When the news broke last week that the cardinals had elected a new Pope, questions began to arise as to what Pope Francis’s successor would be like. Pope Leo XIV, in his first address to the College of Cardinals, had already hinted that his pontificate would continue the work of his predecessor, as well as Pope Leo XIII, who is known, among other things, to have denounced socialism.
At a time when European society was struggling with the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of socialist ideology, Pope Leo XIII issued an encyclical which expressed sympathy with the discontent of workers but openly condemned the socialist movements of the time. The papal encyclical, called Rerum Novarum, published in May 1891, stressed the need for reforms to protect the dignity of the working class while preserving the relationship with capital and the existence of private property, reports the Catholic News Agency. It was published less than 50 years after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto and after Pope Pius IX condemned socialism and communism in his 1849 encyclical Nostis et Nobiscum.
While not much is known about Pope Leo XIV’s position on communism, the following statement, allegedly made by the latter on the 14th of May 2010 at the Latin American Bishops’ Conference, is circulating on the Internet these days: “Communism has penetrated even Christian circles disguised as solidarity. It is our pastoral duty to expose it.”
Our left would undoubtedly not be too keen on a condemnation of communism, since we are still unable to condemn all totalitarianisms, meaning both Nazism and fascism, as well as communism. In our country, the current government has even gone so far as to abolish the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Communist Violence, even though it is well known that the people of Slovenia suffered all forms of violations of human rights and freedoms during the decades they spent under communist rule. Genocide was committed against a part of the Slovenian nation. Members of the Yugoslav communist secret police carried out numerous extrajudicial executions in hidden locations throughout Slovenia, as reflected in the discovery of numerous hidden gravesites (in more than 750 locations).
Will the new head of the Roman Catholic Church therefore be less liked by the current authorities than his predecessor, even though the latter was also known to have strong views on abortion, which he described as murder? Although Leo XIV has made no secret of his criticism of the Trump administration’s migration policies in the past, it is known that he is registered as a Republican voter. In the past, he has repeatedly stood up for traditional family values and has made clear his opposition to sexual ideology and homosexuality. As Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, he opposed the government’s plans to introduce teaching content on sexual ideology in schools. He argued that such promotion was confusing and created genders that “do not exist”, reflecting his traditional view of the importance of biological sex and marriage. He also opposed abortion and euthanasia. He said that “we cannot build a just society if we discard the weakest – whether it is the child in the womb or the elderly in their frailty,” which he supported with the doctrine that both are gifts from God. That the new Pope will not act in accordance with the woke ideology was also announced by his brother Louis Prevost in an interview with an American television station.
The interview is available at the following link:
“My brother the Pope won’t be WOKE!” Louis Prevost and Catholics for Catholics discuss Pope Leo XIV https://t.co/E8Y95eUZRd
— Catholics for Catholics 🇺🇲 (@CforCatholics) May 12, 2025
Leo XIV, who believes that the Church must be a beacon in troubled times, has a strong commitment to world peace. He believes that the media must serve the truth and not the interests of individuals or groups.
S. K.
