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{{short description|1891 encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII}}
{{italic title}}
{{use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox Encyclical
 | name                   = Rerum novarum
 | language               = Latin
 | translation            = of new matters
 | argument               = On capital and labor
 | date                   = 15 May 1891
 | type                   =
 | pope                   = Leo XIII 
 | papal_coat_of_arms     = C o a Leon XIII.svg
 | pages                  =
 | number                 = 38 of 88
 | Acta Sanctae Sedis     =
 | Acta Apostolicae Sedis =
 | before                 = [[In ipso]]
 | after                  = [[Pastoralis]]
 | web_en                 = https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum_en.html
 | web_la                 = https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/la/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html
}}
[[File:Papa Leone XIII (1898).jpg|thumb|[[Pope Leo XIII]], {{circa|1898}}]]
'''''Rerum novarum''''', or '''''Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor''''', is an [[encyclical]] issued by [[Pope Leo XIII]] on 15 May 1891. It is an [[open letter]], passed to all [[Catholic]] patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and [[Bishops in the Catholic Church|bishops]], which addressed the condition of the [[working class]]. It discusses the relationships and mutual duties between [[Work (human activity)|labor]] and [[Capital (economics)|capital]], as well as government and its citizens. Of primary concern is the need for [[poverty amelioration]] of the working class. It supports the [[rights of labor]] to form [[trade union]]s, and rejects both [[socialism]] and [[capitalism]] while affirming the [[right to private property]] and to a [[living wage]].

A foundational text of modern [[Catholic social teaching]], many of the positions in ''Rerum novarum'' are supplemented by later encyclicals, in particular [[Pius XI]]'s ''[[Quadragesimo anno]]'' (1931), [[John XXIII]]'s ''[[Mater et magistra]]'' (1961), [[Paul VI]]'s ''[[Octogesima adveniens]]'' (1971), and [[John Paul II]]'s ''[[Centesimus annus]]'' (1991), each of which commemorates an anniversary of the publication of ''Rerum novarum''. It also inspired Catholic activism, and influenced [[distributists]] and supporters of [[corporatism]]. Socialists generally contest the encyclical's interpretation of socialism, and some socialists, particularly [[Christian socialists]], interpret ''Rerum novarum'' as not rejecting socialism, argue that [[divine law]] justifies the abolition of [[private property]], and emphasize its [[anti-capitalist]] character.

== Composition ==
{{social teachings of the popes}}
The first draft and content of the encyclical was written by [[Tommaso Maria Zigliara]], professor from 1870 to 1879 at the [[Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas|College of Saint Thomas]] (rector after 1873), a member of seven Roman congregations including the Congregation for Studies, and co-founder of the [[Pontifical Academy of Saint Thomas Aquinas]] in 1879. Zigliara's fame as a scholar at the forefront of the [[Thomist]] revival was widespread in Rome and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite book|last=McInerny|first=Ralph |title=New Themes in Christian Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PUVVRX9Fy4UC|year=1968|publisher=Ardent Media|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=PUVVRX9Fy4UC&pg=PA177 177]|access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref><!-- http://web.archive.org/web/20250123094508/https://iteadthomam.blogspot.com/2010/01/there-was-thomism-before-aeterni-patris.html --> In addition to ''Rerum novarum'', which elicited the strongest response in the United States, Zigliara had contributed to the drafting of the encyclical ''[[Aeterni Patris]]'' (1879), which addressed modern science and attempted to advance the revival of [[Scholastic philosophy]]; he was a strong opponent of [[Traditionalism (19th-century Catholicism)|traditionalism]] and [[ontologism]], favoring instead the moderate [[philosophical realism]] of [[Thomas Aquinas]], and was with [[Giuseppe Pecci]] one of the Thomist cardinals of Leo.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Brezik |editor-first=Victor B. |url=https://www.stthom.edu/Public/getFile.asp?File_Content_ID=22 |title=One Hundred Years of Thomism: Aeterni Patris and Afterwards, a Symposium |year= 1981 |publisher=Center for Thomistic Studies, University of St. Thomas |isbn=978-0-9605456-0-5 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=4Ts1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA15 15], [https://books.google.com/books?id=4Ts1AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA26 26] |access-date=15 May 2025 |via=Google Books/Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas, Houston}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ashley |first=Benedict M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y0dMAwAAQBAJ |title=The Dominicans |year= 2009 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-60608-933-0 |edition=1st |chapter=The Age of Compromise (1800s): Revival and Expansion |chapter-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213125723/http://domcentral.org/blog/the-age-of-compromise-1800s/ <!-- http://www.domcentral.org/study/ashley/dominicans/ashdom08.htm -->|page= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213125723/http://domcentral.org/blog/the-age-of-compromise-1800s/ <!-- http://www.domcentral.org/study/ashley/dominicans/ashdom08.htm --> |quote=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.|access-date=14 May 2025|via=Dominican Central Archives}}</ref>

