Meaning and the Man

A Name That Looks to the Past, Present, and Future

Further to my previous post, I am delighted to read that Pope Leo did indeed choose his regnal name on account of Leo XIII and his encyclical Rerum Novarum. In an address to the college of cardinals this morning, the Holy Father said, 

I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, 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. 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 defence of human dignity, justice and labour.

To read his full address, click here.
To read Rerum Novarum click here.

To the above I will just add that from an English perspective, the importance of Rerum Novarum to Pope Leo XIV is particularly exciting because if memory serves it was also important to the great writers G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc as they developed their theory of distributism.

Coat-of-Arms

Just before writing this post, I updated the Home page to include Leo's new coat-of-arms. Actually, the shield and motto remain unchanged. Only the background has been altered to reflect the fact that he is no longer a cardinal, but the pope.

For an explanation of what the elements of the coat-of-arms mean click here. 

So what kind of pope will Leo XIV be? From his name and coat-of-arms, a pope of unity, one informed by the writings of St. Augustine, and one with a particular concern and care for people in the rapidly developing digital age. This is very encouraging indeed.

St. Augustine - Pray for us

St. Monica - Pray for us