Pope Leo XIII

Pope Leo XIII (Italian: Leone XIII; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 1878 until his death in 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of St. Peter, Pius IX (his predecessor), and John Paul II.

Born in Carpineto Romano, near Rome, Leo XIII is well known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. Pope Leo XIII wrote a total of 86 encyclicals during his papacy from 1878 to 1903. In his 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, Pope Leo outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, while affirming the rights to property and free enterprise, opposing both atheistic socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. With that encyclical, he became popularly called the "Social Pope" and the "Pope of the Workers", also having created the foundations for modern thinking in the social doctrines of the Catholic Church, influencing his successors. He influenced the Mariology of the Catholic Church and promoted both the rosary and the scapular. Upon his election, he immediately sought to revive Thomism, the theological system of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, wishing to make it the official political, theological, and philosophical foundation of the Catholic Church. As a result, he sponsored the Editio Leonina in 1879.

Leo XIII is remembered for his belief that pastoral activity in political sociology is also a vital mission of the church as a vehicle of social justice and maintaining the rights and dignities of the human person. He issued a record eleven papal encyclicals on the rosary, earning him the title "Rosary Pope". He also approved two new Marian scapulars. He was the first pope never to have held any control over the Papal States, which had been dissolved by 1870, since Stephen II in the 8th century. Similarly, many of his policies were oriented toward mitigating the loss of the Papal States in an attempt to overcome the loss of temporal power, but nonetheless continuing the Roman Question. After his death in 1903, he was buried in the Vatican Grottoes. In 1924, his remains were transferred to the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.

Early life and education (1810–1836)

Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci was born in Carpineto Romano, near Rome, the sixth of the seven children of Count Domenico Ludovico Pecci (2 June 1767 – 8 March 1833), Patrician of Siena, Colonel of the French Army under Napoleon, and his wife Anna Francesca Prosperi-Buzzi (1773 – 9 August 1824). His uncle Giuseppe Pecci was a protonotary apostolic and referendary of the Signature of Justice and died in 1806. His brothers included Giuseppe and Giovanni Battista or Giambattista Pecci (26 October 1802 – 28 March 1882), 1st Count Pecci (Comes Romanus by Papal brief in 1880), who married on 8 August 1851 Angela Salina (7 February 1830 – 9 October 1899) and had issue, and sister Anna Maria Pecci, wife of Michelangelo Pecci. Until 1818, he lived at home with his family "in which religion counted as the highest grace on earth, as through her, salvation can be earned for all eternity". Together with Giuseppe, he studied in the Jesuit College in Viterbo until 1824. He enjoyed Latin and was known to have written his own Latin poems at the age of eleven. Leo was a descendant of the Italian leader Cola di Rienzo on his mother's side.

His siblings were:

• Carlo (1793–1879)
• Anna Maria (1798–1870)
• Caterina (1800–1867)
• Giovanni Battista (1802–1881)
• Giuseppe (1807–1890)
• Fernando (1813–1830)

In 1824, he and Giuseppe were called to Rome, where their mother was dying. Count Pecci wanted his children near him after the loss of his wife and so they stayed with him in Rome and attended the Jesuit Collegium Romanum.

In 1828, the 18-year-old Vincenzo decided in favour of secular clergy, and Giuseppe entered the Jesuit order. Vincenzo studied at the Academia dei Nobili, mainly diplomacy and law. In 1834, he gave a student presentation, attended by several cardinals, on papal judgments. For his presentation, he received awards for academic excellence and gained the attention of Vatican officials. Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Lambruschini introduced him to Vatican congregations. During a cholera epidemic in Rome, he assisted Cardinal Giuseppe Antonio Sala in his duties as overseer of all the city hospitals. In 1836, he received his doctorate in theology and doctorates of civil and Canon Law in Rome.

Provincial administrator (1837–1843)

On 14 February 1837, Pope Gregory XVI appointed the 27-year-old Pecci as personal prelate even before he was ordained a priest on 31 December 1837 by the Cardinal Vicar Carlo Odescalchi. He celebrated his first Mass with his priest brother Giuseppe. Shortly thereafter, Gregory XVI appointed Pecci as Papal legate (provincial administrator) to Benevento, the smallest Papal province, with a population of about 20,000.

The main problems facing Pecci were a decaying local economy, insecurity from widespread bandits, and pervasive Mafia or Camorra structures, which were often allied with aristocratic families. Pecci arrested the most powerful aristocrat in Benevento his troops captured others, who were either killed or imprisoned by him. With public order restored, he turned to the economy and a reform of the tax system to stimulate trade with the neighboring provinces.

Pecci was first destined for Spoleto, a province of 100,000. On 17 July 1841, he was sent to Perugia with 200,000 inhabitants. His immediate concern was to prepare the province for a papal visitation in the same year. Pope Gregory XVI visited hospitals and educational institutions for several days, asking for advice and listing questions. The fight against corruption continued in Perugia, where Pecci investigated several incidents. When it was claimed that a bakery was selling bread below the prescribed pound weight, he personally went there, had all bread weighed and confiscated it if below legal weight. The confiscated bread was distributed to the poor.

Nuncio to Belgium (1843–1846)

In 1843, Pecci, at only 33, was appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Belgium, a position that guaranteed the cardinal's hat after completion of the tour.

On 27 April 1843, Pope Gregory XVI appointed Pecci Archbishop and asked his Cardinal Secretary of State Lambruschini to consecrate him. Pecci developed excellent relations with the royal family and used the location to visit neighboring Germany, where he was particularly interested in the architectural completion of the Cologne Cathedral.

In 1844, upon his initiative, a Belgian College in Rome was opened; 102 years later, in 1946, the future Pope John Paul II would begin his Roman studies there. Pecci spent several weeks in England with Bishop Nicholas Wiseman, carefully reviewing the condition of the Catholic Church in that country.

In Belgium, the school question was sharply debated between the Catholic majority and the liberal minority. Pecci encouraged the struggle for Catholic schools, but he was able to win the good will of the Court not only of the pious Queen Louise but also of King Leopold I, who was strongly liberal in his views. The new nuncio succeeded in uniting Catholics. At the end of his mission, the King granted him the Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold.

Archbishop-Bishop of Perugia (1846–1878)

Papal assistant

In 1843, Pecci had been named papal assistant. From 1846 to 1877, he was considered a popular and successful Archbishop of Perugia. In 1847, after Pope Pius IX granted unlimited freedom for the press in the Papal States, Pecci, who had been highly popular in the first years of his episcopate, became the object of attacks in the media and at his residence. In 1848, revolutionary movements developed throughout Western Europe, including France, Germany and Italy. Austrian, French and Spanish troops reversed the revolutionary gains but at a price for Pecci and the Catholic Church, who could not regain their former popularity.

Provincial council

Pecci called a provincial council in 1849 to reform the religious life in his dioceses in Spoleto and it was in this council that the need for a Syllabus of Errors was discussed. He invested in enlarging the seminary for future priests and in hiring new and prominent professors, preferably Thomists. He called on his brother Giuseppe Pecci, a noted Thomist scholar, to resign his professorship in Rome and to teach in Perugia instead. His own residence was next to the seminary, which facilitated his daily contacts with the students.