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: Politics
A Guide to Rerum Novarum Part Two: The Church, the family, the state and the use of riches
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.
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 >>Ecology, Energy, Education: The Journey of the Guardians of Creation Project
Launched in December 2020, the Guardians of Creation Project aims to help the Catholic community in England and Wales work towards a carbon-neutral and more sustainable future, inspired by the teachings of Laudato Si’.
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 >>Assisted suicide – when one person’s right becomes another person’s duty
Catholic social teaching has always valued independent institutions for the provision of care, education, and welfare for workers. Culturally, such institutions provide a protection against a form of radical individualism which can elevate certain individual rights that are created by legislators above the common good of the community. They also protect against an over-bearing state. Far from undermining individual rights, civil society institutions provide the opportunity for people to work collaboratively for the common good: people choose to work for such institutions and they choose to be involved with them in other ways. The state, in turn, is there to protect the rights of civil society institutions and nurture their foundation.
Read more >>Statement to the 113th Session of the International Labour Conference
At the beginning of his Pontificate, Pope Leo XIV explained that “in our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour”.
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.
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