Pope Leo XIV, the American
Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor
That the spirit of revolutionary change, which has long been disturbing the nations of the world, should have passed beyond the sphere of politics and made its influence felt in the cognate sphere of practical economics is not surprising. The elements of theconflict now raging are unmistakable, in the vast expansion of industrial pursuits and the marvellous discoveries of science; in the changed relations between masters and workmen; in the enormous fortunes of some few individuals, and the utter poverty of the masses; the increased self reliance and closer mutual combination of the working classes; as also, finally, in the prevailing moral degeneracy. The momentous gravity of the state of things now obtaining fills every mind with painful apprehension; wise men are discussing it; practical men are proposing schemes; popular meetings, legislatures, and rulers of nations are all busied with it - actually there is no question which has taken deeper hold on the public mind.
—Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII, 1891
Dear Reader,
The Roman Catholic Church and the world have an American pope. There is now no doubt that Chicago, not New York or Boston, is the capital of Catholicism in the USA Robert Francis Prevost, born in the Second City, is the new pontiff; he shall reign as Pope Leo XIV. Where Francis was a Jesuit, Leo is an Augustinian. The Americas have now produced two straight bishops of Rome. These are unprecedented times. As he is relatively young, 69, turning 70 in September, we can expect a long pontificate of around two decades, as he is almost 7 years younger than his predecessor at the time of his election.
An American Pope is a surprise and the name Pope Leo XIV could be a sign of confrontation with the USA as Leo XIII is the pope cited most by Christian Democrats, Solidarists, and even Kuyperian Protestants because of his 1891 encyclical RERUM NOVARUM which took on rampant capitalism and socialism as moral and societal ills in the 19th century, during the Gilded Age of the Robber Barons.
Many feared that an American pope at the time of US-led disruption would compromise the Vatican. Many traditional Catholics are dissatisfied with their association with the Trump administration and especially the US vice president, J.D. Vance, a recent adult convert to Catholicism. Others, however, think an American Pope will be more likely to call American Catholics to be political Catholics and not seek a political Catholicism that serves a secular partisan interest.
He entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine in 1977 and took his vows in 1981. The Augustinians sent him to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University (Angelicum), and he became a priest in 1982. In 1987, he earned a doctorate with the thesis: “The role of the local prior in the Order of Saint Augustine”. After serving in the USA and Latin America, he returned to Chicago and was elected provincial prior of the “Mother of Good Counsel” province, Chicago, and later made Augustinian prior general.
His advancement increased to the meteoric under Francis, who elevated him to the office of bishop in 2014 and gave him administrative roles. On 30 January 2023, Pope Francis appointed him as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. And later that year was appointed Cardinal by Pope Francis, 30 September 2023. After being a cardinal for less than two years, he is now the Supreme Pontiff. May he be guided with wisdom, courage, and conviction.