The encyclical was made possible by the writings of the precursors of economic personalism, in particular the [[Jesuit]] fathers [[Luigi Taparelli D'Azeglio]] and [[Matteo Liberatore]]. The latter was one of the authors of the document together with the Dominican Cardinal [[Tommaso Maria Zigliara]]. In drafting the encyclical, the Pope requested the collaboration of the then secretary for Latin letters Vincenzo Tarozzi.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Melchioni |first1=Maria Vittoria |title=Castelfranco commemora monsignor Tarozzi a cento anni dalla morte |url=https://www.gazzettadimodena.it/modena/cronaca/2018/12/16/news/castelfranco-commemora-monsignor-tarozzi-a-cento-anni-dalla-morte-1.17570392 |access-date=14 May 2025 |work=Gazzetta di Modena |date=16 December 2018|trans-quote=Then he moved to Rome, where he spent 17 years in the Vatican, from 1886 to 1902, in the service of Pope Leo XIII, author of the encyclical 'Rerum Novarum' with which the Catholic Church prepared itself to face the challenges of modernity and which earned the pontiff the nickname 'Pope of Workers'. Leo XIII made use of the great culture and sensitivity of Monsignor Tarozzi in drafting the text, who recalls those days in his diaries. }}</ref> The German theologian [[Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler]] and the British Cardinal [[Henry Edward Manning]] were also influential in its composition.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Misner |first=Paul |year=1991 |title=The Predecessors of 'Rerum Novarum' Within Catholicism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29769575 |journal=Review of Social Economy |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=444–464 |doi=10.1080/00346769100000039 |issn=0034-6764|jstor=29769575|access-date=14 May 2025}}</ref> Manning, who was a significant contributor to the development of the encyclical, encouraged English Catholics to engage in politics and seek economic justice, even going so far as to support the [[1889 London dock strike]].<ref name="Tregenza 2021, pp. 309–310">{{cite journal |last=Tregenza |first=Ian |date=April 2021 |title=The 'Servile State' Down Under: Hilaire Belloc and Australian Political Thought, 1912–1953 |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=82 |issue=2 |pages=305–327 |doi=10.1353/jhi.2021.0015 |url=https://researchers.mq.edu.au/files/165845268/Publisher_version.pdf|doi-access=free|pmid=33967100 |access-date=14 May 2025|postscript=. Citing pp. 309–310.|via=Macquarie University Research Portal}}</ref>

