With the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the new Supreme Pontiff under the name Leo XIV, the Vatican seems to be making a decisive shift toward doctrinal orthodoxy and the reaffirmation of traditional principles.
In a world shaken by moral confusion, the advance of postmodern ideologies, and the crisis of spiritual authority, the new Pope positions himself as a defender of faith, justice, and transcendent truth.
A name that carries weight: the echo of Leo XIII
The new Pontiff did not choose his name by chance. Leo XIII, author of the encyclical Rerum Novarum in 1891, was a defender of the capitalist order against the onslaught of socialism and collectivism that were beginning to stifle Europe. Amid a social and ideological crisis, Leo XIII did not hesitate to point out that the true remedy was not in more State or more regulation, but in recognizing the natural rights of the individual, starting with private property.
"The principal foundation on which the order of human affairs must rest is the inviolability of the right to private property." (RN, n. 6).
Far from any sympathy toward statist or collectivist ideas, Leo XIII clearly attacks socialism, accusing it of destroying individual freedom and the very fabric of civilization. "Socialism [...] suppresses individual property, and once this is done, it destroys man's freedoms." (RN, n. 15).
Freedom as the basis of a just society
In Rerum Novarum, freedom is not a concession of the State but an inherent right of the human being, and any power that seeks to usurp it becomes tyrannical. Therefore, the encyclical defends that the worker has the right to freely negotiate his work, and that state intervention should be minimal and subsidiary.
"It is erroneous for the State to interfere in the internal life of families and to replace individual initiative or the action of intermediate bodies." (RN, n. 35).
