Pope Leo XIV: Here is Why Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost Chose This Papal Name
Here is a brief history of the papal name Leo and how it could impact the future decision of the newly appointed Pope, Leo XIV. Leo is the fifth most famous name chosen by the popes. According to the Holy See director, this name directly refers to Pope Leo XIII. He headed the Catholic Church from 1878 to 1903 and was known as a founding figure in the Catholic social justice tradition.
Pope Leo XIII was popular among his followers for the encyclical "Rerum Novarum" (Meaning - Of New Things). The Holy See director said he was considered the foundation for the modern social doctrine of the church.
"The papal name Leo unsurprisingly shows a Pope who is going to be strong during a time of crisis, historically. It seems likely to be a continuation of Francis's liberalisation," the Independent quoted Catholic priest and blogger Ed Tomlinson.
Here is Why Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost Chose This Papal Name
The ancient tradition of choosing a papal name began in the sixth century when Roman-born Mercurius refused to rule under the name honouring a pagan god and chose John II. The tradition became customary in the 11th century and evolved as a symbolic act.
"Looking to history, Leos were a strong popes. Like Leo XIII, he loved his people. He loved his people. His people, he considered man not a machine. A man's work was a reflection of his dignity. We don't know this yet, but it'd be interesting to know why he took the name Leo," ABC News quoted Father Vito Crincoli.
Pope Leo's in History
The first pope to choose Leo as the papal name was Leo the Great, who served the Catholic Church from 440 to 461. He was known as a Doctor of the Church after standing for orthodox teachings during the time of theological and political upheaval. Pope Leo II, who led the Catholic Church for a year from 682, was as popular among his followers as an eloquent preacher and a gentle soul.
Leo III became famous during his tenure from 795 to 816 for crowning Charlemagne as Emperor, launching the Holy Roman Empire. Leo IV united Italian cities and rebuilt churches destroyed by Arab raiders. He was known as the papal builder and defender, and for protecting the Vatican by erecting the mighty Leonine Wall.
Leo V's reign ended two months after he took charge because of betrayal. Leo VI became the leader of the Catholic Church during chaotic times. During his leadership, he urged Christians to fight against Arab raiders, banned castrati from marrying, and sent bishops to their dioceses. Leo VII appointed a German archbishop to reform the church after helping broker peace between King Hugh of Italy and Alberic through an arranged marriage.
Pope Leo VIII was known as an antipope during the first part of his reign and the legitimate pope during the second period. Leo IX captured the attention of Catholics worldwide for his stand on papal authority. His bold stance led to a split between Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. Leo X faced four issues during his reign: the Lutheran Reformation, political ambitions to dominate Italy, building programs to build Rome into a great city, and unsuccessful efforts to reform the church during the Fifth Lateran Council.
Leo XI was described as the Lightning Pope because he was the Catholic Church's leader for 26 days. Leo XII ruled during the turbulent times and became known as the conservative pope.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
03-08-2025
- Straits Times
Chaos, gangs, gunfire: Gaza aid fails to reach most needy
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip while waiting for aid since May 27. PARIS - The trickle of food aid Israel allows to enter Gaza after nearly 22 months of war is seized by Palestinians risking their lives under fire, looted by gangs or diverted in chaotic circumstances rather than reaching those most in need, UN agencies, aid groups and analysts say. After images of malnourished children stoked an international outcry, aid has started to be delivered to the territory once more but on a scale deemed woefully insufficient by international organisations. Every day, AFP correspondents on the ground see desperate crowds rushing towards food convoys or the sites of aid drops by Arab and European air forces. On July 31, in Al-Zawayda in central Gaza, emaciated Palestinians rushed to pallets parachuted from a plane, jostling and tearing packages from each other in a cloud of dust. 'Hunger has driven people to turn on each other. People are fighting each other with knives,' Mr Amir Zaqot, who came seeking aid, told AFP. To avoid disturbances, World Food Programme (WFP) drivers have been instructed to stop before their intended destination and let people help themselves. But to no avail. 'A truck wheel almost crushed my head, and I was injured retrieving the bag,' sighed a man, carrying a bag of flour on his head, in the Zikim area, in the northern Gaza Strip. Truly tragic Mr Mohammad Abu Taha went at dawn to a distribution site near Rafah in the south to join the queue and reserve his spot. He said there were already 'thousands waiting, all hungry, for a bag of flour or a little rice and lentils.' 'Suddenly, we heard gunshots..... There was no way to escape. People started running, pushing and shoving each other, children, women, the elderly,' said the 42-year-old. 'The scene was truly tragic: blood everywhere, wounded, dead.' Nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip while waiting for aid since May 27, the majority by the Israeli army, the United Nations said on Aug 1. The Israeli army denies any targeting, insisting it only fires 'warning shots' when people approach too close to its positions. International organisations have for months condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on aid distribution in Gaza, including refusing to issue border crossing permits, slow customs clearance, limited access points, and imposing dangerous routes. On July 29, in Zikim, the Israeli army 'changed loading plans for WFP, mixing cargo unexpectedly. The convoy was forced to leave early, without proper security,' said a senior UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity. In the south of Gaza, at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, 'there are two possible routes to reach our warehouses (in central Gaza),' said an NGO official, who also preferred to remain anonymous. 