Poised as the “new Leonine
era,” worded as if gilding the proverbial lily as if a golden ring, the
installation of Pope Leo XIV reinvigorated Pope Francis’s preachments on the
poor and economic inequality because Robert Prevost chose Leo in large part
because of Pope Leo XIII of the late nineteenth century, whose “historic
encyclical Rerum Novarum, addressed the social question in the context of the
first great industrial revolution.”[1]
Due to “his choice of pontifical name and his mathematical and legal training,
Pope Leo XIV has awakened hope and curiosity among the faithful and the more
secular world about the influence the Catholic Church could exert on the
economic world during his pontificate.”[2]
In the exuberance of a new pontificate, it is easy to get carried away with
excitement as to possibilities. Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s
crime against humanity in Gaza, no one could be blamed for seeking out hope
wherever it could be found. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind just
how marginal the calls of conscience can be, given the onslaught of greed not
only in the present day represented by powerful corporate (and related)
governmental interests, but also in greed’s institutional accretions built up
over time that have a force of their own in protecting the economic (and
political) status quo.
The full essay is at "Pope Leo."
2. Ibid.
