Leo XIV Contra Leo XIII, Michael Pakaluk

Pope Leo XIV took his name to signal his closeness to Leo XIII, and yet in his recent Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi te, his statements sometimes seem at odds with his predecessor: on the root of social evils, the remediation of poverty, and private property.

For Leo XIV, the root of social ills is inequality.  Reaffirming Francis, he says: “I can only state once more that inequality ‘is the root of social ills.’” (n. 94)  But for Leo XIII, in his first encyclical, “On the Evils of Society” (Inscrutabili Dei consilio), the root of social ills is rather the rejection of Christianity by civil powers: “the source of [social] evils lies chiefly, We are convinced, in this, that the holy and venerable authority of the Church, which in God’s name rules mankind, upholding and defending all lawful authority, has been despised and set aside.” (n. 3)

The difference is not small, because if Christianity is not necessary, then, to eliminate social evils, it would suffice for civil powers to eradicate “structures of sin,” that is, structures of inequality. ….

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