On Thursday, Cardinal Robert F. Prevost was launched to the world because the 267th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church and the primary American pope, taking the title Leo XIV.
For Catholic theologians, the importance of the title couldn’t be extra clear, with the brand new pope tying himself to one of many foundational figures of contemporary Catholic social educating, Pope Leo XIII, who advocated for the rights of the poor and dealing class amid profound financial change.
Leo XIII served as pontiff from 1878 to 1903, encompassing the Gilded Age within the U.S. and the Second Industrial Revolution throughout the globe.
Though Catholicism has lengthy preached caring for the poor, Pope Leo XIII provided a spirited protection of union organizing and the rights of staff in his seminal 1891 encyclical, “Rerum Novarum.”
In it, he condemned “rich homeowners and all masters” who sought to revenue off “the indigent and destitute.” His writing launched a latter-day focus by successive popes on the poor, immigrants, ladies, capitalism and the focus of wealth and energy within the palms of the few.
“One pope after one other did an encyclical to mark additional the rights of the poor,” mentioned James F. Keenan, S.J., a Jesuit priest and professor of theology at Boston Faculty. “We all the time had a protracted social custom of the church … but it surely wasn’t till Pope Leo XIII who began the custom of how popes wanted to deal with the situations of the poor and the employee.”
A number of popes have explicitly paid homage to Leo XIII’s writings.
In 1931, Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical “Quadragesimo Anno,” or “fortieth Anniversary,” commemorating Rerum Novarum’s launch with expanded teachings on labor and the way “the employee’s human dignity in it have to be acknowledged.”
Pope Paul VI’s 1971 “Octogesima adveniens,” or “eightieth Anniversary,” advocates for equality and addresses youth and girls. Laws, he wrote, ought to acknowledge ladies’s “independence as an individual, and her equal rights to take part in cultural, financial, social and political life.”
In 1991, Pope John Paul II issued “Centesimus Annus,” or “a centesimal Anniversary,” writing about devastating poverty in creating international locations together with worldwide financial, cultural and non secular poverty attributable to forces reminiscent of “consumerism.”
To Keenan, the selection of “Leo” parallels and enhances the earlier pope’s selection of “Francis.” When he was elected in 2013, the previous Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio mentioned he was honoring St. Francis of Assisi, recognized for dedication to the destitute.
“Francis was somebody who took care of the poor, ministered to them, he raised cash for them, visited and anointed them,” whereas Leo “advocated for his or her rights,” mentioned Keenan.
And thus, the brand new pope was signifying his need to construct upon Francis’ legacy.
“He’s picked what he’s been — an advocate — and somebody who doesn’t simply need to be with the poor, however advocate for them,” Keenan added.
In his first deal with on Thursday, standing on a balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Sq. in Vatican Metropolis, Pope Leo XIV honored his quick predecessor, talking of constructing bridges and of being “a church that all the time seeks peace, that all the time seeks charity, that all the time seeks to be shut particularly to those that undergo.”
“He talked a few manner of continuing that was fully collective,” mentioned Keenan, who seen the brand new pope’s background as an asset.
Along with serving as bishop in Peru, the Chicago-born Prevost ran the Augustinian non secular order. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, which oversees the choice of bishops all over the world and screens the efficiency of bishops.
“This administrative functionality of the brand new pope is essential — and it brings among the order that folks had been on the lookout for, and doesn’t take away Pope Francis’ legacy however makes it extra palpable,” Keenan mentioned.
