His Holiness Pope Leo XIII is a figure of great importance in Church history, the first of the more modern Popes and yet the last of what could be called the more "princely pontifs". He reigned during a time when the Holy See was still under siege by the new Italian nation, having succeeded Pio Nono, the famed Pope who had took to the field with an international Catholic army to defend the Papal States. As we all know today, the territories were lost and the Pope went into self-imposed exile in the Vatican, in protest against being robbed of the 'micro-nation' the Pope had long-since ruled as a temporal monarch. Leo XIII was first named Gioacchino Pecci, and had served as Cardinal Bishop of Perugia and was Church leader during the period between the death of Pius IX and the next election.
Pope Leo XIII was determined to raise the prestige of the Papacy from the loss suffered at the hands of Italy and to remind all Catholics that it was the Christian Church that had to come first in their lives. He eased tensions with the anti-Catholic Bismarck and impressed many throughout the world with his grace and determination. In France the royalists were adamant that the Papal States be returned to the Church and were just as fiery in their defence of the Papacy as they were in their loyalty to the ancien regime. The Republic began to punish the Church because of their monarchist leanings and it was Pope Leo XIII who was able to keep things in relative peace, urging both sides to work together for the sake of the nation.
In matters of the Church itself, Leo XIII has been called the Pope-king. He brought back the reverence and dignity for the Papal throne that had slipped in the growing liberalism of society. Those granted an audience would kneel in his presence, attendants would never stand upright in the company of the Pope and he was never seen without his "holy court" surrounding him. Yet, his gentle manners and kindly attitude made him loved while his orthodoxy made him respected as well. He was the first to come to the defence of the abused laborers of the industrial revolution and urged the workers and employers to settle without slipping into the bondage of socialism. Despite his "royal" image Leo XIII was seen as the friend and champion of the common working man.
He rallied support against the American trend of taking religion out of schools (yes it was tried even then) and was one of the greatest teachers ever to occupy the Throne of St Peter. Throughout his reign Pope Leo XIII wrote an astounding 86 encyclicals that emphasized the role the Papacy played in instructing Christians in religion as well as how the Faithful were to react to the modern events of the day. The "remote and regal diplomat" Leo XIII reigned from 1878 to 1903 when he was succeeded by Pius X, who inherited a much stronger and more widely respcted Church because of the actions of Leo XIII. |