== Message ==
''Rerum novarum'' explicitly addresses the condition of the working class and is subtitled "On the Conditions of Labor", reflecting the need that a "remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class".<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', §3 --><ref name="Nichols 2025">{{cite magazine |last=Nichols |first=John |date=9 May 2025 |title=Pope Leo XIV Sent an Unmistakable Signal About His Commitment to Social Justice |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/pope-leo-xiv-name-meaning-social-justice/ |access-date=14 May 2025 |magazine=The Nation |issn=0027-8378}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Meyerson |first=Harold |date=12 May 2025 |title=A Working-Class Pope |url=https://prospect.org/labor/2025-05-12-working-class-pope-leo/ |access-date=14 May 2025 |magazine=The American Prospect |issn=1049-7285}}</ref> In this encyclical, Leo articulates the Catholic Church's response to the [[social conflict]] in the wake of capitalism and [[industrialization]], which had provoked socialist and [[communist]] movements and ideologies, as well as to the emerging [[economic liberal]] and [[Marxist]] theories.<ref>{{cite web |<!-- date=unknown --> title=Rerum novarum: the economic and social doctrine of the Catholic Church |url=https://www.citeco.fr/10000-years-history-economics/industrial-revolutions/rerum-novarum-the-economic-and-social-doctrine-of-the-catholic-church |access-date=14 May 2025 |website=Cité de l'économie }}</ref> The encyclical defends the right of workers to form unions and the institution of [[property]],<ref name="Tregenza 2021, pp. 309–310"/> as well as the right to a living wage.<ref name="Carter 2017">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Carter |first=Heath W. |title=Social Christianity in America |date=24 May 2017 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion |url=https://oxfordre.com/religion/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-424 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.424 |isbn=978-0-19-934037-8|access-date=19 May 2025 |via=Oxford Research Encyclopedias }}</ref><ref name="Rosswurm 2018">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Rosswurm |first=Steve |title=Labor and the Catholic Church |date=25 June 2018 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History |url=https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-471 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.471 |isbn=978-0-19-932917-5|access-date=15 May 2025 |via=Oxford Research Encyclopedias }}</ref> At the same time, it condemns socialism and capitalism, particularly [[state socialism]] and competitive or ''[[laissez-faire]]'' capitalism, while avoiding more radical alternatives like [[Georgism]].<ref name="Carter 2017"/><ref name="Rosswurm 2018"/>

The Pope declares that the role of the [[State (polity)|state]] is to promote justice through the protection of rights, while the Church must speak out on social issues to teach correct social principles and ensure class harmony, calming [[class conflict]]. He restates the Church's long-standing teaching regarding the crucial importance of private property rights but recognizes, in one of the well-known passages of the encyclical, that the free operation of market forces must be tempered by moral considerations. In that passage, he writes: "Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice."<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 45 --><ref name="Camp 1967, p. 83">{{cite book |last=Camp |first=Richard L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vc4UAAAAIAAJ |title=The Papal Ideology of Social Reform |year=1967 |publisher=Brill Archive |page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Papal_ideology_of_social_reform/Vc4UAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA83 83] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref>

