Theology 3: Christian Vision in Society
Unit 9: Modern Social Teachings of the Church (RN-LS)
Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1891 (Of New Things)
Context:
-Industrial Revolution leads to exploiting workers.
Message:
-First comprehensive document of social justice.
-Defends workers’ rights based on natural law.
-Rights include work, private property, just
wage, workers’ associations.
Other themes:
1. Property Issues and the Inequalities among
People
-The encyclical then has vocally criticized the
unequal distribution of wealth, and the
huge gap between the rich and the poor.
-The Compendium describes Rerum
Novarum as the encyclical which <examines
the condition of salaried workers, which
was particularly distressing for industrial
laborers who languished in inhumane
misery.
2. Wage and Protection of Workers
Rerum Novarum argues that the divide
between people may be addressed if we move
towards the improvement of the workplace.
Wages are regulated by free consent...To
avoid injustice, the government must
intervene, seeing to it that workers receive
what is due to them. (cf. RN, 43,45)
The principal duty of employers is to give
everyone what is just. (RN, 20)
3. Solidarity and the workers’ unions
RN supports the workingmen’s unions as
legitimately supported by the notion of
natural rights, and it criticizes the state’s
tendency to suppress these unions.
Workers’ unions are mechanisms not for its
own sake but to ensure that the conditions are
set so as to allow workers to maximally
perform and use their full potentials