Pope Leo XIV

Dear Friends and Readers,

Many people are wondering what we can expect from our new pope, a 69 year old U.S. citizen. I offer this Reflections, excerpted from my latest book, Catholic Social Teaching: Revealing the Treasure, pp. 4-6, as one response to this question.

Fr. Jim Bacik

On May 8, 2025, when Robert Francis Prevost, an Augustinian friar, born and raised in the Chicago area was elected as the first North American Cardinal to become Bishop of Rome, he made an important decision to choose the name Leo XIV. To explore the significance of this name choice, let us recall one aspect of recent Leonine papal history.

On May 15, 1891, Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903), issued the landmark encyclical Rerum novarum (The Condition of Labor). This historic document, urged and supported by bishops in the United States, brought the Catholic Church out of a reactionary era into a period of constructive dialogue with the modern world. The social doctrine of this encyclical, which recognized the rights of workers to organize in response to the abuses of unbridled capitalism, was very moderate in comparison to some of the political movements of the times and appears almost commonplace from our perspective today. However, it is historically important because it reversed a long-standing church policy of intransigent opposition to all aspects of the modern world and inaugurated a new period in which Catholicism has become an important partner in the continuing dialogue on how best to organize human affairs politically and economically.

The French revolution of 1789 produced an intense defensive reaction among Catholic leaders because they feared that the call for liberty and equality would lead to extensive defections from the Church. This negative reaction was epitomized by the Syllabus of Errors, promulgated by Pope Pius IX in 1864 denouncing the entire modern project, including democracy, individual rights and religious liberty. This intransigent position seemed to relegate the Catholic church to the status of a sect existing on the margins of the modern world without any effective means of influencing contemporary developments.

Less than 30 years later, Pope Leo XIII changed the tenor of the relationship between the Church and modernity by replacing blanket condemnations with constructive discussions about how the Church and state could collaborate for the common good.

In this historic encyclical, Pope Leo XIII strongly attacked socialist proposals to transfer property from private individuals to the state as ineffective, unjust and harmful to workers. To build social harmony, the pope insisted workers have the duties to perform their agreed-upon tasks and to refrain from violence, rioting and insurrection. Likewise, employers have the duties to respect the dignity of workers and provide suitable work for them. In a move that helped the U.S. Church maintain the allegiance of working-class Catholics, the pope affirmed the right of workers to form unions, while also warning against power-hungry leaders.

The American Catholic Church also had an important role in shaping the focus and tone of RN. In the late nineteenth century, a strong labor movement arose in the United States to assist workers suffering from the ill effects of the Industrial Revolution. The Knights of Labor founded in 1868 successfully managed several large strikes that gained popular support and, by 1886, had a membership of 700,000, including many Catholics and a Catholic union leader, Terrence Powderly. At the peak of the Knight’s power, a Canadian bishop condemned the union and forbade Catholics to join it. In the U.S. the Knights enjoyed the support of many parish priests as well as most U.S. bishops, who voted 10 to 2 against condemning the union. In 1887, Archbishop James Gibbons, who was going to Rome to be installed as a cardinal, took with him a long letter authored primarily by Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul, Minnesota. The letter defended the Knights of Labor and urged Pope Leo XIII not to condemn it arguing that the American Church was still perceived as “The Friend of the People,” and that a condemnation would lose the working class for generations to come. Pope Leo’s defense of labor unions and the rights of working-class people did indeed win the respect and loyalty of millions of Catholic immigrants and helped them make it socially, economically and politically in their new country. With their time, talent and treasure, the Catholic immigrants built and supported parishes that served their needs and provided a “haven in a hostile world” of nativist prejudice.

With this Leonine history in mind, we can expect Pope Leo XIV to employ creatively the thrust and themes of Catholic Social Teaching to guide his papal ministry. In applying this teaching, he will follow the path charted by his predecessor Pope Francis, as Leo has publicly indicated. This suggests Pope Leo will be an advocate for peace in a world fighting a third world war piecemeal; for concrete steps to curb global warming and preserve the Earth, our common home; for suffering people, including migrants, refugees and the poor; for women to exercise more leadership roles in the Church; and for the synodal process as a method for achieving Church renewal. At this time, it is not clear what Pope Leo will do about ordaining virtuous married men and women deacons, issues that Francis left unresolved. In furthering and expanding the Francis legacy, Leo will draw on his experience as a U.S. citizen as well as his long pastoral experience in Peru, his adopted country

I see many positive things about the election of Pope Leo. He is an intelligent man who speaks multiple languages. As an Augustinian, who graduated from Villanova, he appreciates the Catholic theological tradition. He is an American who comes from a good family and is close to his two brothers who speak highly of him. He is a southside Chicagoan who roots for the White Sox and earned a Masters of Divinity degree from the Catholic Theological Union. His missionary experience in Peru has prepared him to lead a world church that is growing in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The two years (2023-2025) he spent in Rome as the Prefect for the Congregation of Bishops has prepared him to deal with the Roman Curia as the pope. Fr. James Martin, S.J. has described him as a modest, humble, and reserved person who chooses his words carefully, a friendly, personable and highly respected leader who is committed to personal development and open to revising and reformulating previous public comments.

United in the one Spirit, let us join our prayers for Pope Leo XIV that he will be a strong and effective “Successor to St. Peter,” a wise and compassionate, “Supreme Pontiff” for the 1.4 billion Catholics in the world and a Christ-like “Servant of the Servants of God.”