''Rerum novarum'' is remarkable for its vivid depiction of the plight of the 19th-century urban poor and for its condemnation of ''laissez-faire'' capitalism. Among the remedies it prescribes are the formation of trade unions and the introduction of [[collective bargaining]], particularly as an alternative to state intervention. Although the encyclical follows 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, hence the title.<ref name="Ryan 1911">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1911 |title=Rerum Novarum |encyclopedia=The Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12783a.htm |access-date=5 October 2016 |last=Ryan |first=John A.<!-- Augustine --> |volume=12|via=New Advent}}</ref>{{refn|The opening words in Latin are "Rerum novarum semel excitata cupidine",<ref>{{cite magazine|date=23 May 1891|title=Rerum novarum|magazine=The Tablet|volume=77|issue=2663|page=5|url=http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/23rd-may-1891/5/leo-pp-xiii|access-date=21 February 2014|archive-date=26 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226144026/http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/23rd-may-1891/5/leo-pp-xiii|url-status=dead}}</ref> which in the official English translation is rendered "The spirit of revolutionary change".<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 1 --><ref name="Molony 2006">{{cite book |last=Molony |first=John |title=World Christianities c. 1815–c. 1914 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-521-81456-0 |editor1-last=Gilley |editor1-first=Sheridan |series=Cambridge History of Christianity |volume=8 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=LvvzlLf9dFEC&pg=PA148 148]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=LvvzlLf9dFEC&pg=PA149 149] |chapter=<!-- 10: -->Christian social thought; A: Catholic social teaching |access-date=19 February 2014 |editor-last2=Stanley |editor-first2=Brian |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LvvzlLf9dFEC&pg=PA148|via=Google Books}}</ref> ''Rerum novarum'' is the [[genitive case]] of ''res novae'', which literally means "new things" but [[idiom]]atically has meant "political innovations" or "revolution"<!-- <ref>{{cite dictionary |title=A Latin Dictionary. Founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin dictionary. |first1=Charlton T. |last1=Lewis |first2=Charles |last2=Short |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1879 |entry=novus |quote=But, in gen., novae res signifies ''political innovations, a revolution'' |section-url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=novus&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059 |access-date=14 May 2025 |via=Perseus Digital Library }}</ref> --> since at least the days of [[Cicero]].<ref name="Molony 2006"/> The word "revolution" can be misleading in the context, and a more appropriate rendering of the Latin could be "the burning desire for change".<ref name="Molony 2006" />|group=nb}} Leo first quotes 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."<!-- Gregory the Great. Hom. in Evang., 9, n. 7 (PL 76, 1109B) --><ref>{{cite book |last=Orrego |first=Cristóbal |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/catholic-social-teaching/universal-destination-of-the-worlds-resources/547E6264749B324D119077397BD74C46 |title=Catholic Social Teaching: A Volume of Scholarly Essays |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-316-51360-6 |editor-last1=Brugger |editor-first1=E. Christian |series=Law and Christianity |location=Cambridge |pages=267–299 |chapter=The Universal Destination of the World's Resources |access-date=14 March 2025 |editor-last2=Bradley |editor-first2=Gerard V.|via=Cambridge University Press & Assessment}}</ref> ''Rerum novarum'' also recognizes the special status of the poor in relation to social issues, expressing God's compassion and favor for them; this is elaborated in the modern Catholic principle of the "preferential option for the poor".<ref>{{cite web |date=25 February 2009 |title=The busy Christian's guide to Catholic social teaching |url=https://uscatholic.org/articles/200902/the-busy-christians-guide-to-catholic-social-teaching/ <!-- http://web.archive.org/web/20060107144343/http://salt.claretianpubs.org/cstline/tline.html --> |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220808105937/https://uscatholic.org/articles/200902/the-busy-christians-guide-to-catholic-social-teaching/ |archive-date=8 August 2022 |access-date=14 May 2025 |magazine=U.S. Catholic |publisher=Claretians}}</ref>

