The new Pope chooses the name of Leo XIV in direct allusion to the social doctrine of the Church

The election of the name Leo XIV by the new successor of Pedro was interpreted by the director of the press office of the Holy See, Matteo Bruni, as a symbolic gesture that links the new Pontiff with the Legacy of Leo XIII, author of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891), considered the founding act of the modern social doctrine of the Church.

“Clearly the choice of the name Leo XIV is a clear reference to the modern social doctrine of the church started with the Of the new things. The encyclical of Leo XIII that the Pope did at that time, ”Bruni told journalists accredited in the Vatican, stressing that it is not a mere coincidence or a neutral election, but a direct evocation of the Church’s social commitment.

Thus, the Vatican spokesman highlighted the connection with contemporary challenges, especially in relation to the world of work in the context of new technologies: “And clearly reference to women, men, to their work and workers in an artificial intelligence time.”

This also connects him directly to his predecessor, Pope Francis, who warned of the possible dire consequences of irresponsible use of this technology. One of the most remembered was when he advocated G7, gathered in Italy, for the use of ethically correct modalities for the development, use and management of artificial intelligence, that is, an algoretic.

In addition, he also focused the message for the World Day of Peace 2024, which was held on January 1 on the issue of new technologies: “If they aggravate inequalities and conflicts cannot be considered true progress,” Pope Francis wrote by also referring to the serious risks of disinformation campaigns that terrorism can feed or interfere with electoral processes.

Who was the last Pope called León?

But who was Leo XIII? Professor Roberto Regoli, Professor of Church History at the Pontifical Gregorian University, says in statements to Aci Prensa who arrived at the throne of Pedro “after the very long pontificate of Pius IX”, which lasted from June 16, 1846 until February 7, 1878, that is, 31 years and almost 8 months.

“Until today he is the longest pontificate in history. Pío IX had to deal with the great challenges of the nineteenth century, having confrontations with the culture of the time, which was that of liberalism. And Leo XIII, in consequence, had to manage that inheritance.”

It was a delicate moment for the Church. After the taking of Rome in 1878, by the kingdom of Italy, the Pope was left without territorial sovereignty: “And the conclave that chooses Leo XIII is the first one that is celebrated in Rome, but without the Pope having Rome. It is a very interesting aspect.” This situation forced to rethink the role of the papacy on the international stage: “You have to begin to find a new way of proposing the papacy at the time, at the international level. It also tries to recover a territorial independence.”

Thought by Santo Tomás de Aquino

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Leo XIII perceived the need to respond to the great philosophical currents of his time with a structured Catholic vision: “This Pope realizes that, before the great philosophies of the time – the liberal and the socialist – he had to try to propose a Catholic cultural vision that was as structured and systematic as the other philosophies,” says the historian.

That is why he recovered the thought of Saint Thomas Aquás and Scholasticism: “He resumed the teachings of Tomás de Aquinas and all scholastic theology, especially Thomism. Because he was convinced that in Santo Tomás were those structural and systemic responses that could counteract both liberalism and socialism. That is why this teaching will impose in all the Catholic educational institutions of the world.”

Leo XIII was also a man with great experience in the ecclesiastical government: “This Pope came from the administration of the Pontifical State, had been a pontifical delegate, had been a nuncio – that is, a papal diplomat – in Belgium, and then he was for a long time bishop of Perugia. A man with many administrative, diplomatic and pastoral experiences.”

During his time as a nuncio in Belgium he had direct contact with the emergence of the new social class “which were the workers, with all the difficulties they lived: there were no guarantees at work, or in the disease, or in front of work accidents.”

For all this, the figure of Leo XIII was marked mainly by the encyclical Things News: “Go to history especially as the Pope of the Encyclical Of the revolutionary-eS say, that Pope who systematized what has later been called Christian social doctrine, Catholic social doctrine. ”

The influence of this important document of the ecclesial teaching has endured over time: “It was such an important document that all its successors, when they have written documents on issues of work and economics, have referred to him. They called him document Fortieth year Forty years later. Let’s also think about the continuity given by the San Juan Paul II document in 1991, which was called Centenary, just one hundred years from that Leo XIII document. ”

He wrote a dozen encyclicals on the rosary and composed the prayer to San Miguel Arcángel

Father Regoli also highlights the spiritual and doctrinal profile of the Pope: “He is the Pope who has written a dozen encyclicals about the Rosary, and the Pope who composed the prayer to St. Miguel Arcángel.” He was also the author of the encyclical Human race Published on April 20, 1884, one of the most structured magisterial documents against Freemasonry.

Finally, Fr. Regoli suggests that the choice of the name Leo XIV can also have an affective and spiritual meaning linked to the order of Augustinian Recoletos, in which the Pontiff formed today.

“Leo XIII, the last pontiff with this name, was a pontiff very close to the family of the Augustinians. For example, it is enough to think that the place where the Generalitan curia of the Augustinians is currently granted it. In addition, he canonized Santa Rita de Casia in 1900, one of the most venerated saints of the Augustinian and popular world among the Christian people for being a patron saint of the impossible cases,” he concludes.