Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII reigned for twenty-five years and reconciled the Catholic Church with the modern world without conceding its doctrine. Born Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci in Carpineto Romano in 1810, he was educated by Jesuits, took a doctorate in theology, and served as papal governor of Benevento and Perugia and as nuncio to Belgium, where he observed an industrialised society at close range. He was Bishop of Perugia for thirty-two years, largely sidelined by Pius IX, and was elected in 1878 at sixty-eight as a transitional figure. He instead governed for a quarter of a century and changed the Church's posture. He restored diplomatic relations with Germany, ending Bismarck's Kulturkampf, opened the Vatican Secret Archives to scholars of all faiths in 1881, promoted the study of Thomas Aquinas, and accepted that Catholics could work within republican institutions, instructing French Catholics to support the Third Republic in 1892. His most consequential act was Rerum Novarum in May 1891, the first modern social encyclical. It addressed industrial capitalism directly: it defended the right to private property against socialism, and equally condemned the exploitation of workers, asserting the right to a living wage, to reasonable hours, to rest, and to form trade unions. It is the foundation of Catholic social teaching and of Christian democratic politics in Europe. He continued to refuse to accept the loss of the Papal States, remaining a prisoner of the Vatican. He declared Anglican orders invalid in 1896 and condemned Americanism in 1899. He was the first pope to be filmed and the first to make a sound recording. He died in 1903 at ninety-three.
- Lived: 1810 CE – 1903 CE
- Nationality: Italian
- Roles: pope, cleric
