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."