Saint Michael the Archangel, Pray for us!

It’s interesting to note what Pope Leo XIII’s legacy was in the context of the time period of his pontificate. Pope Leo is known most for his Social Justice Encyclicals and the creation of the St. Michael Prayer. And during this time period he also lived to see major changes in the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Western Civilization being transformed by the Industrial Revolution.

The link between the Pope’s Social Justice Encyclicals and the Industrial Revolution is clear and present.

Less clear is Pope Leo’s creation of the St. Michael Prayer. It is said to be inspired by a prophetic vision he received of the coming century of sorrow and war. The World Wars raged using the Industrial age’s technology and for the control of the wealth it produced.

And clearly the horrors of nazism, communism, fascism, imperialism, and socialism where fueled by this same Industrial Revolution. It was all too easy for Evil to practice “wickedness and snares” with the tools of new powerful weapons, the mass production of these devices, and man’s fallen nature.