Vatican City — Pope Leo XIV says he chose his papal name as a nod to the Catholic Church‘s last Leo, who stood as a source of stability and guidance during the industrial revolution.
The newly-elected American pontiff told the College of Cardinals on Saturday that Pope Leo XIII’s ability to help the Christian faith maintain its values and moral center amid a complete upheaval of global society is a major inspiration for his pontificate.
“There are different reasons for [the choice of Leo as a name], but mainly because Pope Leo XIII, in his historic encyclical Rerum Novarum, addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution,” Leo XIV told the college.
Leo XIII was the last pope of the 19th century, reigning from 1878 to 1903. He is often credited with serving as a midwife for the Catholic Church into the modern world amid political turbulence and competing visions for restructuring the global economy and systems of labor.
Rerum Novarum, whose Latin title means “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor,” was a landmark encyclical that rejected both socialism and unrestricted capitalism as ethical systems of economics. It championed the right to organized labor, the right to private property, and the preeminent importance of the poor.
Pope Leo XIV made clear that he sees immense value in Leo XIII’s school of thought as the world undergoes another, even more destabilizing revolution — the digital age.
“In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labour,” he told the cardinals.
Through his initial public addresses and self-styling, the image of what role Pope Leo XIV wants to play as supreme pontiff is becoming clearer — a figure that can work the same magic as Leo XIII, navigating an ancient institution into the depths of 21st-century turmoils as a lifeboat for the lost.
“In a particular way, God has called me by your election to succeed the Prince of the Apostles,
and has entrusted this treasure to me so that, with his help, I may be its faithful administrator for the sake of the entire mystical body of the church,” he said yesterday in his first homily as pope. “He has done so in order that she may be ever more fully a city set on a hill, an ark of salvation sailing through the waters of history and a beacon that illumines the dark nights of this world.”
Leo XIV is still finding his footing in the shoes of the fisherman. But early signs show he is a more organized, formal, and traditional pontiff compared to Pope Francis, who was known and often praised for his informality and austerity.
While changing one’s name usually has little effect on life expectancy, it is worth noting that Leo XIII was the third-longest-reigning pope of all time at 25 years. He is surpassed only by Pope Pius IX and St. Peter himself.
Leo XIV is young by papal standards at a spry 69 years old. A multi-decade run in office is a distinct possibility.
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A small detail about Leo XIII that might be humorous to modern readers is his documented love for cocaine-fortified wines, a popular drink of the time also enjoyed by leaders such as U.S. Presidents William McKinley and Ulysses S. Grant.
Leo XIII even awarded a gold medal to Vin Mariani, the company behind his preferred brand. His likeness was used in advertisements boasting of the papal endorsement.