The Two Leos  - First Things

The Two Leos  - First Things

Pope Leo XIV has explained that his choice of regnal name is an homage to Pope Leo XIII (1878–1903), the architect of the modern papacy. It was Leo who confronted the industrial and political revolutions with gospel principles, launching modern Catholic social teaching. It was Leo who moved the Church away from a defensive posture against the ills of modernity toward, as George Weigel puts it, engagement with modernity in order to convert it. My…

Will the new Leo elevate Leo XIII’s Cardinal Newman to a Doctor of the Church? - Catholic Canada

On 12 May 1879, Pope Leo XIII raised John Henry Newman to the Sacred College of Cardinals. The biglietto which he received from the Secretariat of State notifying him of the Holy Father’s decision caused Newman to make one of his most significant speeches in reply. It was the plan of the Duke of Norfolk, […]

Pope Leo XIII the father of social doctrine | Features

Russell Shaw, OSV News Robert Cardinal Prevost selected the name Pope Leo XIV, an apparent nod to Pope Leo XIII, who deserves to be called the founding father of Catholic social doctrine in modern times, with his encyclical, Rerum Novarum, as its foundational document. The Catholic Church has taught social morality for many centuries. This body of teaching includes moral principles like the dignity and inviolability of the human person, the righ…