Leo XIII

Life

Leo XIII was born on March 2, 1810, into the noble family of the Counts Pecci in Carpineto Romano in central Italy, then part of the Papal States. He studied in Rome, was ordained a priest in 1837, and entered the service of the Holy See. He served as an administrator in Benevento and Perugia within the Papal States. In 1843 he was made a bishop and appointed apostolic nuncio to Belgium, but after coming into conflict with the Belgian government, he returned to Rome in 1846. That same year he became head of the Diocese of Perugia, where he ministered for more than thirty years until 1878; he was made a cardinal in 1853. In 1877 he was appointed Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church, and on February 20, 1878, he was elected pope, succeeding Pius IX. He died in Rome on July 20, 1903, at the age of 93.

Ministry and Achievements

Rerum Novarum

On May 15, 1891, he promulgated the encyclical Rerum Novarum (Latin, "Of New Things"). An encyclical is an official letter from the pope addressed to the Church throughout the world. Rerum Novarum addressed the condition of workers in the wake of industrialization and is also known as the "Charter of Labor." The encyclical upheld the right of workers to a just wage and to form labor unions. At the same time, it recognized private property as a natural right and criticized socialism, which advocated the common ownership of property. It also pointed out the problems of capitalism, in which wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of a few and workers are exploited. The Catholic Church regards this encyclical as the first comprehensive statement of the Church's views on social questions and considers it the wellspring of Catholic social teaching. In its wake, Catholic social movements and organizations arose throughout Europe.

Judgment on Anglican Orders

On September 13, 1896, he issued the bull Apostolicae Curae, declaring Anglican ordinations to be absolutely null and void. The grounds given were that the Anglican ordinal had removed language concerning the sacrificial character of the Eucharist and the priesthood. The bull was issued after the pope, in response to requests that the validity of Anglican orders be reexamined, convened a commission to study the matter. The following year, in 1897, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York of the Church of England responded with Saepius Officio, a rebuttal of the bull.

Influence on the Church in Korea

There is little record of Leo XIII having exerted any direct influence on Korean Protestantism. Protestants do not accept papal encyclicals as authoritative in matters of faith, and discussion of the Church's responsibility toward society developed separately within Protestant movements such as the Social Gospel. Among Korean Christians, his name is known mainly in the following three ways:

• In the Catholic Church in Korea, Rerum Novarum is frequently cited as the starting point of Catholic social teaching when addressing social issues such as labor and poverty.
• His judgment that Anglican orders are invalid has long been a point of contention between Anglicans and Catholics, and it also bears on the Anglican Church of Korea, a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
• When Pope Leo XIV, elected in May 2025, chose this name, the Vatican spokesman explained that the choice referred to the Catholic social teaching that began with Rerum Novarum. This was also widely reported in the Korean media.

Assessment

Within the Catholic Church, Leo XIII is regarded as the pope who turned the Church toward direct engagement with the problems of modern society, in contrast to the preceding era's rejection of the modern world. Rerum Novarum drew attention even from the labor movement and is regarded as a significant milestone in the history of the European labor movement.

The encyclical has also drawn criticism. It strongly rejected socialism, emphasized the right to private property, and held that social inequality cannot be entirely eliminated by human effort. Some have argued that, as a result, it became difficult for Catholic labor organizations to cooperate with socialist labor movements. Anglicans, for their part, have continued to rebut Apostolicae Curae, arguing that it unjustly denied the legitimacy of Anglican orders.