<h1>The Last Pope Leo Had Some Great Takes on Socialism -&nbsp;By Dominic Pino -&nbsp;May 9, 2025 <span style="font-size: 14pt;">6:42 AM</span><br /><img src="images/pope_leo_xiii.jpg" alt="pope leo xiii" width="222" height="297" style="float: left;" hspace="10/" /></h1>
<div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;">The new pope is taking the regnal name Leo XIV. The last Pope Leo was in office from 1878 to 1903. Perhaps his most famous written work is Rerum novarum, an 1891 encyclical “on capital and labor” that is often described as charting a third way between capitalism and socialism for Catholic teaching. This description is incomplete, if not entirely wrong, as Rerum novarum is very clear that socialism is evil, and markets and private property are essential to human flourishing. And Leo XIII composed some of the strongest denunciations of socialism ever written. It was a major theme of his papacy from beginning to end.</div>
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<div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Rerum novarum</strong></div>
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<div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;">Let’s start, though, with Rerum novarum, since it has been so much more influential than his other works. Writing in 1891, Leo XIII said:</div>
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<div dir="auto" style="text-align: justify;"><em>The socialists, working on the poor man’s envy of the rich, are striving to do away with private property, and contend that individual possessions should become the common property of all, to be administered by the State or by municipal bodies. They hold that by thus transferring property from private individuals to the community, the present mischievous state of things will be set to rights, inasmuch as each citizen will then get his fair share of whatever there is to enjoy. But their contentions are so clearly powerless to end the controversy that were they carried into effect the working man himself would be among the first to suffer. They are, moreover, emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community.</em></div>
