Pope(s) Leo, Labor Day, and Franciscans

When Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, an Augustinian friar, was elected Pope on May 8th, he was already spiritually related to the Franciscans as a “mendicant,” that is a member of an order like the Franciscans, Dominicans, Servites and others, who as communities profess evangelical poverty.   His choice of a name further tied him to the Franciscans in a way not many would quickly recognize. 

In choosing the name Leo, the new Pope reminded the world of the last pope of that name, Leo XIII, who served from 1878 to 1903.  Pope Leo XIII is famous for writing Rerum novarum (“On the Rights of Labor”) in 1891.  For the first time ever, the Church specifically addressed the working conditions of laborers, social inequalities, and social justice.  All things we are called to remember every Labor Day.  Pope Leo XIV will undoubtedly continue to address these issues.  But Pope Leo XIII also profoundly changed the lives of Franciscan friars, too.

From not long after Francis of Assisi died, his followers began to argue about how to live his profound vision of poverty and prayer.  Eventually to end the arguments, two Popes divided the one community into three groups, each with a Minister General of its own.  Then one group further divided into subgroups, one subgroup included the friars who came to Mission Santa Barbara from New Spain in 1786.  Another subgroup came from Germany and eventually to Mission Santa Barbara in 1885.  In 1897, Pope Leo XIII joined together those two groups and others into the Order of Friars Minor, the Franciscans here at the Old Mission.  Other groups, the Capuchins and Conventuals are in other parts of California and the world.  Maybe Pope Leo XIV can finish the job of reuniting us!   

Gratefully,

Fr. Jack Clark Robinson OFM