We ended Part One of this guide to Rerum novarum with the encyclical’s reminder to the rich that they would have to answer to God if they were not generous with their riches. The focus of that first part was the staunch defence of the right to property. This part will look at the relationship between the state, the family and the Church and the responsibilities we have to the poor.
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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.
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“Following the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on 10th December 2023, Bishop Stephen Wright from the Department for Social Justice of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales issued a brief explanation of the Christian origins of human rights and a reflection on the state of human rights at the current time. Bishop Stephen writes:
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The Radio 4 programme, the Moral Maze, explores various controversial moral and philosophical issues each week with a panel who question a diverse group of “witnesses”. As it was the last show before the summer holidays, the 30th July episode explored idleness – or, strictly speaking, leisure.
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What is modern slavery? The UK introduced the Modern Slavery Act into legislation in England and Wales in 2015, partly in response to the growing referrals of suspected cases into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The Act defines slavery as servitude and forced or compulsory labour. This incorporates a broad range of situations, including forced criminality; sexual exploitation; removal of organs; and securing services by force, threat or abuse, including from children and vulnerable people.
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In the interview with Professor Grace mentioned in Part I of this post, I asked him about the areas where he believed more research was needed. He suggested three main areas: (i) Catholic Education and service for the Poor; (ii) the effectiveness of the spiritual, moral and social cultures of Catholic schools; (iii) the education and formation of Catholic school leaders and teachers. These themes are echoed by his friends and colleagues in interviews conducted over the last six months that are available in a compilation from the Global Catholic Education project. The interviews are organized around the following questions:
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This is the first of two posts forming a tribute to Professor Gerald Grace who retired late last year. This post is an interview with Quentin Wodon who is a lead economist at the World Bank
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The UK system of health provision is unusual. Our death rate from Covid is also unusual. It is widely reported that our figure for deaths per million of population is one of the highest in the developed world. We could look at this figure and put the blame in all sorts of places. If only we had tightened borders more quickly, we would have had fewer cases, and fewer deaths; if only we imposed lockdown more quickly; if only we had a population more willing to comply with the state’s desire to track and trace us; if only we were on two islands 2,500 miles from the next nearest large country; and so on…
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There is a temptation to play down those aspects of Rerum novarum which related to private property. This encyclical was really about labour, it is argued. Or it is suggested that the right to property is only a secondary right subject to the universal destination of goods and therefore not important. Still others say it was an encyclical that, in this respect, reflected its time – a period when the Church’s property was under attack from extreme socialists.
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We have posted before about the late scholastics: The late scholastics, universal human rights and discrimination and other posts on this blog on human rights, globalisation, interest and property rights have incorporated their profound impact.
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