Monthly Spiritual Message, June 2025
By Fr Joe McKay OFM
Our new Pope has chosen the name Leo. The name rings with Franciscans as Brother Leo was the constant friend of Saint Francis and Pope Leo XIII, a member of the Third Order of St Francis, made animated and significant reforms to Franciscan Family.
Pope Leo XIV comes to the papacy during a period of some division in the world and in the Church. So did Pope Leo XIII in 1878. Leo XIII was the first pope elected after the fall of the Papal States in 1870. While Pope Leo XIII, a “prisoner in the Vatican”, defended the political independence of the Vatican from the new Italian State, he renewed the papacy as a spiritual power. His ideas spoke to ordinary people, facing the trials of the Industrial Revolution, in his landmark Encyclical Rerum Novarum. He encouraged a new devotion to Mary, and consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. For the Franciscan family it was his renewal of the Third Order rule and reorganization of the Friars Minor that led to the renewal of the Franciscan Family.
Pope Leo XIII was born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci in 1810. He was the sixth child in a noble family from Sienna who had supported Napoleon. On becoming a priest he studied at the prestigious Pontifical Academy of Nobles (now the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy) in church diplomacy and law. He was appointed as an administrator for the Papal State city of Benevento, Spoleto and Perugia where he was noted for his fight against corruption. In 1843 he was appointed Apostolic Nuncio for Belgium and succeeded in unifying the country’s liberal and conservative groups in the Catholic Church. He returned to Italy and was appointed Archbishop of Perugia in 1846. While he was Archbishop of Perugia he became a member of the Third Order of St Francis in 1872. In 1875 he was appointed Protector of the Third Order by Pope Pius IX.
During that period he said
“Those who have the welfare of the Third Order at heart become partakers of a work extremely useful for religion, to morals and society. They apply a powerful remedy to the any evils that beset the world today. Yes, they contribute not a little to the end that virtue and charity establish their throne everywhere. Is there anything better adapted to uproot evil on all sides? While the hearts of men are dozing away with indifference, a great many direct their steps to the Poor Man of Assisi.” (Martin, p130)
In 1877 Pius IX appointed him Camerlengo. On the death of Pope Pius IX he was elected Pope in 1878.
Pope Leo XIII consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1899 and encouraged the first Friday devotions. His predecessor Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and Leo XIII universally promoted the rosary in twelve encyclicals as well as Mary’s role as Mediatrix in salvation history. In the encyclical Mirae Caritatis (The Mirror of Charity) of 1902, he encouraged more frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist by the faithful to promote unity and growth in faith and virtue.
During Leo XIII’s pontificate the Industrial Revolution changed the economic structure of Europe. Leo XIII in 1891 wrote the encyclical Rerum Novarum, On Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour to address the growing social upheaval, poverty and conflict caused by industrialization. He did not want a repeat of the conflict of the French Revolution and the turmoil of the Napoleonic era. Rerum Novarum called for fair wages to support family life. Notions in Catholic Social Thought such as the dignity of humanity, the common good, the right to private property and the free association of trade unions are all promoted in this highly influential encyclical.
Pope Leo XIII saw the Third Order as intrinsic part of his efforts to re-evangelize Europe and the World. Writing to the Minister General of the Friars Minor in 1881 he wrote:
“Great in the Church is the Third Order of St Francis. For about seven centuries the Roman pontiffs have placed high confidence in it. We also wish to use its firm and practical help in vindicating the rights of the Church and about bringing about the reform of society. When we speak of social reform, we speak in a special way to the Third Order of St Francis. It was not enough for this patriarch to form a religious life for each of the sexes. Ah no! His seraphic heart embraced the whole world. He accordingly laid down for all Christians, of whatever condition in society, the rule of the Third Order…Very soon we shall recommend this institution to the bishops of the world that they establish it in every parish.”
In his encyclical Auspicato Concessum of 1882 he describes his own membership of the Third Order of St Francis. He compares the world of St Francis with the modern world and for the need for the Gospel to be proclaimed a new.
“And especially for this reason, that the tone and temper of our times seem for many reasons to be similar to those; for as in the 12th century divine charity had grown cold, so also is it now; nor is the neglect of Christian duties small, whether from ignorance or negligence; and, with the same bent and like desires, many consume their days in hunting for the conveniences of life, and greedily following after pleasures. Overflowing with luxury, they waste their own, and covet the substance of others; extolling indeed the name of human fraternity, they nevertheless speak more fraternally than they act; for they are carried away by self-love, and the genuine charity towards the poorer and the helpless is daily diminished.” (Martin, p131)
He goes on in Auspicato to compare the heresy of St Francis’ time to the enemies facing the Church in the modern world. He calls for the Third Order to encourage fraternity, care for the poor and respect for God. He prays that the entire Christian world be “led back from disorder to peace, from destruction to safety, by the favour of the Saint of Assisi.”
In 1883 he proclaimed a new Rule for the Third Order in Misericors Dei Filius (Merciful Son of God). He saw the Third Order as being a way of forming people with “good, upright, pious morals” and “acquisition of Christian sanctity.” He hoped to “ever more kindle the love of piety and of the other Christian virtues.” Pope Leo XIII, later that same year, told the General Ministers of the First Order that the Third Order was a true Order, not a simple confraternity or sodality.
Pope Leo XIII also tried to unite the Friars for his mission of re-evangelizing Europe. He succeeded in uniting the Observant Friars with many of the smaller groups such as the Recollects, the Alcantines, the Reformati and the Discalced friars into an order under a single constitution. Their new constitution was approved in 1897 by Pope Leo XIII’s Bull Felicitate Quadam. (On Restoring The Unity Of The Order Of Friars Minor).
Pope Leo XIII should been seen as almost a second founder of the Third Order of St Francis. The disruption in Europe from the authoritarian anti-clerical monarchies, the French Revolution and Napoleon conquests, saw a diminishment in all parts of the Franciscan family. However, during Leo XIII’s pontificate membership of the Third of Order of St Francis in Italy grew over ten-fold. For example, in Lombardy the membership was 12,000 in 1873 by 1887 there was over 13,0000 members in the same area. All around the world bishops paid heed to Pope Leo XIII advice and a worldwide renewal of the Third Order occurred.
He died in 20 July 1903 at the age of 93.
Let us pray that Pope Leo XIV will follow in the steps of his namesake and inspire the Franciscan Family today to bring alive the Gospel in today’s world.
Bibliography
Leo XIII, Encyclical Auspicato Concessum, 1882
Leo XIII, Apostolic Constitution Misericors Dei Filius, 1883
Leo XIII, Apostolic Constitution Felicitate Quadam, 1887
Martin, Paul Revere. The Gospel in Action : the Third Order Secular of St. Francis and Christian Social Reform. The Bruce Publishing Company, New York, 1932.
Fr Joseph McKay OFM
National Spiritual Assistant OFS
