As I began to reflect HERE about Pope Leo XIV’s choice of name and possible direction of his papacy, I wanted to reflect more on Pope Leo XIII and the encyclical, “On Capital and Labor” written in 1891.

In my last post on Pope Leo XIV I wanted to emphasize our tendency to quickly pigeonhole the direction the pope will take so we can either, 1) write him off as a communist or “woke”, or 2) tout him as a progressive. The tendency of the Church through the centuries has been something different. Churches with long histories do have periods of “reaction.” But over time, if the Church is truly being the Church, it is more prophetic and less reactionary. In other words, it can’t be pigeonholed.

Should Pope Leo XIV take the direction of Pope Leo XIII, there are some things to learn from the encyclical. The important thing is this: read the encyclical. Don’t let the media or right wing podcasters or social media hounds dictate what that encyclical means.

For instance, the media caught wind of the encyclical and then touted Pope Leo XIII as the originator of the social gospel. Which, of course, then causes right wing fanatics to yell, “WOKE!!! The pope is WOKE!”

To decry the encyclical as “socialist” is to simply be a reactionary to the media. It means one didn’t read four paragraphs into the document!

He writes this:

To remedy these wrongs the socialists, working on the poor man’s envy of the rich, are striving to do away with private property, and contend that individual possessions should become the common property of all, to be administered by the State or by municipal bodies.

He then spends the next several paragraphs decrying the weaknesses of socialism. His effort is to help people understand you cannot pit classes of society against one another.

In Paragraph 19: Mutual agreement results in the beauty of good order, while perpetual conflict necessarily produces confusion and savage barbarity. 

And who should be doing the work of bringing people together? The Church.

In Paragraph 21: But the Church, with Jesus Christ as her Master and Guide, aims higher still. She lays down precepts yet more perfect, and tries to bind class to class in friendliness and good feeling.

The Church has a role in the world. It is to remember the poor. It is to help those on the margins. It is also to speak the truth of remembering the poor to the powers of government, no matter the type of government. We are to call the government into account. We are to raise prophetic voices and call on leaders to act with justice. We are to treat all classes equally.

Paragraph 35:

Rulers should, nevertheless, anxiously safeguard the community and all its members; the community, because the conservation thereof is so emphatically the business of the supreme power, that the safety of the commonwealth is not only the first law, but it is a government’s whole reason of existence; and the members, because both philosophy and the Gospel concur in laying down that the object of the government of the State should be, not the advantage of the ruler, but the benefit of those over whom he is placed. 

The safeguarding of all is the priority of the government.

We are to speak up when people are treated with cruelty. We are to speak up when the government lowers itself to inhumane practices. The current treatment of immigrants is an area where our voices should be louder in the Church. The debate can rage on about “criminals” but the evidence piling up is that this government doesn’t care about “hardened” criminals so much as they care about deporting people of color and sorting out the details later. This government isn’t just deporting, but paying other countries to put deported immigrants into their prisons. It is a disregard for our laws and inhumane treatment.

Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical moves through a call for fair treatment of the poor, along with a call to responsibility. It is a call to sacrifice for others.

In other words, it is the gospel.

The gospel doesn’t work in pigeonholes from the “right” or the “left.”

May we walk in the steps of Jesus. It is loving God and loving others. Out of this love we move with kindness and generosity. The words of Pope Leo XIII, following the pattern of the Gospel, are wise words we should heed, and not just our newest Pope.