Rerum Novarum

This week I read three encyclicals: Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII (1891), Laborem Exercens by Pope John Paul II (1981), and Deus Caritas Est by Pope Benedict XVI (2005).  These were part of a class I am taking for the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program hosted by our local seminary.  It is a certificate program which I started last year.  Many of my posts will most likely be related to a reading assignment or topic which had its roots from this program.  I am going to discuss one of these in particular, the encyclical, Rerum Novarum.  It was issued May 15, 1891 by Pope Leo XIII.  He was the head of the Roman Catholic Church from 1878 until his death on July 20, 1903.  Leo XIII was born Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci on March 2, 1810 in Carpineto Romano, which is a commune in the Metropolitan City of Rome.  He was ordained a priest in 1837, named bishop of Perugia in 1846, and became a cardinal in 1853.  Overall, I feel the encyclical takes a strong stance against socialism and is very pertinent to today’s political conversation.

The encyclical defends the right to personal property, family, marriage, inheritance, and private societies within a state.  It defines the two classes of worker and employer with their respective duties and asserts that inequality is an intrinsic reality to a state and that the two classes can exist in harmony with each other.  The solution to societies problem between capital and the proletariat rests with the value of virtue and Christian morality.  Caution is advised that the state does not absorb the individual or the family or enact more laws than necessary.  The results of a Christian based society with a state that would uphold virtue and harmony between the two classes would result in men wanting to cling to their birth country and an overall better condition for all of mankind.