Pope Leo XIV ‘s alternative of name signals a commitment to social justice which could be very much according to the late Pope Francis ‘ global ministry.
“I believe rather a lot us had an issue mark once they elected an American, after which he chosen the name Pope Leo XIV,” said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of non secular studies at Manhattan University. “It really means to me he’ll proceed the work of Leo XXIII.”
Pope Leo XIII, who was head of the Catholic Church from 1878 to 1903, laid the muse for contemporary Catholic social thought, most famously together with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed employees’ rights and capitalism on the dawn of the economic age. He criticized each laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching.
The name “is a deep sign of commitment to social issues,” said Imperatori-Lee. “I believe this (latest) pope is saying something about social justice, by selecting this name, that it’s going to be a priority. He is constant a variety of Francis’ ministry.”
Another predecessor, Pope Leo I, was known for repelling the barbarian invasion of Atilla the Hun in 452 A.D. and dissuading him from sacking Rome through diplomacy, Italian Cardinal Maurizio Piacenza told RAI Italian state TV. He also noted that Pope Leo XIII elevated the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii to a papal basilica in 1901.
For a lot of the Catholic Church’s first millennium, popes used their given names. The first exception was the sixth century Roman Mercurius, who had been named for a pagan god and selected the more appropriate name of John II.
The practice of adopting a latest name became ingrained through the eleventh century, a period of German popes who selected names of early church bishops out of “a desire to suggest continuity,” in keeping with Rev. Roberto Regoli, a historian at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.
For many centuries, latest popes tended to decide on the name of the pope who had elevated them to cardinal. John was the most well-liked, chosen by 23 popes, followed by Benedict and Gregory, each with 16.
It was from the mid-Twentieth century that latest popes begin to decide on names signaling the aim of their papacy, Regoli said.
