Why Pope Leo chose his name: AI, workers' rights, new Industrial Revolution
Global Economy May 10, 2025
Newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Cardinal Robert F. Prevost of the U.S., appears on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, May 8, 2025.
Dylan Martinez | Reuters
Pope Leo XIV said Saturday that he selected his papal name in part to commemorate Pope Leo XIII for his commitment to social issues and workers' rights during the industrial revolution.
Leo said that the world now faces new hurdles to workers' rights — and humanity more broadly — due to the rise of artificial intelligence.
'In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its 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,' said the American pontiff, who before his election by a Vatican conclave on Thursday was known as Cardinal Robert Prevost.
Leo's remarks provided one of the earliest indications of his vision for leadership and priorities as head of the Roman Catholic Church.
Leo also suggested during his first meeting with cardinals since his election that he would follow the late Pope Francis' lead on his commitment to social justice.
'It has been clearly seen in the example of so many of my predecessors, and most recently by Pope Francis himself, with his example of complete dedication to service and to sober simplicity of life, his abandonment to God throughout his ministry and his serene trust at the moment of his return to the Father's house,' he said.
Francis, who was pope for 12 years, often garnered criticism from conservative cardinals who said he was watering down the Church's doctrine on issues like LGBT Catholics and women's leadership.
Leo XIII, the partial inspiration for the new pope's name, was elected in 1878. He was a prominent figure in the Catholic Church's social teaching, particularly surrounding the rights of workers and the working class.
Leo is the first American pontiff of the Catholic Church.
Reuters contributed to this report.
READ SOURCE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
China consumer prices slump again, deepening deflation worries as demand stays weak
China's consumer prices fell for a fourth consecutive month in May, as Beijing's stimulus measures appear insufficient to boost domestic consumption while trade tensions simmer. The consumer price index fell 0.1% from a year earlier, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics released Monday, compared with the median estimate for a 0.2% decline among analysts polled by Reuters. The CPI slipped into negative territory in February, falling 0.7% from a year ago, and continued to post year-on-year declines of 0.1% in March and April. Separately, deflation in the country's factory-gate or producer prices deepened, falling 3.3% from a year earlier in May, a sharper decline than analysts' expectations for a 3.2% drop. The wholesale prices have remained in deflationary territory since October 2022, according to LSEG data. On May 7, Chinese top financial regulators unleashed a flurry of policy steps aimed at bolstering the country's tariff-hit economy. China's central bank cut the key interest rates by 10 basis points to historic-low levels and lowered the reserve requirement ratio, which determines the amount of cash banks must hold in reserves, by 50 basis points. U.S. President Donald Trump had ratcheted up tariffs on Chinese goods to prohibitive levels of 145%, prompting Beijing to retaliate with duties and other restrictive measures, such as export controls on its critical minerals. On May 12, the economy got a relief after U.S. and China struck a preliminary deal in Geneva, Switzerland that led both sides to drop a majority of tariffs. Washington lowered its levies on Chinese goods to 51.1% while Beijing dropped taxes on American imports to 32.6%, according to think tank Peterson Institute for International Economics, allowing some room for both sides to negotiate a broader deal.
