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Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Here's why the pope chose Leo XIV as his name. And it's got a Miami connection
Immediately after his election as pope, the Villanova University alumnus and dual citizen (of Peru and the United States) Robert Francis Prevost made clear why he chose to be called Leo XIV. He is following in the footsteps of Pope Leo XIII, head of the Catholic Church from 1878 until 1903. His encyclical 'Rerum Novarum' (Latin for 'Of New Things') signaled to 19th-century Europe — and to the world — that the Catholic Church was aligned with the working class. This was not just a novel idea; it was earth-shaking in its implications. Henceforth, the notion that monopolies could extract the last ounce of sweat from a worker based solely on his 'marginal contribution' to a company's output would be viewed as unethical. Instead, 'Rerum Novarum' advanced the idea that compensation should reflect the 'average contribution' of all workers — a principle that laid the moral groundwork for collective bargaining and, eventually, the modern labor movement in the United States. That movement, grounded in the Church's social doctrine, reached a political and cultural crescendo under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As described by Jonathan Alter in 'The Defining Moment,' Roosevelt's close friend Ed Flynn (not Ed Walsh) once handed him a copy of 'Rerum Novarum,' urging him to study its message on social justice. Roosevelt took the lesson to heart. It helped shape his thinking in what would become his iconic 1941 'Four Freedoms' speech, later brought to life in paintings by Norman Rockwell. The timing was critical. The Soviet Union was claiming to offer a 'workers' paradise,' which, as history showed, evolved into a workers' nightmare. Roosevelt believed the West needed its own compelling vision of justice and dignity — one rooted in democracy and in values shared by Catholic social teaching. FDR's fourth freedom — freedom from want — was particularly influenced by this thinking. Until then, rights were mostly defined in negative terms (freedom from fear, freedom from oppression). Roosevelt reframed them to include positive rights: a decent standard of living, economic security and dignity in work. Catholic social doctrine also has a connection to Miami. Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, writing in the Harvard Human Rights Journal, noted how Latin American delegates to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights brought Catholic social teaching into the text. In her article, 'The Forgotten Crucible: The Latin American Influence on the Universal Human Rights Idea,' she highlights figures like Guy Pérez-Cisneros of Cuba and Émile Saint-Lot of Haiti, who advocated for language rooted in the Church's teachings on dignity and justice. Pérez-Cisneros's son, Pablo, was married to my wife's cousin. When the United Nations celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration in 2008, Glendon — then U.S. ambassador to the Vatican — invited him to speak. I had the privilege of helping him draft his remarks. I made sure to include the emphasis his father had placed on intellectual property rights in the early drafts, and I insisted on citing the 'prior' right of parents to choose their children's education — language that appears both in 'Pacem in Terris' ('Peace on Earth'), the 1963 encyclical by Pope John XXIII, and in the Universal Declaration itself. I suspect Leo XIV is steeped in both the rights of workers and the rights of parents. Xavier Suarez is a former mayor of Miami and a former Miami-Dade County commissioner.
Miami Herald
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Here's why the pope chose Leo XIV as his name. And it's got a Miami connection
Immediately after his election as pope, the Villanova University alumnus and dual citizen (of Peru and the United States) Robert Francis Prevost made clear why he chose to be called Leo XIV. He is following in the footsteps of Pope Leo XIII, head of the Catholic Church from 1878 until 1903. His encyclical 'Rerum Novarum' (Latin for 'Of New Things') signaled to 19th-century Europe — and to the world — that the Catholic Church was aligned with the working class. This was not just a novel idea; it was earth-shaking in its implications. Henceforth, the notion that monopolies could extract the last ounce of sweat from a worker based solely on his 'marginal contribution' to a company's output would be viewed as unethical. Instead, 'Rerum Novarum' advanced the idea that compensation should reflect the 'average contribution' of all workers — a principle that laid the moral groundwork for collective bargaining and, eventually, the modern labor movement in the United States. That movement, grounded in the Church's social doctrine, reached a political and cultural crescendo under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As described by Jonathan Alter in 'The Defining Moment,' Roosevelt's close friend Ed Flynn (not Ed Walsh) once handed him a copy of 'Rerum Novarum,' urging him to study its message on social justice. Roosevelt took the lesson to heart. It helped shape his thinking in what would become his iconic 1941 'Four Freedoms' speech, later brought to life in paintings by Norman Rockwell. The timing was critical. The Soviet Union was claiming to offer a 'workers' paradise,' which, as history showed, evolved into a workers' nightmare. Roosevelt believed the West needed its own compelling vision of justice and dignity — one rooted in democracy and in values shared by Catholic social teaching. FDR's fourth freedom — freedom from want — was particularly influenced by this thinking. Until then, rights were mostly defined in negative terms (freedom from fear, freedom from oppression). Roosevelt reframed them to include positive rights: a decent standard of living, economic security and dignity in work. Catholic social doctrine also has a connection to Miami. Harvard Law Professor Mary Ann Glendon, writing in the Harvard Human Rights Journal, noted how Latin American delegates to the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights brought Catholic social teaching into the text. In her article, 'The Forgotten Crucible: The Latin American Influence on the Universal Human Rights Idea,' she highlights figures like Guy Pérez-Cisneros of Cuba and Émile Saint-Lot of Haiti, who advocated for language rooted in the Church's teachings on dignity and justice. Pérez-Cisneros's son, Pablo, was married to my wife's cousin. When the United Nations celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration in 2008, Glendon — then U.S. ambassador to the Vatican — invited him to speak. I had the privilege of helping him draft his remarks. I made sure to include the emphasis his father had placed on intellectual property rights in the early drafts, and I insisted on citing the 'prior' right of parents to choose their children's education — language that appears both in 'Pacem in Terris' ('Peace on Earth'), the 1963 encyclical by Pope John XXIII, and in the Universal Declaration itself. I suspect Leo XIV is steeped in both the rights of workers and the rights of parents. Xavier Suarez is a former mayor of Miami and a former Miami-Dade County commissioner.
