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| | Mikhail S. Gorbachev + Leo XIII |
 | | Leo's other great encyclical, Rerum Novarum, was a tepid endorsement of a living wage for workers, with no specifics, that was repudiated by his successor, Pius XI, who endorsed the Fascist-Corporate State. |
 | | This perhaps explains why, becoming pope in 1878, chiefly because he was not expected to live long (he was just shy of age 68), Leo had great difficulty reconciling the Church to the modern world. |
 | | As cardinal, he was a disaster in diplomatic missions this according to his official Catholic biographer.* As pope, Leo lost more Catholic communicants than the Reformation, both by refusing to recognize the French Republic until it was too late, and by repudiating the Italian Government. |
| www.ronaldbrucemeyer.com /rants/0302almanac.htm (583 words) |
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