously drawn the ire of President Donald Trump after sharply criticizing the Iran war.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Kylie Madry)
