São Paulo, 8 - The names chosen by the popes always mean a lot. Bento chose his thinking about 'a new evangelization of Europe', Francisco remembered 'the poor' and the environment in his choice and pontificate. Already the name Leão will bring a series of questions. The predecessor, Pope Leão XIII, entered history as the first pontiff to address, in an encyclical, the growing issue of the working class, workers' rights, and social justice. The document is considered the starting point of the Social Doctrine of the Church - which until then was focused only on theological issues. The option of yesterday may indicate a concern of the new Catholic leader with social justice, a problem that remains strong in a world convulsed by migration crises, climate change, and doubts about the advancement of artificial intelligence. All these themes were widely discussed by Francisco and often put the Argentine Jorge Bergoglio in conflict with global leaders, such as President Donald Trump (USA) and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Israel). The encyclical Rerum Novarum, from 1891, aimed to reconcile the working class with the Church, in the face of social changes sweeping across Europe. The new economic order after the Industrial Revolution resulted in the growth of a poor working class that showed a growing tendency towards socialism. Leão XIII had the second longest papacy in history, 25 years, between 1878 and 1903 - only surpassed, according to Catholic tradition, by the apostle Peter. "Leão XIII was the pope of the transition from the 19th to the 20th century, a time when the Church was under attack from both liberals and socialists," says Rodrigo Coppe, coordinator of the postgraduate program in Religious Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas (PUC-MG). "He marked that passage of the Church from being entrenched to a Church that dialogues with the people," adds the professor. CONTINUITY For the specialists interviewed by Estadão, Prevost has a moderate profile and is expected to have a pontificate of continuity, although the new pope has a less charismatic and media profile than Francisco. Thus, the adoption of the name Leão XIII dialogues justly with that openness of the Church to society, in a period of great social changes. Father Anderson Pedrosa, rector of PUC-RJ, agrees. "Pope Leão XIII is very known especially for his encyclical on the social and economic transformations of the Industrial Revolution (which began in the mid-19th century). I believe that the choice of the new pope's name is related to the fact that we are at the turn of the 20th to the 21st century in the Technological Revolution." Instead of steam machines, the transformations now take place on smartphone screens and screens that reproduce the challenges of artificial intelligence. Leão XIII, at the time, also sought to approach the Church to contemporary issues, encouraging the study of sciences and the opening to modern philosophical thought, especially with the valorization of Thomas Aquinas as a basis for Catholic theology. He reaffirmed the coexistence of science and religion, present in ecclesiastical doctrine. And he opened the Vatican Secret Archives to qualified researchers, including Ludwig von Pastor, one of the greatest historians of the papacy. The 19th-century pope founded the Vatican Observatory 'so that everyone can see clearly that the Church and its pastors do not oppose true and solid human or divine science, but rather embrace, encourage, and promote it to the maximum'. "Pope Leão XIII was very attentive to Eastern Europe, social revolutions. I think the new pope will move in that direction," said Father Marcial Maçaneiro, professor of Theology at PUC-PR. "He was also responsible for the renewal of Catholic education." PEACE The first pope to choose the name Leão was an important pope for Catholicism, considered 'Doctor of the Church' for his high level of knowledge of Christian doctrine and preaching. He is also known as a promoter of peace in a period of war in the Italian peninsula. Of Italian origin and elected in 440, Leão I was the 45th pope of the Catholic Church and had a memorable papacy to the point of being the first successor of Peter to receive the title of Magno (the Great, in free translation) - the other was Gregory the Great. "Sustainer and promoter of the Primacy of Rome, the 'Pontiff Magno' left for history almost 100 sermons and about 150 letters, in which he demonstrates being a theologian and pastor, zealous for the communion between the various Churches, never forgetting the needs of the faithful," says Vatican News. He would have encouraged charitable works in a Rome 'dominated by scarcity, poverty, injustices, and pagan superstitions'. Moreover, he guided a delegation from Rome to meet with Attila, leader of the Huns, and dissuaded him from continuing the war of invasion of the Italian peninsula in the year 452.
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