Catholic Social Teaching: Origin Story
The year was 1891: smoke billowed from the smokestacks of factories all around the world. Society had shifted rapidly from farmers in rural environments to factory workers in big cities. Political movements had risen and fallen proclaiming radical news to organize society and power. The Vatican had been invaded by Vittorio Emmanuele’s national forces and the Church’s political sovereignty was at stake. These dramatic changes demanded a new moral compass, and Pope Leo XIV’s predecessor (Leo XIII) responded with an encyclical letter called Rerum Novarum (On the New Things) to face these challenges. This document gave birth to the field of knowledge called Catholic Social Teaching.
While Church teaching on social issues is nothing new (see last week’s article on the Old and New Testament teaching), the situation that Leo confronted in the late 19th century required a new way of thinking. The Industrial Revolution had shaken the European economy to its core, as fathers left the house and the farm to work in factories and cities, and mass production replaced the cottage industry and the guild system. People were moving into the cities in such high numbers to avoid rural poverty, but faced urban poverty instead. The proletariat (working class) worked long hours in harsh conditions and were treated more like extensions of their machines than human beings. Children and women were exploited in this new economic system since jobs went to the lowest bidder. Wealthy industrialists were further divided from the impoverished working class they employed.
Politically, a greater emphasis on individual liberty, private property and minimal government intervention dominated the highest levels of society. This political arrangement worked well for the owners and managers because the lack of regulations allowed them to run their factories as cheaply as possible. The lower classes increasingly turned to socialism and communism for answers. These systems which advocated class struggle, the abolition of private poverty, and state control of the economy, presented a radical alternative to the existing order and appealed to many.
Caught between these two extremes, unbridled capitalism and revolutionary socialism, Pope Leo XIII composed Rerum Novarum. This document formulated some basic biblical principles that spoke to the people of his day. Against socialism, Leo affirmed that private property was baked into the Creator’s plan from Eden. Labor was not a slavery imposed by the bosses, but ideally the exercise of one’s greatest capacities. Against unchecked capitalism, Leo called for just wages and the rights of workers to form unions. He also affirmed that the state had a role in protecting the vulnerable and promoting the common good. All throughout, he urges the social classes toward cooperation and harmony instead of bloody conflict. This document, whose principles seem so commonplace in today’s America, was hugely influential in advancing the conversation about the common good. We’ll explore more in the future how the Church continued (and continues) to address threats to the common good through her teachings.
Stay tuned!