'One is fairly safe, the other is regularly the scene of fighting and looting, and that's the one we're forced to take.' Darwinian experiment Some of the aid is looted by gangs – who often directly attack warehouses – and diverted to traders who resell it at exorbitant prices, according to several humanitarian sources and experts. 'It becomes this sort of Darwinian social experiment of the survival of the fittest,' said Mr Muhammad Shehada, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). 'People who are the most starved in the world and do not have the energy must run and chase after a truck and wait for hours and hours in the sun and try to muscle people and compete for a bag of flour,' he said. Mr Jean Guy Vataux, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza, added: 'We're in an ultra-capitalist system, where traders and corrupt gangs send kids to risk life and limb at distribution points or during looting. It's become a new profession.' This food is then resold to 'those who can still afford it' in the markets of Gaza City, where the price of a 25-kg bag of flour can exceed US$400 (S$516), he added. Never found proof Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of looting aid supplied by the UN, which has been delivering the bulk of aid since the start of the war triggered by the militant group's October 2023 attack. The Israeli authorities have used this accusation to justify the total blockade they imposed on Gaza between March and May, and the subsequent establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation supported by Israel and the United States which has become the main aid distributor, sidelining UN agencies. However, for more than two million inhabitants of Gaza the GHF has just four distribution points, which the UN describes as a 'death trap'. 'Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population many times by shooting Palestinians,' said the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on July 28. But according to senior Israeli military officials quoted by the New York Times on July 26, Israel 'never found proof' that the group had 'systematically stolen aid' from the UN. Weakened by the war with Israel which has seen most of its senior leadership killed, Hamas today is made up of 'basically decentralised autonomous cells' said Mr Shehada. He said while Hamas militants still hunker down in each Gaza neighbourhood in tunnels or destroyed buildings, they are not visible on the ground 'because Israel has been systematically going after them'. Aid workers told AFP that during the ceasefire that preceded the March blockade, the Gaza police – which includes many Hamas members – helped secure humanitarian convoys, but that the current power vacuum was fostering insecurity and looting. 'UN agencies and humanitarian organisations have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to facilitate and protect aid convoys and storage sites in our warehouses across the Gaza Strip,' said Ms Bushra Khalidi, policy lead at Oxfam. 'These calls have largely been ignored,' she added. All kinds of criminal activities The Israeli army is also accused of having equipped Palestinian criminal networks in its fight against Hamas and of allowing them to plunder aid. 'The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces, and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point into Gaza,' Mr Jonathan Whittall, Palestinian territories chief of the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), told reporters in May. According to Israeli and Palestinian media reports, an armed group called the Popular Forces, made up of members of a Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab, is operating in the southern region under Israeli control. The ECFR describes Abu Shabab as leading a 'criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks'. The Israeli authorities themselves acknowledged in June that they had armed Palestinian gangs opposed to Hamas, without directly naming the one led by Abu Shabab. Dr Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University, said many of the gang's members were implicated in 'all kinds of criminal activities, drug smuggling, and things like that'. 'None of this can happen in Gaza without the approval, at least tacit, of the Israeli army,' said a humanitarian worker in Gaza, asking not to be named. AFP
CNA
20-07-2025
- CNA
5 dead after ferry catches fire off Indonesia's Sulawesi island; passengers jump for safety
JAKARTA: An Indonesian ferry fire killed at least five people on Sunday (Jul 20), the country's coast guard said, while more than 200 others were saved with many jumping overboard to flee the huge blaze. Dramatic footage of passengers jumping into the sea made the rounds on social media after the KM Barcelona 5 ferry was engulfed in flames off the coast of Sulawesi island, Indonesia's Maritime Security Agency said. The incident came just weeks after at least 19 people were killed when a ferry sank off the popular resort island of Bali. "Five people were reported dead, two of whom have yet to be identified. Meanwhile, 284 people have been evacuated safely," the agency, also known as Bakamla, said in a statement. The fire broke out at the ferry's stern as it was on its way to Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, with some passengers jumping overboard with life jackets, the statement said. Local media reported that the vessel was ferrying 280 passengers and was scheduled to dock at Manado Port. Fishermen also helped evacuate the victims to nearby islands, while those injured were taken to the nearest health facility, Bakamla added. The accident happened about one hour away from the resort town of Likupang, in the northern tip of Sulawesi, Manado search and rescue agency head, George Leo Mercy Randang, told AFP. A video released by the Manado agency showed a Bakamla vessel spraying water on the ferry, which was still emitting thin black smoke. "What is important is that we are prioritising rescue before nightfall," George told AFP, without confirming the total number of people who were on board the ferry. Neither he nor Bakamla gave a cause for the fire. Videos of the vessel fire went viral on TikTok, with some reportedly taken by passengers who had jumped aboard for safety. Thick plumes of black smoke could be seen in the background as passengers floated in the water. In another clip posted on Tiktok by user Soalunsrat, passengers on the vessel were seen hurriedly putting on life vests even as others were seen panicking and attempting to make calls on their mobile phones.
