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| Pope Leo XIII, pictured in the January 24, 1902 edition of New Enterprise newspaper |
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My planned topic for this month (which I don't remember!) is on hold. I'm too wrapped up with the death of Pope Francis and the coming conclave to elect his successor. RIP, Pope Francis.
Catholics, no matter where or when we live/lived, consider the pope our spiritual father. His words and actions resonate. We mourn when a pope dies. That's held true for 2,000 years. It was true for Florida Catholics during the state’s frontier years.
At that time, the Catholic Church considered Florida as mission territory. AI tells me that in 1900, Florida's Catholic population was about 30,000. The state's total population in 1900 was 528,542. So, Catholics comprised 5.7 percent of Florida's population in 1900.
Today, Catholics number about 1.9 million in Florida out of a population of 22.9 million. We’re up to 8.3 percent of the population
Yet, I’ve noticed many non-Catholics mourning the loss of Pope Francis, here and elsewhere. I was surprised to read online comments from self-described atheists who admired him and mourn his passing. His humbleness, embrace of every individual and concern for the poor and marginalized were among their reasons.
That made me wonder how popes were perceived during Florida's frontier years. And how their deaths and elections were handled by the media in an era when Florida was prone to anti-Catholic sentiments.
Two popes were in office during a chunk of the frontier era: Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius X. Their combined papacies covered 36 years, from 1878 to 1914.
Pope Leo XIII guided the church from 1878 to 1903. It was a long pontificate. He was 93 when he died. Media coverage ranged from one sentence - yes, one sentence, without a headline, to half-pages of respectful comments.
The one sentence was in the July 7, 1903, Ocala Evening Star. It stated, “Pope Leo at the point of death.” The news was sandwiched between a notice that the Board of County Commissioners had set a tax levy of 17 mills and an advertorial for Bucklen’s Arnica Salve to kill the pain of cuts, wounds, bruises, burns and stiff joins. It was on sale for 25 cents at the Anti-Monopoly Drugstore.
But other newspapers presented newsy and sometimes heartfelt tributes when the pope died on July 20, 1903. The Palatka News and Advertiser, on July 24, 1903, mentioned how the pontiff’s final two-week battle against disease “was watched the world over with sympathetic admiration.” That tells me that more than the world’s Catholics were paying attention.
Even more laudatory was this paragraph: “The dead pontiff was a great and good man. Viewed apart from all priestly considerations, measured solely by human standards, he towered high among the great men of his time by reason of scholarly attainments and those other qualities of leadership in the world of thought which insured for his every utterance a respectful hearing in all quarters of the globe. But it was in his spiritual leadership of millions upon millions of people that Leo’s real greatness will stand forth as a beacon of light to coming generations.”
That’s quite complimentary. And, yes, journalists back then tended to use long sentences.
The same newspaper, on a different page, let readers know Florida Bishop Kenny ordered all churches in the diocese to hold special services commemorative of Pope Leo XIII. At that time, one diocese covered most of Florida.
The early 1900 newspapers ran articles that explained how conclaves work, just as today’s media are doing. They reported the results, as media will do this year. And many voices, then and now, speculated about potential candidates and debated their merits.
In August 1903, newspapers reported that Pope Pius X had been elected after four days of deliberations “behind locks and bars.” His assumption of office was marked by impressive ceremonies at the Vatican, noted the Gainesville Star on August 7, 1903.
The papacy of Pope Pius X lasted from 1903 to 1914. On August 20, 1914, the Pensacola Journal was among many newspapers that announced his death at age 79. It and other newspapers stated that the pope’s dismay over the outbreak of World War I likely contributed to his death, which was medically attributed to bronchial, heart and lung trouble.
Some of his final words were widely reported. Pope Pius X despaired over his inability to stop the war, noting that in ancient times, “the pope, by a word, may have stayed the slaughter.” That wasn’t possible in 1914. Shortly before he died, he said, “Now I begin to think as the end is approaching that the Almighty in his inexhaustible goodness wishes to spare me the horrors Europe is undergoing.”
More than a century later, we heard echoes of that lament in the many times Pope Francis decried the multiple wars taking place across the globe.
Popes, then and now, were and are labeled by people as modernist or traditionalist or liberal or conservative, etc., etc. Yet all share certain qualities no matter where they fall on people’s meters. Both Leo XIII and Pope Pius X cared deeply for the poor, for the marginalized, for those who suffered in war. As did Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, two of my favorite popes.
The New Enterprise, a newspaper from Madison, Florida, included a very telling statement in a January 24, 1902, article about Pope Leo XIII’s characteristics: “The pontificate creates a second nature.”
So it does. So it does.
The ancient ritual of the conclave is set to begin May 7, 2025. It will again unfold as it has for centuries. And Catholics will embrace the new pope while continuing to honor and remember the former one.
May the cardinals feel the wisdom of the Holy Spirit as it guides them.
