But when in , Leo consented to present to the czar a petition from the Ruthenian Catholics against the oppression they had to suffer, the persecution only increased in bitterness.
On the day of his election, Leo had expressed to this emperor the wish to see diplomatic relations restored; Alexander, like William, though more warmly, answered in a non-committal manner.
In the meantime Leo was careful to exhort the Poles under Russian domination to be loyal subjects. Among the acts of Leo XIII that affected in a particular way the English-speaking world may be mentioned: for England , the elevation of John Henry Newman to the cardinalate , the "Romanos Pontifices" of concerning the relations of the hierarchy and the regular clergy , the beatification of fifty English martyrs , the celebration of the thirteenth centenary of St.
He restored the Scotch hierarchy in , and in addressed to the Scotch a very touching letter. In English India Pope Leo established the hierarchy in , and regulated there long-standing conflicts with the Portugese authorities.
The Irish Church experienced his pastoral solicitude on many occasions. His letter to Archbishop McCabe of Dublin , the elevation of the same prelate to the cardinalate in , the calling of the Irish bishops to Rome in , the decree of the Holy Office 13 April, on the plan of campaign and boycotting , and the subsequent Encyclical of 24 June, , to the Irish hierarchy represent in part his fatherly concern for the Irish people, however diverse the feelings they aroused at the height of the land agitation.
The United States at all times attracted the attention and admiration of Pope Leo. He confimed the decrees of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore , and raised to the cardinalate Archbishop Gibbons of that city His favourable action , at the instance of Cardinal Gibbons, towards the Knights of Labour won him general approval.
In he sent a papal delegate, Monsignor Satolli , to represent him at Washington on the occasion of the foundation of the Catholic University of America. The Apostolic Delegation at Washington was founded in ; in the same year appeared his Encyclical on Christopher Columbus. In he participated in the Chicago Exposition held to commemorate the fourth centenary of the discovery of America; this he did by the loan of valuable relics , and by sending Monsignor Satolli to represent him.
In Canada he confirmed the agreement made with the Province of Quebec for the settlement of the Jesuit Estates question, and in sent Monsignor Merry del Val to treat in his name with the Government concerning the obnoxious Manitoba School Law. His name will also long be held in benediction in South America for the First Plenary Council of Latin America held at Rome , and for his noble Encyclical to the bishops of Brazil on the abolition of slavery In Portugal the Government ceased to support the Goan schism , and in a concordat was drawn up.
Concordats with Montenegro and Colombia followed. His charitable intervention with the negus in favour of the Italians taken prisoners at the unlucky battle of Adna failed owing to the attitude taken by those who ought to have been most grateful.
He was not successful in establishing direct diplomatic relations with the Sublime Porte and with China , owing to the jealousy of France and her fear of losing the protectorate over Christians.
During the negotiations concerning church property in the Philippines , Mr. Taft, later President of the United States , had an opportunity of admiring the pope's great qualities, as he himself declared on a memorable occasion. He desired complete independence for the Holy See , and consequently its restoration as a real sovereignty. Repeatedly, when distressing incidents took place in Rome , he sent notes to the various governments pointing out the intolerable position in which the Holy See was placed through its subjection to a hostile power.
For the same reason he upheld the "Non expedit", or prohibition against Italian Catholics taking part in political elections.
His idea was that once the Catholics abstained from voting, the subversive elements in the country would get the upper hand and the Italian Government be obliged to come to terms with the Holy See. Events proved he was mistaken, and the idea was abandoned by Pius X. At one time, however, "officious" negotiations were kept up between the Holy See and the Italian Government through the agency of Monsignor Carini, Prefect of the Vatican Library and a great friend of Crispi.
But it is not known on what lines they were conducted. On Crispi's part there could have been no question of ceding any territory to the Holy See. France , moreover, then irritated against Italy because of the Triple Alliance, and fearing that any rapprochement between the Vatican and the Quirinal would serve to increase her rival's prestige, interfered and forced Leo to break off the aforesaid negotiations by threatening to renew hostilities against the Church in France.
The death of Monsignor Carini shortly after this 25 June, gave rise to the senseless rumour that he had been poisoned. Pope Leo was no less active concerning the interior life of the Church. To increase the piety of the faithful , he recommended in the Third Order of St. Francis, whose rules in he wisely modified; he instituted the feast of the Holy Family, and desired societies in its honour to be founded everywhere ; many of his encyclicals preach the benefits of the Rosary ; and he favoured greatly devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Under Leo the Catholic Faith made great progress; during his pontificate two hundred and forty-eight episcopal or archiepiscopal sees were created, and forty-eight vicariates or prefectures Apostolic. Catholics of Oriental rites were objects of special attention; he had the good fortune to see the end of the schism which arose in between the Uniat Armenians and ended in by the conversion of Mgr.
Kupelian and other schismatical bishops. He founded a college at Rome for Armenian ecclesiastical students , and by dividing the college of S. Atanasio he was able to give the Ruthenians a college of their own; already in he had reformed the Ruthenian Order of St. Basil ; for the Chaldeans he founded at Mossul a seminary of which the Dominicans have charge. In a memorable encyclical of he appealed to all the schismatics of the East, inviting them to return to the Universal Church, and laying down rules for governing the relations between the various rites in countries of mixed rites.
Even among the Copts his efforts at reunion made headway. The ecclesiastical sciences found a generous patron in Pope Leo. Thomas Aquinas , but he did not advise a servile study. At his suggestion a Bohemian college was founded at Rome. At Anagni he founded and entrusted to the Jesuits a college for all the dioceses of the Roman Campagna, on which are modelled the provincial or "regional" seminaries desired by Pius X.
