Who was Pope Leo XIII?

What’s in a Name?

Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

Leo XIII, our new Holy Father’s predecessor in name, was Pope from 1878-1903.  The name “Leo XIV” says something about Robert Prevost’s outlook. What was going on in Leo XIII’s time?  And what did he say about it?

In the late 19th century, industrial capitalism and trade boomed among Western powers and colonies.  It was a “res novae” (new thing): a system based on finance, consumption, and the division of capital and labor.  Working-class misery provoked new secular ideologies – often variants of Marxism and Liberalism – proposing various social paths to the future.   A conflicted but brave new world was emerging.

Leo XIII confronted the res novae – including the “labor question” – in his groundbreaking 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum (“On New Things”, subtitled “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor”).  Incidentally, Leo XIII also laid the groundwork for modern Catholic teaching on religious liberty in his encyclicals Immortale Dei (1885) and Libertas (1888).

But Rerum Novarum was his signature document, influencing some Western policy makers, including President Roosevelt, well into the 20th century.  For labor, it encouraged progressive alternatives to socialism during market upheavals. Popes in the 20th century often developed Catholic social doctrine from Rerum Novarum.

Pope Pius XI (1931): Quadragesimo Anno” (40th anniversary, on Reconstruction of the Social Order).  He addressed totalitarianism and conflicts between labor and capital, proposing labor-management cooperation and family wages.  He proposed regulating trade and financial flows yet affirmed the right to private property as a contingent public good. He said subsidiarityshould characterize relations between states and the private sector.

Pope Paul VI (1971): Octogesima Adveniens (80th anniversary).   Addressed post-industrial social problems, including urbanization, youth, women, unemployment, discrimination, emigration, population, media, and ecology.

Pope John Paul II: Laborem Exercens (1981, 90th anniversary) and Centesimus Annus (1991, 100th anniversary).  He said that work is a fundamental human good and key to the “social question”, and he highlighted the continuity in Catholic social doctrine since 1891. What Leo XIII called “friendship”, Pius XI called “social charity”, and Paul VI called “a civilization of love.” John Paul II called it “solidarity”, foreshadowing Pope Francis’ 2020 encyclical Fratelli Tutti (On Fraternity and Social Friendship).  

Recently, Pope Leo XIV suggested that artificial intelligence and social media raise new questions for labor, human dignity, and international relations.  For Leo XIV, these constitute a “res novae” of our time.