Pope (1810–1903)
On February 20, 1878, Vincenzo Pecci, the sixty-eight-year-old archbishop of Perugia, was elected to succeed the long-reigning Pope Pius IX. In his nearly thirty-two years in Rome, Pius had done more than any other pope in modern times to enhance the image and power of the papacy. But having largely defined the mission of the Church in negative opposition to the modern age, he left little opening for constructive engagement with issues of the day. The new pope, who took the name Leo XIII, was keen to overcome this defensive posture. “I want to see the Church so far forward,” he said, “that my successor will not be able to turn back.”
Without doubt, Leo’s most significant contribution was in his pronouncements in the social realm. With his encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) he inaugurated the modern era of Catholic social teaching. Leo was the first pope to address the problems associated with the rise of industrial capitalism and to declare the sympathies of the Church with the working class.
While rejecting socialism, Leo’s encyclical implied a strong critique of unbridled capitalism. Most of all it declared the Church’s vital interest in the social and material, as well as spiritual, welfare of human beings. It articulated a commitment to principles of social justice, the dignity of labor, and defense of the poor. Pope Leo died on July 20, 1903, at the age of ninety-three, the first pope whose passing was mourned not only in churches and convents but in factories and union halls.
“Some remedy must be found, and quickly found, for the misery and wretchedness which press so heavily at this moment on the large majority of the very poor.” —Pope Leo XIII
