



Produced by Michael Gray, Diocese of San Jose




LEO XIII, THE GREAT LEADER

By Rev. A. P. Doyle


Written in August 1903,
in _The Catholic World_, a monthly magazine,
on the occasion of the death of Pope Leo XIII.




[Portrait of Pope Leo XIII.]

  _My course I've run of ninety lengthening years.
     From Thee the gift. Crown them with endless bliss.
  O hearken to Thy Leo's prayers and tears,
     Lest useless they should prove, O grant him this._



Leo XIII.'s Message to the Twentieth Century:

The greatest misfortune is never to have known Jesus Christ. Christ is
the fountain-head of all good. Mankind can no more be saved without
His power than it can be redeemed without His mercy.

When Jesus Christ is absent human reason fails, being bereft of its
chief protection and light: and the very end is lost sight of for
which, under God's providence, human society