Straits Times
14-07-2025
- Straits Times
Excavations begin at mass child grave site in Ireland
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Records unearthed show as many as 796 babies and young children died at the Tuam home. DUBLIN - Excavations at an unmarked mass burial site are expected to start on July 14 in a former mother and baby home in western Ireland. The site is suspected of containing the remains of hundreds of infants and young children. The planned two-year probe by Irish and foreign experts in Tuam, a town located north of Galway, comes more than a decade after an amateur historian first uncovered evidence of a mass grave there. Subsequent test excavations in 2016 to 2017 found significant quantities of baby remains in a subterranean disused septic tank at the location, which now sits within a housing complex. Catholic nuns ran a so-called 'mother and baby' institution there between 1925 and 1961, housing women who had become pregnant outside of marriage and were shunned by their families. After giving birth, some children lived in the homes too but many more were given up for adoption under a system that often saw the church and state work in tandem. Oppressive and misogynistic, the institutions – which operated nationwide, some not closing until as recently as 1998 – represent a dark chapter in the history of the once overwhelmingly Catholic and socially conservative Ireland. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Business Singapore's economy sees surprise expansion in Q2 despite US tariff uncertainty: Advance estimate Singapore Singapore to train more aviation and maritime officials from around the world Singapore What's in a name? Local author traces the evolution of Singaporean Chinese names Business From wellness zone to neurodivergent room: How companies are creating inviting, inclusive offices Singapore Swift action needed to stop vaping's slide from health risk to drug epidemic Singapore Govt will continue to support families, including growing group of seniors: PM Wong at PCF Family Day Singapore Art by Pathlight students to be displayed along Singapore River Sport Jannik Sinner dethrones Carlos Alcaraz to capture maiden Wimbledon crown A six-year inquiry sparked by the initial discoveries in Tuam found that 56,000 unmarried women and 57,000 children passed through 18 such homes over a 76-year period. It also concluded that 9,000 children had died in the various state and Catholic Church-run homes nationwide. Records unearthed show as many as 796 babies and young children died at the Tuam home over the decades that it operated. Its grounds have been left largely untouched after the institution was knocked down in 1972 and housing was built there. A fierce battle Ms Anna Corrigan, whose two siblings may have been buried at the Tuam site, spoke reporters earlier in July . She said: 'These children were denied every human right in their lifetime, as were their mothers. 'And they were denied dignity and respect in death.' Ireland's Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention (Odait) will undertake the excavation, alongside experts from Colombia, Spain, Britain, Canada and the United States. It will involve exhumation, analysis, identification if possible, and re-interment of the remains found, said Odait d irector Daniel MacSweeney at a press briefing in Tuam. In 2014, local historian Catherine Corless produced evidence that the 796 children – from newborns to a nine-year-old – had died at the home. State-issued death certificates she compiled show that various ailments, from tuberculosis and convulsions to measles and whooping cough, were listed as the cause of death. Ms Corless's research indicated the corpses were likely placed in the disused septic tank discovered in 1975, while prompting the state-backed enquiries that have uncovered the full scandal of the homes. The Odait team was finally appointed in 2023 to lead the Tuam site excavation. DNA samples have already been collected from about 30 relatives, and this process will be expanded in the coming months to gather as much genetic evidence as possible, said Mr MacSweeney. A 2.4m high hoarding has been installed around the perimeter of the excavation area, which is also subject to 24-hour security monitoring to ensure its forensic integrity. In May, Ms Corless, 71, said: 'It's been a fierce battle. When I started this, nobody wanted to listen. At last, we are righting the wrongs. I was just begging: 'Take the babies out of this sewage system and give them the decent Christian burial that they were denied.''
