Cardinal Robert Prevost Has been announced as The new Pontiff and has chosen the name of Pope Leo XIV.
There are no writings or official criteria for the name of a Pope, but choose names that have meaning in the Catholic tradition.
The importance of a Pope’s name
The name chosen by a new Pope “will indicate a certain spirit, direction and vision of the new Pope,” said Dennis Doyle, theologian theologian and professor of religious studies at the University of Dayton.
“The first thing you would be, what name was that name before?” Hey said. “That would mean something about the direction that Pope Wusses will take.”
Leo has been chosen 13 times before.
“The name Leo dates back to Pope Leo the Great,” the first Pope with the name of Leo, on Thursday CBS News, Candida Moss, said Thursday.
Also known as Pope Leo I, his papacy was 440 to 461. He is famous for meeting with Attila and deter by attacking Rome.
“What does this mean for our new Pope? Well, it could mean that Hey will face oppressive political forces in the world,” Moss said.
Leo I is also known as “a great intellectual and theological reformer,” Moss said. He wrote Leo’s volume, a document that influenced the official doctrine that defined Jesus Christ as completely human and complete divine.
“Our new Pope has a doctorate in Canon’s law, so we could expect Hey to clarify the church’s teachings on central themes,” Moss said.
Doyle also pointed to the last Pope to use Leo’s name, Pope Leo XIII, who was the head of the Catholic Church between 1878 and 1903.
“Perhaps he is more famous for writing the rerum Novarum,” said Doyle, which translates into “new things,” but the Latin meaning is also “in revolutionary changes.”
The RERUM Novarum addressed the rights and capitalism of workers in the dawn of the industrial era and is considered the first Catholic social encyclical, which establishes the basis for modern Catholic social thinking.
This could indicate that Pope Leo XIV is interested “in the promotion of Catholic social education in today’s world,” said Doyle. “Perhaps Catholic social education, if tasks seriously, could be something to help overcome poliazation.”
Bishop Robert Barron, or the Diocese or Winona-Rochester, also saw the connection with Leo XIII and said he believes that the name is “very significant.”
Leo XIII was a “great 19th -century Pope,” Barron told CBS News. “When the revolutions occurred in the 18th century, and the philosophical revolutions of the nineteenth century, the Church initially said ‘no’ to much of that. Leo represents a very nuanced and intelligent commitment to modernity, not to cross it, without saying that completely, but not say, using the resources of our own traditions to involve creative modernity.”
The name Leo “is a deep sign of commitment to social problems,” said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, president of Religious Studies of the University of Manhattan, to Associated Press.
Because of that, the election or name of Pope Leo XIV also suggests a continuation of much of Pope Francis’s ministry.
Pope FrancisWhose birth name was Jorge Mario Bergoglio, chose a papal name that had chosen a bone for a Pope before, so in his case, “do you have to ask, well, there is some biblical figure or people in the tradition that have had this name?” Doyle said.
For Francis, it was San Francisco de Asís, known for his charity and simplicity.
What are the most common papal names?
The names most used by the potatoes have a leg:
- John: 23 times
- Benedict: 16 times
- Gregory: 16 times
- Clement: 14 times
- Leo: 14 times
- Innocent: 13 times
- Pío: 12 times
As with Leo’s name, “there could be more than one reference in the name that the Pope chooses,” Doyle explained.
Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to Benedict XV, who directed the duration of the World Church the First War, but also to San Benedict of Nursia, who founded the Benedictine Order and influenced the dissemination of Christianity through Europe.
The name John, the most popular, could return to the Gospel of John, who is one of “the most beloved of the Gospels,” said Doyle. It can also refer to San Juan Bautista, the prophet who baptized Jesus.
Have your names always changed the potatoes?
Not all potatoes in history have changed their name. Of 266 potatoes before Pope Leo XIV, 129 have chosen new names, according to Vatican News.
The practice became more entrenched around the eleventh century, a period of German potatoes that chose the names of the bishops of the primitive church of “a desire to mean continuity,” said Rev. Roberto Regoli, historian of the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome, to the AP.
For many centuries, the new potatoes tended to choose the name of the Pope that had raised them to the cardinal.
Only from the mid -twentieth century began to choose names that indicate the goal of his papacy, said Regol.
Names never chosen by a Pope
Some biblical names that have not been used by a Pope are Joseph, James and Andrew.
The Popes have not chosen Peter’s name, out of respect for St. Peter, a disciple of Jesus who is recognized as the first Pope, experts say.
Contributed to this report.
