Rerum novarum


Rerum novarum, or Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor, is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic patriarchs, primates, archbishops and bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes.
It discussed the relationships and mutual duties between labor and capital, as well as government and its citizens. Of primary concern was the need for some amelioration of "the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class." It supported the rights of labor to form unions, rejected socialism and unrestricted capitalism, while affirming the right to private property.
Rerum Novarum is considered a foundational text of modern Catholic social teaching. Many of the positions in Rerum novarum were supplemented by later encyclicals, in particular Pius XI's Quadragesimo anno, John XXIII's Mater et magistra and John Paul II's Centesimus annus.

Composition

The first draft and content of the encyclical was written by Tommaso Maria Zigliara, professor from 1870 to 1879 at the College of Saint Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum. Zigliara, a member of seven Roman congregations including the Congregation for Studies, was a co-founder of the Academia Romano di San Tommaso in 1870. Zigliara's fame as a scholar at the forefront of the Thomist revival at the time of his rectorship of the College of St. Thomas after 1873 was widespread in Rome and elsewhere. "Zigliara also helped prepare the great encyclicals Aeterni Patris and Rerum novarum and strongly opposed traditionalism and ontologism in favor of the moderate realism of Aquinas."
Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler and Cardinal Henry Edward Manning were also influential in its composition.

Message

Rerum novarum is subtitled "On the Conditions of Labor". In this document, Pope Leo XIII articulated the Catholic Church's response to the social conflict that had risen in the wake of capitalism and industrialization and that had led to the rise of socialism and communism as ideologies.
The pope declared that the role of the state is to promote social justice through the protection of rights, while the Church must speak out on social issues in order to teach correct social principles and ensure class harmony. He restated the Church's long-standing teaching regarding the crucial importance of private property rights, but recognized, in one of the best-known passages of the encyclical, that the free operation of market forces must be tempered by moral considerations:
Rerum novarum is remarkable for its vivid depiction of the plight of the nineteenth-century urban poor and for its condemnation of unrestricted capitalism. Among the remedies it prescribed were the formation of trade unions and the introduction of collective bargaining, particularly as an alternative to state intervention.
Although the encyclical follows the lines of the traditional teaching concerning the rights and duties of property and the relations of employer and employee, it applies the old doctrines specifically to modern conditions. Leo first quotes Thomas Aquinas in affirming that private property is a fundamental principle of natural law. He then quotes Gregory the Great regarding its proper use: ""He that hath a talent, let him see that he hide it not; he that hath abundance, let him quicken himself to mercy and generosity; he that hath art and skill, let him do his best to share the use and the utility hereof with his neighbor." Liberalism also affirms the right to private property, but socialism and communism do not.
Rerum novarum also recognized that the poor have a special status in consideration of social issues: the modern Catholic principle of the "preferential option for the poor" and the notion that God is on the side of the poor were expressed in this document.

Rights and duties

As a framework for building social harmony, the pope proposed the idea of rights and duties. For example, workers have rights to a fair wage and reasonable working conditions, but they also have duties to their employers; likewise employers have rights and also have duties to their workers. Some of the duties of workers are:
Some of the duties of employers are:
The Church by reminding workers and employers of their rights and duties can help to form and activate people's conscience. However, the pope also recommended that civil authorities take a role in protecting workers' rights and in keeping the peace. The law should intervene no further than is necessary to stop abuses. In many cases, governments had acted solely to support the interests of businesses, while suppressing workers attempting to organize unions to achieve better working conditions.

Principles

The encyclical mentions several fundamental principles to guide relationships between capital and labor.

Dignity of the person

Leo states that, "...according to natural reason and Christian philosophy, working for gain is creditable, not shameful, to a man, since it enables him to earn an honorable livelihood." He maintains that a person's dignity derives from the fact that he/she is created in the image of God and endowed with free will and an immortal soul.
Guidelines to maintain the respect and dignity of the person in the workplace would therefore indicate:
The pope specifically mentioned work in the mines, and outdoor work in certain seasons, as dangerous to health and requiring additional protections. He condemned the use of child labor as interfering with education and the development of children.
Fair wages are defined in Rerum novarum as at least a living wage, but Leo recommended paying more than that: enough to support the worker, his wife and family, with a little savings leftover so that the worker can improve his condition over time. He also preferred that women work at home.

Common good

Without recommending one form of government over another, Leo put forth some principles for the appropriate role of the State in good government. The primary purpose of a State is to provide for the common good. All people have equal dignity regardless of social class, and a good government protects the rights and cares for the needs of all its members, both rich and poor. Leo also pointed out that everyone is in some way a contributor to the common good and everyone's contribution is important.
Pope Leo XIII points out that no one should be forced to share his goods; however, when one is blessed with material wealth, one should use this to benefit as many others as possible. The Catechism of the Catholic Church lists three principal aspects of the common good: 1) respect for the human person and his rights; 2) social well-being and development; and 3) peace, which is "the stability and security of a just order."

Subsidiarity

Pope Leo strongly criticized socialism in that it seeks to replace the rights and duties of parents, families and communities with the supervision of the state. The civil government should not intrude into and exercise control over the family, the basic building block of society. However, if a family finds itself in exceeding distress due to illness, injury, or natural disaster it is right that extreme necessity be met by public aid, since each family is a part of the commonwealth. By the same token, if within a household there occur grave disturbance of mutual rights, public authority should intervene to force each party to yield to the other its proper due. They should only intervene when a family or community is unable or unwilling to fulfill their rights and duties in regard to its members.