New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Some LA migrant protests fueled by taxpayer-funded group with Dem ties — another with CCP link
One of the groups leading anti-immigration protests in Los Angeles is a taxpayer-funded activist organization with ties to the Democratic Party, while another has links to the Chinese Communist Party. The Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) — which received tens of millions of dollars in government grants during the Biden administration — staged a rally last week to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting illegal migrants across the city, including those convicted of heinous crimes. 7 CHIRLA staged a rally last week to denounce Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting illegal migrants across the city. REUTERS Advertisement Protests against ICE escalated since then, with more than 1,000 rioters taking to the streets, assaulting immigration officers, slashing tires and defacing public buildings, the Department of Homeland Security said, prompting President Trump to call in around 2,000 National Guard troops Sunday to quell the violence. According to financial records obtained by DataRepublican, CHIRLA received nearly $34 million in government grants, mostly from the state of California, in the fiscal year ending June 2023, a jump from the $12 million it received the previous year. 7 Protests against ICE escalated since then, with more than 1,000 rioters taking to the streets. REUTERS Advertisement The radical group also received around $450,000 in grants for 'citizenship education and training' between October 2021 and September 2024 from the DHS — the very agency the group was protesting last week. The federal agency cut ties with the group and terminated any further funding in March, including clawing back nearly $101,000 in funding that had yet to be paid out. A CHIRLA spokesman denied that the group had anything to do with the violence in a statement to The Post on Sunday. 7 CHIRLA received nearly $34 million in government grants, mostly from the state of California, in the fiscal year ending June 2023. He said CHIRLA 'organized a press event on Thursday' to protest the round-ups and had 'been sending legal observers to immigration courts and detention centers on Friday, Saturday and today as part of the LA Rapid Response Network. 'We have not participated, coordinated, or been part of the protests being registered in Los Angeles other than the press conference and rally cited above,' the rep said. Advertisement Rioting broke out in LA on Friday as federal authorities resumed the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, conducting numerous raids in recent weeks and netting 'around 150' arrests, according to Trump's hard-nosed border czar Tom Homan. 7 The radical group also received around $450,000 in grants for 'citizenship education and training' between October 2021 and September 2024 from the DHS. REUTERS Another group that was behind some of last week's protests is the Marxist Party for Socialism and Liberation, which played a part in virulent past anti-Israel campus protests at Columbia University and which was once associated with suspected DC terrorist Elias Rodriguez. PSL has ties to the Chinese Communist Party through funding from socialist billionaire Neville Singham and his wife, Jodie Evans, founder of activist group Code Pink, according to a 2024 report by the Network Contagion Research Institute. Singham sunk millions of dollars into backing the groups after selling his software company, ThoughtWorks, for $785 million in 2017. Advertisement 7 Rioting broke out in LA on Friday as federal authorities resumed the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. AP Singham's ties to the Chinese government and Communist propaganda are well-documented. The New York Times published a lengthy 2023 expose on his far-reaching money machine, which has steered millions to China-praising nonprofits from South Africa, Ghana and Zambia to Brazil, New Delhi and beyond. The PSL did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment Sunday. Rioters gathered Friday after the recent protests to attempt to stop ICE agents from carrying out the immigration sweeps, leading to officers deploying tear gas and other less-lethal methods of crowd dispersal. 7 Another group that was behind some of last week's protests is the Marxist Party for Socialism and Liberation. REUTERS More than a dozen arrests were made Saturday, said Bill Essayli, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, on X. Images and videos showed hundreds of protesters clashing with riot gear-clad federal agents who were attempting to apprehend illegal immigrants near a Home Depot in Paramount, Calif. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass decried the raids, the latter claiming the federal agents used tactics that 'sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.' Advertisement 7 Rioters gathered Friday after the recent protests to attempt to stop ICE agents from carrying out the immigration sweeps. Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images In a statement on X on Saturday, Newsom wrote, 'Federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions. LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment's notice.' In a fiery response to Newsom and Bass on Truth Social Saturday, President Trump said, 'If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can't do their jobs, which everyone knows they can't, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!.'
Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
New crime novels feature a locked-room mystery, a Scarborough stabbing and a Jan. 6 insurrectionist
It's a weird time in American politics, which means it's a perfect time for Florida novelist Carl Hiaasen to plumb the satirical depths of corruption and malfeasance in his home state. His last novel, 2020's 'Squeeze Me,' suffered from a subplot that attempted to satirize the once-and-current occupant of the White House, a Falstaffian spray-tanned figure so outrageous as to be almost impervious to satire. For 'Fever Beach,' Hiaasen wisely steers clear of POTUS and his inept administration, preferring instead to focus on wanton corruption at a lower level. 'Fever Beach,' by Carl Hiaasen, Alfred A. Knopf, $34.99. The new novel begins with a meet-cute on an airplane between Twilly Spree and Viva Morales. Twilly is a stock Hiaasen character: an independently wealthy Florida do-gooder who spends his time making life miserable for folks who litter, antagonize the local wildlife or otherwise cause environmental or social havoc. Viva's job is administering the foundation of a couple of rich right-wing octogenarians whose fundraising operates as a money-laundering front to finance the campaign of far-right (and profoundly stupid) congressman Clure Boyette, in hot water with his obstreperous father over a scandal involving an underage prostitute named Galaxy. Add in Viva's landlord — a Jan. 6 insurrectionist named Dale Figgo who heads the Strokers for Freedom (a white nationalist militia whose name is a rebuke to the Proud Boys' insistence on refraining from masturbation) — and his cohort, the violent and reckless Jonas Onus, and you have all the ingredients for a classic Hiaasen caper. Twenty years ago, German-born author Leonie Swann debuted one of the most delightful detective teams in genre history: a flock of sheep on the trail of the person responsible for killing their shepherd with a spade through the chest. After a two-decade absence, Miss Maple, Othello, Mopple the Whale, and the other woolly sleuths are back on the case, this time on behalf of their new herder, Rebecca, the daughter of the early book's victim. 'Big Bad Wool,' by Leonie Swann, Soho Crime, $38.95. Rebecca, her intrusive Mum, and the sheep are overwintering in the lee of a French chateau where there are rumours of a marauding Garou — a werewolf — that is responsible for mutilating deer in the nearby woods. Among other strange occurrences, Rebecca's red clothing is found torn to pieces and some sheep go missing — and soon enough there's a dead human for the flock, in the uncomfortable company of a group of local goats, to deal with. 'Big Bad Wool' is a charming romp, whose pleasure comes largely from the ironic distance between the sheep's understanding of the world and that of the people who surround them. ('The humans in the stories did plenty of ridiculous things. Spring cleaning, revenge and diets.') Their enthusiasm and excitement results in prose that is a bit too reliant on exclamation points, and some of the more heavy-handed puns (like the sheep's insistence on 'woolpower') seem forced, but this is nevertheless a fun variation on the traditional country cosy. Romance novelist Uzma Jalaluddin takes a turn into mystery with this new book about amateur sleuth Kausar Khan. A widow in her late 50s, Kausar returns to Toronto from North Bay to help her daughter, Sana, who has been accused of stabbing her landlord to death in her Scarborough mall boutique. The police — including Sana's old flame, Ilyas — are convinced Sana is the prime suspect, but Kausar is determined to prove her daughter innocent. 'Detective Aunty,' by Uzma Jalaluddin, HarperCollins, $25.99. Her investigation involves a couple of competing developers, both of whom want to purchase the land on which the mall stands, along with members of the dead man's family and fellow shopkeepers. On the domestic front, Kausar finds herself concerned with Sana's deteriorating marriage to her husband, Hamza, and her teenage granddaughter's sullenness and mysterious nighttime disappearances. Jalaluddin does a good job integrating the various elements of her plot, and the familial relationships are nicely calibrated. The momentum is impeded, however, by a preponderance of clichés ('Playing devil's advocate, Kausar asked …'; 'Kausar's blood ran cold') and a tendency to hold the reader's hand by defining every easily Googleable Urdu word or greeting too programmatically. More attention to the writing on the line level would have helped move this one along. Yukito Ayatsuji's clever postmodern locked-room mystery was first published in Japanese in 2009; it appears for the first time in English translation, which is good news for genre fans. 'The Labyrinth House Murders,' by Yukito Ayatsuji, Pushkin Vertigo, $24.95. Ayatsuji's narrative is framed by Shimada, a mystery aficionado, who is presented with a novelization about murders that took place at the home of famed mystery writer Miyagaki Yotaro, found dead by his own hand soon after the manuscript opens. Miyagaki has left a bizarre challenge for the writers gathered at his Byzantine Labyrinth House: each must write a story featuring a murder, and the victim must be the writer him- or herself. The winning author, as adjudicated by a group of critics also convened at Labyrinth House, will inherit Miyagaki's sizable fortune. As the writers compete for the reward, bodies start falling in real life and Ayatsuji has a grand time playing metafictional games with his readers, challenging them to figure out who the culprit is in the context of a story that owes more than a small debt to Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None.' But Ayatsuji does Christie one better; it is only once the afterword, which closes the framed narrative, has unfolded that the reader fully understands how cleverly the author has conceived his multi-layered fictional trap.
