Pope's Choice of Name Signals Commitment to Social Justice

Pope Leo XIV 's choice of name signals a commitment to social justice which is very much in line with the late Pope Francis ' global ministry, Catholic scholars say. "I think a lot us had a question mark when they elected an American, and then he selected the name Pope Leo XIV," Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University. "It really means to me he will continue the work of Leo XIII."

• Pope Leo XIII, who was head of the Catholic Church from 1878 to 1903, laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought, most famously with his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, which addressed workers' rights and capitalism at the dawn of the industrial age, the AP reports. He criticized both laissez-faire capitalism and state-centric socialism, giving shape to a distinctly Catholic vein of economic teaching.
• Papal Leos tend to be reformers "at the progressive end of Catholicism," Catherine Pepinster, former editor of the Tablet, writes at the Guardian. "If Pope Francis was the People's Pope, then Leo XIV is all set to be the Workers' Pope."

• The name "is a deep sign of commitment to social issues," says Imperatori-Lee. "I think this (new) pope is saying something about social justice, by choosing this name, that it is going to be a priority. He is continuing a lot of Francis' ministry."
• Another predecessor, Pope Leo I, was known for repelling the barbarian invasion of Atilla the Hun in 452 AD 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 many centuries, new popes tended to choose the name of the pope who had elevated them to cardinal, according to Rev. Roberto Regoli, a historian at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University. It was from the mid-20th century that new popes began to choose names signaling the aim of their papacy, Regoli says.

(More Pope Leo XIV stories.)