2010-09-06 14:34:50

Pope reflects on Pope Leo XIII’s social encyclical


(September 6, 2010) By understanding social questions as something to be dealt with positively and effectively through dialogue and mediation, Pope Leo XIII led a Church capable of dealing with the great issues of contemporary society, said Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday. He made the comment in his homily at Mass during a brief morning visit to Pope Leo XIII’s birthplace, Carpineto Romano on the occasion of his 200th birth anniversary this year. Pope Leo XIII was born Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci in the small hill town southeast of Rome on March 2, 1810 and died on July 20, 1903. He was elected Pope in 1878. Though Pope Leo XIII is best known for his contribution to the Church's social doctrine with his landmark 1891 encyclical "Rerum Novarum," Pope Benedict stressed that he was above all "a man of great faith and profound devotion." Pope Leo was able to transmit to the People of God a message that joined "faith and reason, truth and concrete reality," the Pontiff said. “Christians, acting as individual citizens or groups within the reality of history, constitute a beneficent and peaceful force for profound change, actualizing the development of potentialities within reality itself,” Pope Benedict noted, and added, "This is the form of presence and action in the world proposed by the Church’s social doctrine, which always points to the maturation of consciences as the valid and lasting condition for transformation." He said that in an age of bitter anti-clericalism and of volatile demonstrations against the Pope, “Leo XIII knew how to guide and support Catholics along the path of constructive participation, rich in content, firm on principles and capable of openness."







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