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Catholic News Herald

Serving Christ and Connecting Catholics in Western North Carolina
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052325 CAW PopeLeo13Our new pope’s first words to the faithful were: “May peace be with you all.” His namesake, Pope Leo XIII (1873-1903), was a peacemaker who reconciled the Church with France, Russia, Germany and Great Britain. He also published the encyclical “Rerum Novarum” on workers’ rights. This foundational document for Church social teaching emphasized the dignity of workers and condemned the dangers of unchecked capitalism and socialism. Pope Leo XIII also opened the Vatican secret archives to scholars, founded the Vatican observatory to demonstrate the Church’s openness to science and was the first pope to be filmed on a motion picture camera.