From Rerum Novarum to the plea to the Madonna of Pompeii: the choice of the name reveals a precise legacy, relaunches the message of social doctrine and announces a pontificate attentive to the most fragile
With the election to the Soglio di Pietro, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost has chosen to take the name of Leo XIVentrusting to this ancient tituulation the indication of a pontificate intended for combine vigor and deep attention to social issues. The reference to the “lion” marks a red thread that crosses centuries of the history of the Church, since The first great “Leo” who, in the fifth century, saved Rome from the fury of Attila.
The symbol of the “lion” in the Christian tradition
From the origins, the lion has entered the sacred imagination as an emblem of royal power and protection. In the Apocalypse, Christ is called “lion of the tribe of Judah”a victorious figure that opens the seals of the book of life. In the Middle Ages, the animal sometimes headed in the iconographies of the warriors, to seal the courage and defense of faith. If in the medieval bestiary the lion was “king of animals”, in the church the pontiff – vicar of Christ on earth – assumes this royalty not for domain, but for service and custody of the flock.
From the primacy of Leone I Magno to Leone X Medici: a saga thirteen centuries long
The first lion to sit on the throne of Peter was Leone I, called “Magno” (440-461). Called to face the siege of Attila in 452, he had the interpreter of Rome in front of the King of the Huns, appealing the invasion with words charged with spiritual and diplomatic authority. Meneghini and historians still remember the solemn tones of the “non pro me, Sed pro populo Romano gold te, Attila” with which, according to tradition, he convinced the leader to relegate. Leo IIconsecrated on August 17, 682, is remembered for his intervention on the question of papalphalability, then definitively proclaimed as dogma with Vatican Council in 1870. He died a year after his consecration.
More than three centuries passed before another lion left an indelible mark: Leo III (795-816), the Pope who crossed Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire On Christmas morning of the 19th century, sealing an alliance that would have shaped Christian Europe for centuries. With him the Church took the protagonist of an unprecedented cultural and political rebirth.
Between the IX and the 16th century, six other popes adopted the name of Leone: Leone IV (847-855)That He erected the Leonine walls to protect the Vatican city; Leone V, Lion VI and Lion VII, short and largely obscure papal papacies in historiography; Leo VIII, elected during a period of conflicts between Roman factions; and finally Leo X (1513-1521), son of Lorenzo de ‘Medici, Refined patron whose artistic commissions – from Raffaello to the Vatican rooms – would have contributed to the triumph of the Renaissance, but also the target of the criticisms of Martin Luther, triggering the Protestant reform.
Leo XIII: the custodian of the “Rerum Novarum”
Thus we come to the thought of Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci, elected in 1878 at 68 years old with the name of Leo XIII. Originally from Carpineto Romano, a small town on the outskirts of Rome, Leo XIII rose to the papal throne with the fame of intellectual open to dialogue. A few weeks after the election, he encouraged the recitation of the Rosary in his first encyclical, immediately underlining the value of Marian devotion.
The European context was marked by the social convulsions of the industrial revolution: rapidly expanding industries, exploitation of juvenile work, birth of ideological tensions between wild capitalism and atheist socialism. In this scenario, on May 15, 1891, Leo XIII promulgated the “Rerum Novarum”, an encyclical that was greeted as a turning point in the history of the Church. With simple and direct language, Pecci reaffirmed the dignity of work, condemning exploitation and establishing the principle of a “right merced” capable of guaranteeing decent living conditions. But not only that, he recognized the freedom of the workers to organize themselves in unions, hoping for a collective action that did not degenerate into violence or class struggle, invited the states to intervene to protect the weakest, without falling into the excess of a despotic control over the world of work and rejected both atheist socialism and Freemasonry and underlined the value of cooperation between employment and workers, in a perspective of justice. distribution.
Leo XIII’s gaze was addressed to the future: the “Rerum Novarum” inspired dozens of later pontifical documents, contributing to the construction of what would become the social doctrine of the Church. Her loyalty to the Madonna of Pompeii, with the promotion of the sanctuary and the plea of Bartolo Longo, has left an echo of Marian pity still alive today.
In the sign of Leo XIII: the turning point of Leone XIV
When Pope Prevost, in his first speech from the Loggia di San Pietro, recalled Marian devotion, wanted to give a deliberate nod to the bequest of Pecci. But Leone XIV’s choice is not simple nostalgia: it is the confirmation of a renewed commitment on the great social themes. In a world marked by growing inequalities, environmental crises and new poverty, the name of Leone recalls the call to a balanced, non -ideological action, based on the protection of the person.
A further link between the two popes is the common devotion to the Madonna of Pompeii. It was Leo XIII, already in his first encyclical, who encouraged the recitation of the Rosary and to animate the cult of the sanctuary wanted by Bartolo Lono, the former socialist atheist who composed the famous plea. Every first Sunday of October, throughout the Catholic world that prayer is still renewed, while Pope Prevost – in resuming this reference – wanted to underline how the reference to the mother of Mercy is the further red thread that ideally combines the “lions” of the past with the mission of Leone XIV.
With the name of Leone XIV, Pope Prevost enters a traditional centuries long, but looks to the challenges of the 21st century: growing inequalities, new poverty, environmental crisis. Leo XIII’s experience indicates the way: a non -ideological action, but inspired by the dignity of each person, the cooperation between classes and the primacy of the common good. Led by the strength of the lion and the sweetness of a shepherd, the new pontiff is called to write the next chapter of a millennial story, with firmness and mercy.