Historical scholars are indebted to him for the opening of the Vatican Archives , on which occasion he published a splendid encyclical on the importance of historical studies, in which he declares that the Church has nothing to fear from historical truth.
For the convenience of students of the archives and the library he established a consulting library. To excite Catholic students to rival non-Catholics in the study of the Scriptures, and at the same time to guide their studies, he published the "Providentissimus Deus" , which won the admiration even of Protestants , and in he appointed a Biblical Commission.
Also, to guard against the dangers of the new style of apologetics founded on Kantism and now known as Modernism , he warned in the French clergy Encycl. In several other memorable encyclicals he treated of the most serious questions affecting modern society. They are models of classical style, clearness of statement, and convincing logic. Civilization owes much to Leo for his stand on the social question. As early as , in his encyclical on the equality of all men, he attacked the fundamental error of Socialism.
The Encyclical "Rerum novarum" 18 May, set forth with profound erudition the Christian principles bearing on the relations between capital and labour, and it gave a vigorous impulse to the social movement along Christian lines. In Italy , especially, an intense, well-organized movement began; but gradually dissensions broke out, some leaning too much towards Socialism and giving to the words "Christian Democracy" a political meaning, while others erred by going to the opposite extreme.
In appeared the Encyclical "Graves de Communi", destined to settle the controverted points. The "Catholic Action" movement in Italy was recognized, and to the "Opera dei Congressi" was added a second group that took for its watchword economic-social action.
Unfortunately this latter did not last long, and Pius X had to create a new party which has not yet overcome its internal difficulties. Under Leo the religious orders developed wonderfully; new orders were founded, older ones increased, and in a short time made up for the losses occasioned by the unjust spoliation they had been subjected to.
Along every line of religious and educational activity they have proved no small factor in the awakening and strengthening of the Christian life of the whole country. For their better guidance wise constitutions were issued; reforms were made; orders such as the Franciscans and Cistercians , which in times past had divided off into sections, were once more united; and the Benedictines were given an abbot-primate, who resides at St.
Anselm's College, founded in Rome under the auspices of Pope Leo Rules were laid down concerning members of religious orders who became secularized. In canon law Pope Leo made no radical change, yet no part of it escaped his vigilance, and opportune modifications were made as the needs of the times required. On the whole his pontificate of twenty-five years was certainly, in external success, one of the most brilliant. Leo hoped Germany would force a solution of the "Roman question" and restore the papacy to a position of temporal power.
Leo could expect no help from France, where his policies had, rather, fomented antipapal feeling. When Mariano Rampolla became secretary of state for Italy in , he sought the friendship of the democracies, the United States, and France particularly.
Leo was much more in favor of a monarchical paternalism than of a democratic form of government; he feared the latter as an open door to anticlerical and secular policies. In Italy, Leo allowed Catholics to participate in municipal politics, but he maintained the traditional ban on all Catholic participation in national politics almost to the end of his life.
In his encyclical letter Immortale Dei Nov. In Libertas praestantissimum June 20, he declared personal liberty and freedom to be a legitimate political goal, but he tied the success of such a goal to adherence to Roman Catholicism. Leo sought, in other words, to reconcile the liberalism of his day with traditional Roman Catholic teaching.
Although he did not succeed, he laid the foundations for a later development in the midth century. On the general plane of diplomatic relations, Leo was successful. The tension between the Vatican and Russia was relaxed. His centralization policies included a new organization of pilgrimages to Rome, more frequent audiences for the visiting faithful as well as for non-Catholics, an expanding panache of papal ceremonial and glory, and the encouragement of cordial ties of collaboration and mutual respect between Catholic academic institutions and corresponding institutions in Europe and the Americas.
Leo is remembered more for his encyclical letter Rerum novarum May 15, than for many other acts. The letter was part of his attempt to halt the drift of working people and industrial labor away from his Church. In part a rather dramatic departure from traditional policies of the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church's outlook, the letter vindicated for workers and poor people the rights which never before had received such papal or ecclesiastical sanction.
The minimum standards Leo demanded for workers, such as a means of frugal sustenance and a minimum wage, now seem to be grossly underestimated. But in Leo's day, they represented violent if well-timed departures from the traditional norms. The letter's value lay much more in its accurate prediction of social reforms which, if implemented, might have averted such later developments as the Russian Revolution and the rise of Soviet bolshevism.
In Rerum novarum Leo also defended the rights of the family and the right to private property, themes which later became acute when communism spread throughout Europe and these rights were attacked and encroached upon by a dictatorial statism. His recommendations for effective legislation, his approval of labor unions and cooperative organizations, and his lauding of labor and its fruits as worthwhile and as dignified human elements helped shape the policies of many labor movements throughout the world.
Early Life and Schooling. Career with the Church. He created homeless shelters for children and the elderly. Created Capuchin-run soup kitchens. Papal Legacy. He re-founded the Vatican Observatory. He improved relations between the Church and the major powers of Europe. Saw to the revival of Thomist theology within the church. He pushed for the acceptance of Marian devotion, a belief that the Virgin Mary serves as a mediator and co-redeemer for Jesus Christ.
Seeing how the Papal States were demolished, he brought the Church in touch with the average person. He was born on March 2nd, He died, at the age of 90, on July 20th, The priest from the Archdiocese of Boston, Charles Finn, conducted the funeral.
Considering he lived to the age of 91, making him the longest-living pope in recorded history, it is believed that he naturally lost his life from the complications of old age. His papacy started on February 20,
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