From Gaza to America and Vietnam, the Prospect of a Peacemaker Pope

Auburn, Al. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) - It’s not surprising that Pope Leo XIV took the name Leo in honor of Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903). Why so? In 1891, Leo XIII wrote the encyclical, Rerum Novarum, that stated Capital and Labor must cooperate and there should be a just wage for workers. Leo also affirmed the rights of the poor, arguing for the obligations of the more fortunate toward them, and for the rights of workers to unionize. Leo wrote these words during a period of industrialization. In retrospect, Rerum Novarum was over a hundred years before its time,