Rights and duties of property ownership

Despite growing support for measures such as a land-value tax at the time it was written, Rerum novarum strongly asserts the right to own private property, including land, as a principle of natural law.
The right to own property does not mean absolute freedom in the use of money, but carries responsibilities with it. Leo encouraged the wealthy to meet their own needs, the needs of their families, and to maintain a "becoming" standard of living. But they have a responsibility to give alms from what is left over. This is not a law, but a moral obligation.

Preferential option for the poor

Leo emphasized the dignity of the poor and working classes.
This principle of the preferential option for the poor was developed more fully in writings of later popes.

Right of association

Leo distinguished the larger, civil society, and smaller, private societies which exist within it. The civil society exists to protect the common good and preserve the rights of all equally. Private societies are diverse and exist for various purposes within the civil society. Trade unions are one type of private society, and a special focus of this encyclical: "The most important of all are workingmen's unions, for these virtually include all the rest.... it were greatly to be desired that they should become more numerous and more efficient." Other examples of private societies are families, business partnerships, and religious orders.
Leo strongly supported the right of private societies to exist and self-regulate:
Leo supported unions, yet opposed at least some parts of the then emerging labor movement. He urged workers, if their union seemed on the wrong track, to form alternative associations.
He deplored situations where governments suppressed religious orders and other Catholic organizations.

Impact and legacy

Paragraph 19:
The great mistake made in regard to the matter now under consideration is to take up with the notion that class is naturally hostile to class, and that the wealthy and the working men are intended by nature to live in mutual conflict. So irrational and so false is this view that the direct contrary is the truth. Just as the symmetry of the human frame is the result of the suitable arrangement of the different parts of the body, so in a State is it ordained by nature that these two classes should dwell in harmony and agreement, so as to maintain the balance of the body politic. Each needs the other: capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital. Mutual agreement results in the beauty of good order, while perpetual conflict necessarily produces confusion and savage barbarity. Now, in preventing such strife as this, and in uprooting it, the efficacy of Christian institutions is marvellous and manifold. First of all, there is no intermediary more powerful than religion in drawing the rich and the working class together, by reminding each of its duties to the other, and especially of the obligations of justice.

Paragraph 20:
Of these duties, the following bind the proletarian and the worker: fully and faithfully to perform the work which has been freely and equitably agreed upon; never to injure the property, nor to outrage the person, of an employer; never to resort to violence in defending their own cause, nor to engage in riot or disorder; and to have nothing to do with men of evil principles, who work upon the people with artful promises of great results, and excite foolish hopes which usually end in useless regrets and grievous loss. The following duties bind the wealthy owner and the employer: not to look upon their work-people as their bondsmen, but to respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character. They are reminded that, according to natural reason and Christian philosophy, working for gain is creditable, not shameful, to a man, since it enables him to earn an honorable livelihood; but to misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain, or to value them solely for their physical powers—that is truly shameful and inhuman. Again justice demands that, in dealing with the working man, religion and the good of his soul must be kept in mind. Hence, the employer is bound to see that the worker has time for his religious duties; that he be not exposed to corrupting influences and dangerous occasions; and that he be not led away to neglect his home and family, or to squander his earnings. Furthermore, the employer must never tax his work people beyond their strength, or employ them in work unsuited to their sex and age. His great and principal duty is to give every one what is just. Doubtless, before deciding whether wages are fair, many things have to be considered; but wealthy owners and all masters of labor should be mindful of this—that to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute for the sake of gain, and to gather one’s profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine. To defraud any one of wages that are his due is a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven. "Behold, the hire of the laborers … which by fraud has been kept back by you, crieth; and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." Lastly, the rich must religiously refrain from cutting down the workmen’s earnings, whether by force, by fraud, or by usurious dealing; and with all the greater reason because the laboring man is, as a rule, weak and unprotected, and because his slender means should in proportion to their scantiness be accounted sacred. Were these precepts carefully obeyed and followed out, would they not be sufficient of themselves to keep under all strife and all its causes?

Paragraph 22:
Therefore, those whom fortune favors are warned that riches do not bring freedom from sorrow and are of no avail for eternal happiness, but rather are obstacles; that the rich should tremble at the threatenings of Jesus Christ—threatenings so unwonted in the mouth of our Lord and that a most strict account must be given to the Supreme Judge for all we possess.

Impact on Portugal

With the regime established in Portugal under António de Oliveira Salazar in the 1930s, many key ideas from the encyclical were incorporated into Portuguese law. The Estado Novo promulgated by Salazar accepted the idea of corporatism as an economic model, especially in labor relations. According to historian Howard J. Wiarda. Its basic policies were deeply rooted in European Catholic social thought, especially those deriving from Rerum Novarum. Portuguese intellectuals, workers organizations and trade unions and other study groups were everywhere present after 1890 in many Portuguese Republican circles, as well as the conservative circles that produced Salazar. Wiarda concludes, that the Catholic social movement was not only powerful in its own right but it also fitted in an harmonized nicely with an older Portuguese history and political culture which emphasized a natural law tradition, patrimonialism, centralized direction and control, and the 'natural' orders and hierarchies of society.

Footnotes