Rerum Novarum
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical on capital and labor, was written in response to the social changes brought about by industrialization. Against the claims of socialism, it reaffirms the right to hold property, but emphasizes the limits to that right, rejecting the idea that moral considerations have no place in the free market. Its discussion of the rights and duties of labor and capital toward each other and the particular responsibility of society toward the poor laid the foundation for modern Catholic social teaching.
Top Highlights
“There is no need to bring in the State. Man precedes the State, and possesses, prior to the formation of any State, the right of providing for the substance of his body.” (source)
“The discussion is not easy, nor is it void of danger. It is no easy matter to define the relative rights and mutual duties of the rich and of the poor, of capital and of labor. And the danger lies in this, that crafty agitators are intent on making use of these differences of opinion to pervert men’s judgments and to stir up the people to revolt.” (source)
“It necessarily follows that each one has a natural right to procure what is required in order to live, and the poor can procure that in no other way than by what they can earn through their work.” (source)
“They are, moreover, emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community.” (source)
“Socialists, therefore, by endeavoring to transfer the possessions of individuals to the community at large, strike at the interests of every wage-earner, since they would deprive him of the liberty of disposing of his wages, and thereby of all hope and possibility of increasing his resources and of bettering his condition in life.” (source)