Pope Leo XIV cited the sudden increase in artificial intelligence (AI) and rapid acceleration technologies for his name choice as the Roman pontiff.
Pope Leo XIV reign occurs approximately 125 years after the death of Pope Leo XIII, who condemned socialism and defended the dignity of workers in their famous encyclical Rerum novarum. It is more revered for being a Pope in a moment of great technological changes due to the industrial revolution and the emergence of workers’ unions. As Breitbart News pointed out in 2019, the encyclical arrived at a time when the world faced multiple questions about the nature of work in the midst of the industrial revolution.
In addition, it is no coincidence that I read Rerum novarum (“New things”) appeared in 1890, that is, approximately at the same time that the United States established Labor Day. At that time, factories and mass production were stirring the old agricultural economy, dislocating the old folways and creating new children’s or economic challenges, as well as the course, new opportunities. In the midst of all this flow, people were understandably desperate to find ways to react social balance.
And yet, precisely because the old conservative political system was not in a fair order, radical alternatives, including anarchism, socialism and communism, were gathering strength.
In response, illuminated leaders in the center He entered, realizing that a new and creative thought was needed to defend himself from the revolution.
When it was revealed that Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the first American to hold the papacy, had selected the name Leo XIV, the commentators have made it as a sign that would continue in the steps of Leo XIII. Speaking with the Cardinals College on Saturday, the Holy Father almost confirmed those suspicions.
“I chose to take the name of Leo XIV. There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic encyclical Rerum novarum He addressed the social issue in the context of the first great industrial revolution, “said the Holy Father.
“In our day, the Church sacrifices to all the treasure of its social education in response to another industrial revolution and the developments in the field of artificial intelligence that raise new challenges for the defense of humans, justice and work.” “
