John Baptiste de La Salle
May 3, 2025
Pope Leo XIV
May 9, 2025
Born near Rome, the diminutive son of a count, Giacchino Pecci (1810-1903) was the sixth of seven siblings. Both he and his brother Giuseppe became Jesuit priests. Giacchino held extraordinary distinctions when Pope Gregory XVI appointed him as a personal prelate at 27, before his ordination, and a papal nuncio and Archbishop at 33. Pecci’s episcopate established homeless shelters, soup kitchens and low interest loans for those of low income. He was elevated to Cardinal at 43. The conservative Pope Pius IX appointed the liberal Pecci Camerlengo in 1877, perhaps in the spirit of: ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer.’
Elected on just the third ballot, the Church advanced a platform of social justice under Pecci’s leadership as Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). Leo took a stand against socialism and the unchecked power of industrial barons, advocating workers’ rights, opposing child labor. He expressed the responsibility of the Church to champion justice and charity, opening the Vatican Archives. The efforts gave rise to Christian Democrats across Europe, invigorating the priests supporting the American labor movement. He promoted Thomism, the rosary, scapulars and the Sacred Heart. As the first pope who never held control of the papal states, Leo encouraged Italian Catholics to boycott elections and political office. Leo appointed the first Cardinals from Canada, Australia, Slovenia, and Armenia.
Notable actions:
1878: restored the Scottish Catholic hierarchy.
1879: elevated John Henry Newman to Cardinal.
1886: established an Indian Catholic hierarchy.
1887: personally patronized Mother Cabrini, encouraged Kathrine Drexel to become a missionary, and issued a charter for the Catholic University of America.
1891: published an encyclical opposing socialism and Laissez-faire capitalism, advocating worker’s rights, property rights, trade unions and free enterprise.
1894: published an encyclical preserving Eastern Rite liturgies.
1896: declared Anglican holy orders null and void.
1899: appointed an Alexandrian Rite Patriarch, published an encyclical supporting the American Church but condemning Paulist personal spirituality as an ‘Americanism’ that rejects authority.
1901: dedicated the twentieth century to the Holy Spirit.