Less than two weeks ago, I was in the same boat as all of you: watching our new Holy Father present himself to the world for the first time. Cardinal Robert Prevost introduced himself to his Church as Pope Leo XIV.
The choice of a new papal name has a long tradition in our faith. This choice is important for many reasons, among which is that it is the first communication of his pontificate. For example, After Pope St. Paul VI died, there were many who were wondering if the new Holy Father would continue on with the reforms of Vatican II or if he would pull back from them. When Albino Luciani was elected, he took the name Pope John Paul I. He had chosen the names of the two popes who presided over Vatican II: Pope St. John XXIII and Pope St. Paul VI. By doing so, he told the world that he would be a Vatican II pope. His successor took the name John Paul II to continue that tradition. Pope Francis chose his novel name in part to show his desire to be something new and different and (as he loved to urge us) to “shake things up.” He also named himself after St. Francis of Assisi to show his great love of the poor.
So what can we learn about Pope Leo XIV? What message is he trying to communicate?
It is helpful to look back at some of the previous Leo’s. In the history of the Catholic Church, only two popes are given the honorific “The Great.” One of them is Pope St. Gregory the Great.
The other is Pope St. Leo the Great.
The most famous story about Leo the Great is that after the fall of the Roman Empire, Atilla the Hun came to sack Rome. But Leo went out to confront him. After their encounter, Atilla ordered his armies away. Perhaps Leo XIV looks at his pontificate as one that stands up to the violent powers of the world. He is the one must stand in the breach to intercede for peace. In the first few days of his Pontificate, Leo XIV has already made very public calls for an end to the violence in the Ukraine and in the Middle East. At his behest, Vice President Vance and Ukrainian President Zelensky sat down to continue their dialogue. Looking at Pope St. Leo the Great as a model, our current pope is signaling that he is not afraid to directly engage with the powerful of the world to create unity.
But the pope that had the most influence in the name choice was the previous one to have the name: Pope Leo XIII.
This was the Pope that lead us into the 20th Century. He was a momentous figure who helped the Church come to grips with the modern world. Those like Pope Pius IX, who called the First Vatican Council, appeared to be more skeptical of the general liberalization of the modern world (“liberal” here in the classical sense, not the modern political sense). Leo XIII saw how quickly the world was changing and he saw the need of the Church to bring the light of Christ. His momentous encyclical Rerum Novarum helped outline how the Church was to engage with the changing landscape of the world. Pope Leo XIV makes explicit reference to this:
“I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor.”
Leo XIV does a few things with this statement.
The first is that he points to the Church’s tradition. He refers to the “treasury of [the Church’s] social teaching…” Much of the economic and political strife we have has already been addressed by previous popes and great thinkers of the Church. Leo XIV is reminding us that we do not need to reinvent the wheel over every new problem.
The second is that he is forward-looking. Right now the Church does not have a well-developed moral theology regarding things like artificial intelligence. But Leo XIV sees his pontificate as not only looking to the past, but also having enough wisdom and foresight to look to how the future is developing. He believes that the technological revolution of AI is something that will have a lasting impact on the world and so it must be confronted and/or embraced head-on
Third, he highlights things that were central to Rerum Novarum: “human dignity, justice and labor.” Already Pope Leo XIV has made the subject of human dignity a point of his pontificate. He said, “In addition, no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike.” Like Pope Francis, Leo XIV appears to be a champion of the Church’s teaching on justice. And like Pope Leo XIII, he emphasizes the value of human labor.
These are still the early days and we pray that our new pope is enjoys a long pontificate serving God’s Church.
But perhaps these are the things that we can expect during his time as pope based on what he has chosen as his name.
Copyright 2025, WL Grayson
W.L. Grayson
I am a devoutly Catholic theology teacher who loves a popular culture that often, quite frankly, hates me. I grew up absorbing every movie, TV show, comic book, science fiction novel, etc. I could find. As of today I’ve watched over 2100 movies and tv shows. They take up a huge part of my life. I don’t know that this is a good thing, but it has given me a common vocabulary to draw from in order to illustrate whatever theological point I make in class. I’ve used American Pie the song to explain the Book of Revelation (I’ll post on this some time later) and American Pie the movie to help explain Eucharist (don’t ask). The point is that the popular culture is popular for a reason. It is woven into the fabric of our lives and imaginations, for good or ill. In this blog I will attempt to bring together the things of heaven with the things of earth. Of course this goal may be too lofty for someone like me.
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