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Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life

July 10, 2025

Pope Leo XIV

What Happened, Why, and What It Means for Catholic Social Thought and U.S. Public Life

Pope Leo XIV on the balcony of St. Peter's Square on May 8, 2025, the date of his election.

Pope Leo XIV brings to the papacy his roots in the United States, an Augustinian religious vocation, decades of ministry in a poor diocese in Peru, and service to Pope Francis at the Vatican. He began his papacy by calling for peace, mercy, and justice in our hurting world. He spoke of the importance of building bridges and has a track record of doing so.

In choosing the name of Leo XIV, our new Holy Father honors Pope Leo XIII, the father of modern Catholic social teaching who championed the dignity of work and the rights of workers. Pope Leo XIV said he chose his name

    “because Pope Leo XIII in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution. In our own day, the church offers everyone the treasury of its social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor.”

This dialogue will take a deeper look at how Cardinal Robert Prevost became the first pope from the United States and the significance of his choice of Leo XIV as his name. It will also examine the legacy of Leo XIII and the potential role of Catholic social teaching in the leadership of Pope Leo XIV. In addition, the dialogue will explore some of the “new things (rerum novarum)” we face today in our Church, nation, and world, along with the implications in U.S. public life of a pope with roots in the United States, ministry in Latin America, and leadership in our global Church.

Kim Daniels, director of the Initiative, will moderate the dialogue. She is a member of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication and provided commentary from Rome on Pope Leo XIV's election on CNN, MSNBC, NBC, PBS, and other major media outlets.

Recording

The dialogue starting at 6:00 p.m. EDT will be recorded and posted online for later viewing.

Photo © Mazur/Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales

Participants

John Carr

John Carr

John Carr is the founder of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and served for over 20 years as director of the Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Emilce Cuda

Emilce Cuda

Emilce Cuda is an Argentinian theologian and secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America at the Holy See, where she was an advisor to Pope Francis and worked closely with Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin

Cardinal Joseph Tobin

Cardinal Joseph Tobin is the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, and was a participant in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV. He came to know the new pope through his service as a member of the Dicastery for Bishops and when they served as leaders of their Redemptorist and Augustinian religious communities in Rome.

Christopher White

Christopher White

Christopher White is the author of the new book Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy (2025) and the associate director for strategic engagement and senior fellow of the Initiative. He is the former Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter.

Accessibility

All accommodation requests should be sent to cathsocialthought@georgetown.edu by Monday, July 7. A good-faith effort will be made to fulfill requests.