In this final part of the encyclical, the treatment and protection of the working class is dealt with directly and at length.
Read more >>A Guide to Rerum Novarum Part Three – The protection of workers, unions and the duties of employers
Category: Common Good
Is compassion under threat?
To know whether compassion is under threat, we need, firstly, to define it. In the Christian tradition, compassion means to “suffer together with”. It involves entering into the suffering of another. There are classic Christian examples of compassion. Mary shared her son’s agony at the foot of the cross. The Good Samaritan provided the financial means and put himself at considerable physical risk to help the person who had been robbed. St Maximillian Kolbe substituted himself for a condemned father in Auschwitz and, as a result, was condemned to starvation himself, though he actually suffered death from the injection of carbolic acid into his veins.
Read more >>The Season of Creation 2025 – War and the Destruction of Creation
Pope Francis regularly talked about the conflicts that scar the world. And, of course, Pope Leo has continued to address the tragedy of war in his Angelus addresses and on other occasions. Both popes regularly addressed the environmental crises too – not least, of course, in Pope Francis’s encyclical letter, Laudato si, and in his apostolic exhortation, Laudate deum. It is rare in Catholic social teaching, however, for the two issues to be linked.
Read more >>A guide to Rerum Novarum part one: the political context and the right to property
Historical context
Upon his election, Pope Leo XIV said that he was inspired to take the name “Leo” by Pope Leo XIII’s work on Catholic social teaching. The newly-elected pope especially mentioned Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, Rerum novarum. Pope Leo XIV related this to the current need to think about things afresh given the development of artificial intelligence (AI). This series of three blogs explores Rerum novarum. It is a radical and holistic call to orientate our whole lives towards God – including in the political, economic and social sectors. To try to distil it for its proposals, as many do, in the political, economic and social domains alone and to take it outside its religious context leaves it stripped of its essence.
Read more >>God and Government
The idea that government should be based on Christian principles is continually under attack – not least on several occasions in the assisted suicide debate. Not only is that proposed law itself incompatible with Christian principles, but many of those proposing it have suggested that Christians should not be involved in the debate or that Christian principles should not determine our views on the issue.
Read more >>A Jubilee for Entrepreneurs!
I welcome the addition to the calendar of a ‘Jubilee for Entrepreneurs’ by the late Pope Francis. As the Holy Father noted in his encyclical letter on fraternity and social friendship, Fratelli Tutti, “In God’s plan, each individual is called to promote his or her own development, and this includes finding the best economic and technological means of multiplying goods and increasing wealth.”
Read more >>A jubilee for workers!
As we continue to pray for Pope Francis through the Novemdiales – the period of mourning after the death of a pope – we also celebrate his legacy. Pope Francis was committed to upholding the dignity of workers and, with modifications, the ‘Jubilee for Workers’ and the ‘Jubilee for Entrepreneurs’ are both going ahead at the start of May.
Read more >>Pope Francis and fraternity
In the coverage of the passing of Pope Francis to eternal life, surprisingly little has been said about an important aspect of Pope Francis’s social teaching – fraternity. This was the theme of his second social encyclical, Fratelli tutti. It is an important theme because it links the pastoral, spiritual, theological and social teaching of the late pope. The title of Fratelli tutti in English is “Brothers All”, and it is subtitled “On Fraternity and Social Friendship”.
Read more >>Antiqua et Nova: Note on the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence – A Summary
This document was published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and Dicastery for Culture and Education on 14th January 2025. Below is a summary which follows the headings and structure of the original document.
Read more >>Why does the tax system discriminate against caring in the home?
We have a new government which is just as fiscally constrained as the previous government. One reason it is fiscally constrained is because of the low birthrate. Perhaps we would do better in that respect if we had a tax system which did not discriminate against a parent staying at home (or working limited hours outside the home) whilst caring for the famiy’s children and elderly.
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