== Criticism of socialism and ''laissez-faire'' capitalism==
{{Integralism}}
In addition to [[liberalism]] and other forms of [[Modernism in the Catholic Church|modernism]], socialism was first condemned in ''[[Syllabus of Errors]]'' (1864) by [[Pope Pius IX]].<ref name="Williams 2020, pp. 39–42">{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Anthony A. J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Qz7DwAAQBAJ |title=Christian Socialism as Political Ideology: The Formation of the British Christian Left, 1877–1945 |year=2020 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83860-773-9 |pages=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Christian_Socialism_as_Political_Ideolog/4Qz7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA39 39]–[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Christian_Socialism_as_Political_Ideolog/4Qz7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA42 42]|access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref> As in the encyclical ''Libertas'' (1888), which addressed liberalism as the other 19th-century main political movement, Leo lists the positive and negative aspects of socialism in ''Rerum novarum''. Whereas in ''[[Quod apostolici muneris]]'' (1878) he gave a strong condemnation of socialism, communism, and nihilism, ''Rerum novarum'' offers a more nuanced critique that nonetheless ultimately sees certain expressions of socialism as fundamentally flawed. Leo argues that socialists sought to replace rights and Catholic moral teaching with the ideology of state power. He argues that this would lead to the destruction of the family unit, where moral, productive individuals were taught and raised most successfully.<ref name="Lanari 2009">{{cite magazine|last=Lanari|first=Barbara|year=2009|title='Rerum Novarum' and Seven Principles of Catholic Social Doctrine|url=http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2011/print2011/blanari_rerumnovarum_may2011.html|issue=December 2009|access-date=8 September 2020|magazine=Homiletic & Pastoral Review|issn=0018-4268|via=Ignatius Insight|archive-date=18 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118102735/http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2011/print2011/blanari_rerumnovarum_may2011.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Leo opposes socialism for its rejection of private property, stating "the main tenet of socialism, the community of goods, must be utterly rejected", and despite his support for some [[state intervention]], he also rejects socialism for giving too much power to the state.<ref name="Williams 2020, pp. 39–42"/> He argues that equality in society is not obtainable "in capability, in diligence, in health, and in strength; an unequal fortune is a necessary result of inequality in condition."<ref name="Williams 2020, pp. 39–42"/> In response to the socialist arguments, he writes: "To remedy these wrongs the socialists, working on the poor man's envy of the rich, are striving to do away with private property, and contend that individual possessions should become the common property of all, to be administered by the State or by municipal bodies. They hold that by thus transferring property from private individuals to the community, the present mischievous state of things will be set to rights, inasmuch as each citizen will then get his fair share of whatever there is to enjoy. But their contentions are so clearly powerless to end the controversy that were they carried into effect the working man himself would be among the first to suffer. They are, moreover, emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community."<ref name="Hanson 2025">{{cite magazine |last=Hanson |first=Jack |date=13 May 2025 |title=The Text That May Be Key to How the New Pope Thinks |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/pope-leo-xiv-rerum-novarum-socialism/ |access-date=14 May 2025 |magazine=The Nation |issn=0027-8378}}</ref>

Although most well known for its critique of socialism, particularly among conservative circles,<ref name="Hanson 2025"/> ''Rerum novarum'' equally opposes ''laissez-faire'' capitalism and [[individualism]]. For instance, Leo writes of "the cruelty of grasping speculators who use human beings as mere instruments for making money" and called for the government to ensure that the poor are "housed, clothed and enabled to support life".<ref name="Williams 2020, pp. 39–42"/> In this sense, ''Rerum novarum'' argues that the state should not only make interventions for the [[common good]] but particularly for the poor and the working class, and thus could be used to argue for socialism despite its condemnation of socialism "as an answer to social problems".<ref name="Williams 2020, pp. 39–42"/> In another passage, Leo writes: "But all agree, and there can be no question whatever, that some remedy must be found, and quickly found, for the misery and wretchedness which press so heavily at this moment on the large majority of the very poor."<ref name="Williams 2020, pp. 39–42"/>

== Rights and duties ==
In many cases, governments had acted solely to support the interests of businesses, while suppressing labor unions' attempts to bargain for better working conditions. To build social harmony, the Pope proposes a framework of reciprocal rights and duties between workers and employers. Some of the duties of workers are "fully and faithfully" to perform their agreed-upon tasks, to individually refrain from vandalism or personal violence, and to collectively refrain from rioting and insurrection. Some of the duties of employers are to provide work suited to each person's strength, gender, and age, and to respect the dignity of workers and not treat them as [[bondmen]].<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 36 quoted in Zeig 2023 --> By reminding workers and employers of their rights and duties, the Church can form and awaken their [[conscience]]; however, the Pope also recommends that civil authorities act to protect workers' rights and to keep the peace. The law should intervene no further than necessary to stop abuses. In stating the rights and duties of both workers and employers in ''Rerum novarum'', the Church officially organized its effort against the socialist movement.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zweig |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1A2mEAAAQBAJ |title=Class, Race, and Gender: Challenging the Injuries and Divisions of Capitalism |year= 2023 |publisher=PM Press |isbn=979-8-88744-013-2 |page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Class_Race_and_Gender/1A2mEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA139 139] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref>

