Pope Leo XIV: What’s in a Name?
- Tom Faletti
- May 8
- 4 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
With a name inspired by Pope Leo XIII, he is connecting to the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching, which began with a concern for marginalized workers.
[This post has been updated to reflect the fact that, on May 10, Pope Leo XIV confirmed that his choice of names was inspired mainly by Pope Leo XIII's effort to address the issues of his time in the encyclical Rerum Novarum.]
In his first official speech, the new Pope Leo XIV reinforced some themes we heard from Pope Francis.
He stressed the need to reach out to the marginalized and emphasized that the Church is here for all people. He affirmed the importance of building bridges and specifically expressed support for synodality, the way of thinking put forward by Pope Francis that calls on the Church to bring all voices into the discernment process as it seeks the Holy Spirit’s guidance. And he spoke words of peace.
Why did Cardinal Robert Prevost choose the name Leo when he was elected pope?
On May 10, Pope Leo XIV stated that his choice of names was inspired by the work of Pope Leo XIII, because Leo XIII addressed the social issues associated with the first industrial revolution through his encyclical Rerum Novarum, published in 1891, and we are facing a new industrial revolution in our time.
Pope Leo XIII, who was elected in 1878 and served until he died in 1903, was the pope who launched what has come to be known as modern Catholic social teaching when he issued that encyclical.
Given Pope Leo XIV’s previous missionary work among the poor and commitment to the marginalized, it is fitting that he has selected the name Leo because of the teaching of Leo XIII. What can we learn from Pope Leo XIII?
Pope Leo XIII championed the needs of workers, who were the marginalized of his time, as he launched modern Catholic social teaching
In Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII took a stand against both socialism and unfettered capitalism. He wrote first that people have a right to private property (Rerum Novarum 4) but that “it is one thing to have a right to the possession of money and another to have a right to use money as one wills” (22). Our property belongs to us – “But if the question be asked: How must one’s possessions be used? – the Church replies without hesitation in the words of [St. Thomas Aquinas]: ‘Man should not consider his material possessions as his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need. Whence the Apostle with, “Command the rich of this world... to offer with no stint, to apportion largely” [1 Tim. 6:17-18]’” (22).
He noted the necessity of first meeting one’s own needs, but he added that after you have taken care of your own standing “it becomes a duty to give to the indigent out of what remains over” (22).
He said that unions are necessary because “working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition” (3). He told workers not to mistreat their employers’ property (20) and told employers “not to look upon their work people as their bondsmen, but to respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character” (20). He said it is “truly shameful and inhuman” when employers “misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain, or to value them solely for their physical powers” (20). The employer’s “great and principal duty is to give everyone what is just” (20).
He then went on to make specific proposals:
There should be limits on the number of hours workers are expected to work so that workers have adequate time off, with fewer hours expected in jobs that are especially onerous on the body (42).
There should be limits on child labor to allow children to develop their bodies and minds first (42).
Workers should be paid enough to support a basic living for the worker and the worker’s family (45-46).
Workers should be allowed to form unions (51).
Pope Leo XIII wrote that “God Himself seems to incline rather to those who suffer misfortune; for Jesus Christ calls the poor ‘blessed’” (24; quoting Luke 6:20). We should share that concern. Governments should provide aid to those in need (14), for “it is the province of the commonwealth to serve the common good” (32). And what does it mean to serve the common good? He explained that “the public administration must duly and solicitously provide for the welfare and the comfort of the working classes; otherwise, that law of justice will be violated which ordains that each man shall have his due” (33).
Leo XIII teachings were somewhat revolutionary in its time. In the face of an often atheistic socialism, leaders of the Church tended to uphold the status quo at the other extreme. Leo XIII laid out an alternative approach that was more consistent with God’s enduring concern for the poor and those without power.
May Pope Leo XIV continue to guide us in that effort to apply the love of God to the policies of humans.
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