Leon XIII and the Franciscan tertiary: a condemnation of pauperism at the dawn of social Catholicism

Abstract

From the beginning of the industrial revolution, the pauperism in which a high percentage of the working classes derived, attracted the attention of the Church and generated different discourses. We can find varied dimensions, from charitable to solidary, from the Church-State interventionist to pure conscience. In one way or another, the generated discussions were taken at a time when a main problem to solve was the Labour Question, a matter that was being addressed by the socialist theories, which began to assume an important role in the ideology of the working classes.

In the last third of 19th century, Pope Leo XIII made a presentation of that Vatican concern for the state of poverty in which industrialization had left large sections of population. This article identifies the background of this question with a drift of Franciscan thought that never left Gioacchino Pecci, priest member of the Third Order.