== Principles ==
=== 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."<!-- ''Rerum novarum'' §20 --><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rothlin |first1=Stephan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eNpJCgAAQBAJ |title=International Business Ethics: Focus on China |last2=McCann |first2=Dennis |year=2015 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-662-47434-1 |page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/International_Business_Ethics/eNpJCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA406 406] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref> He asserts that God has given human dignity to each person, creating them in God's image and endowing them with free will and immortal souls.<ref name="Lanari 2009"/> To respect their workers' dignity in the workplace, employers should give time off from work to worship God, and to fulfill family obligations; give periods of rest, not expecting work for long hours that preclude adequate sleep; not require work under unsafe conditions with danger of bodily harm; not require work under immoral conditions that endanger the soul; and pay a fair daily wage, for which employees should give a full day's work.<ref name="Lanari 2009"/>

The Pope specifically mentions work in the [[mining]] sector, and outdoor work in certain seasons, as dangerous to health and requiring additional protections.<ref name="Rousseau 2001, pp. 41–42">{{cite book |last=Rousseau |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yOPEEAAAQBAJ |title=Human Dignity and the Common Good: The Great Papal Social Encyclicals from Leo XIII to John Paul II |date=30 November 2001 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |pages=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Human_Dignity_and_the_Common_Good/yOPEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 41]–[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Human_Dignity_and_the_Common_Good/yOPEEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA42 42] |isbn=978-0-313-07559-9 |access-date=15 May 2025 |via=Google Books }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Beckett |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tHAdEAAAQBAJ |title=Labour Rights and the Catholic Church: The International Labour Organisation, the Holy See and Catholic Social Teaching |date=13 April 2021 |publisher=Routledge |page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Labour_Rights_and_the_Catholic_Church/tHAdEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT63 63] |isbn=978-1-000-37784-2 |access-date=15 May 2025 |via=Google Books }}</ref> He condemns the use of [[child labor]] as interfering with education and the development of children, stating that children should not be placed in "workshops and factories until their bodies and minds are sufficiently mature" and seeks to shield children from work "which is suitable for a strong man".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hindman |first1=Hugh D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_MrfBQAAQBAJ |title=The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Regional Survey |last2=Hindman |first2=Hugh |year= 2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-45386-4 |page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_World_of_Child_Labor/_MrfBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA539 539] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref> Fair wages are defined in ''Rerum novarum'' as "enough to support the wage-earner in reasonable and frugal comfort".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Livingstone |editor-first=Elizabeth |title=Rerum Novarum |year=2014 |encyclopedia=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199659623.001.0001/acref-9780199659623-e-4918 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199659623.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-965962-3 |access-date=19 May 2025 |via=Oxford Reference |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Leo recommends paying enough to support the worker, his wife, and family, with a little savings left over for the worker to improve his condition over time.<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 46 --><ref>{{cite book |last=Waltman |first=Jerold L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mQBkiNPupvsC |title=The Case for the Living Wage |year=2004 |publisher=Algora Publishing |isbn=978-0-87586-302-3 |page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Case_for_the_Living_Wage/mQBkiNPupvsC&pg=PA34 34] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Prentiss |first=Craig R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWY-DhOnFXkC |title=Debating God's Economy: Social Justice in America on the Eve of Vatican II |year=2010 |publisher=Penn State Press |isbn=978-0-271-04762-1 |page=[https://www.google.it/books/edition/Debating_God_s_Economy/wWY-DhOnFXkC&pg=PA27 27] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Levin-Waldman |first=Oren M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fg_IEAAAQBAJ |title=The Minimum Wage: A Reference Handbook |year= 2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=979-8-216-11809-1 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Fg_IEAAAQBAJ&pg=RA2-PA2001-IA6 2001] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref> He also prefers that women work at home.<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 42 --><ref>{{cite book |last=Schuurman |first=Cahalan & |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GJ8xDwAAQBAJ |title=Calling in Today's World: Voices from Eight Faith Perspectives |year=2016 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-7367-5 |page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Calling_in_Today_s_World/GJ8xDwAAQBAJ?&pg=PA41 41] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref>

