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Australia and the Popes
Pope Leo XIII : 1878-1903
When the colonies of Australia came together to form the
Commonwealth Federation of Australia on 1st January 1901 the
reigning Pope was Leo XIII in the 23rd year of his pontificate.
At the time of his death on 20th July 1903, Pope Leo XIII
was the second-longest reigning Pope, exceeded only by his
immediate predecessor, Pius IX. Leo XIII's regnal length was
subsequently exceeded by that of Pope John Paul II (1978–2005) on March
14, 2004.
Pope Leo was born on 2nd March 1810 at Carpineto Romano,
Italy. His birth name was Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele
Luigi Pecci. He was ordained on 31 December 1837. He became
titular archbishop of Damietta in 1843 and apostolic nuncio
to Belgium on 28 January 1843. He was named papal assistant
in 1843. Pecci first achieved note as the popular and successful
Archbishop of Perugia from 1846 till 1877, which led to his
appointment as a Cardinal in 1853. Later, he was appointed
as Camerlengo
of the Holy Roman Church, a position he held until his election
as Pope.
Most famous for his social teaching:
He is most famous for his social teaching, in which he argued
the flaws of capitalism and communism. His encyclical Rerum
Novarum focused on the rights and duties of capital
and labor, and introduced the idea of subsidiarity into Catholic
social thought. Rerum Novarum is generally accepted
to be the founding document of Christian Democracy.
While individual positions or statements have been debated,
the work was remarkable as a summary of many issues raised
by the industrial revolution and modern democratic societies.
Leo began by describing many of the grievances of the working
class. But he refuted as false the theories of Marxist socialists
and defended private ownership. He believed that solutions
would come from the combined actions of the Church, the State,
the employer and the employee. He set out principles that
should be used in seeking justice in industrial, social, and
economic life.
Many of the positions in Rerum Novarum were supplemented
by later encyclicals, especially Pius XI's Quadragesimo
Anno (1931), John XXIII's Mater
et Magistra (1961), and John Paul II's Centesimus
Annus (1991).
In his 1893 encyclical Providentissimus
Deus, Leo gave new encouragement to Bible study while
warning against rationalist interpretations which deny the
inspiration of Scripture.
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The textual material on these pages was sourced from a large number of places all of which can be found through the links on each page. The material was researched, assembled and produced by Brian Coyne for Catholic Australia. The images used in the Flash animations are in the public domain. Other images used are in the public domain or sourced from the webpages to which they are linked.
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