=== Common good ===
Without recommending one form of government over another, Leo puts forth principles for the appropriate role of the state. 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, rich and poor. Everyone can contribute to the common good in some important way. Leo asserts no one should be forced to share his goods; when one is blessed with material wealth, they have a duty to 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, "the stability and security of a just order".<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=V. Bradley |chapter=Catholic Social Teaching on the Common Good |year=2019 |title=Catholic Social Teaching: A Volume of Scholarly Essays |pages=235–266 |editor-last1=Brugger |editor-first1=E. Christian |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/catholic-social-teaching/catholic-social-teaching-on-the-common-good/5CDAA93DE5C7DE76351ABA812020335C |access-date=14 May 2025 |series=Law and Christianity |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-51360-6 |editor-last2=Bradley |editor-first2=Gerard V.|via=Cambridge University Press & Assessment}}</ref>

=== Subsidiarity ===
According to Leo, socialism seeks to replace the rights and duties of parents, families, and communities with the central supervision of the state. The civil government should not intrude into the family, the basic building block of society; if a family finds itself in exceeding distress due to illness, injury, or natural disaster, this extreme necessity should be met with public aid, since each family is a part of the commonwealth. By the same token, if there occur a grave disturbance of mutual rights within a household, public authority should intervene to give each party its proper due. Authorities should only intervene when a family or community is unable or unwilling to fulfill its mutual rights and duties.<ref name="Lanari 2009"/>

== Rights and duties of property ownership ==
While criticizing liberalism, individualism, and unrestricted capitalism, Leo supports private property. Quoting Aquinas, Leo writes: "Private ownership, as we have seen, is the natural right of man, and to exercise that right, especially as members of society, is not only lawful, but absolutely necessary. 'It is lawful,' says St. Thomas Aquinas, 'for a man to hold private property; and it is also necessary for the carrying on of human existence.{{' "}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Finnis |first=John |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/catholic-social-teaching/aquinas-as-a-primary-source-of-catholic-social-teaching/11A508C9F7158CBA1F823879D5907EE7 |title=Catholic Social Teaching: A Volume of Scholarly Essays |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-316-51360-6 |editor-last1=Brugger |editor-first1=E. Christian |series=Law and Christianity |location=Cambridge |pages=11–33 |chapter=Aquinas as a Primary Source of Catholic Social Teaching |access-date=14 May 2025 |editor-last2=Bradley |editor-first2=Gerard V.|via=Cambridge University Press & Assessment}}</ref> In another passage, he argues: "Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God's providence, for the benefit of others."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bradley |first1=Gerard V. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CmhDwAAQBAJ |title=Catholic Social Teaching: A Volume of Scholarly Essays |last2=Brugger |first2=E. Christian |year=2019 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-51360-6 |pages=[https://www.google.it/books/edition/Catholic_Social_Teaching/4CmhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA274 274]–[https://www.google.it/books/edition/Catholic_Social_Teaching/4CmhDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA275 275]|via=Google Books}}</ref>

== Preferential option for the poor ==
Leo emphasizes the dignity of the poor and working classes, and writes: "As for those who possess not the gifts of fortune, they are taught by the Church that in God's sight poverty is no disgrace, and that there is nothing to be ashamed of in earning their bread by labor."<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 21 --><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Rothman |first=Lily |date=18 June 2015 |title=The Pope Who Paved the Way for Francis' Encyclical on Climate |url=https://time.com/3924637/pope-francis-encyclical-history/ |access-date=14 May 2025 |magazine=Time |issn=2169-1665}}</ref> Citing the [[Gospel]], he adds: "God Himself seems to incline rather to those who suffer misfortune; for Jesus Christ calls the poor 'blessed'; [Matt.5:3] He lovingly invites those in labor and grief to come to Him for solace; [Matt. 11:28] and He displays the tenderest charity toward the lowly and the oppressed."<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 24 --><ref>{{cite web |last=Fernholz |first=Tim |date=26 November 2013 |title=The pope has been striking back against capitalism for more than a century |url=https://qz.com/151226/the-pope-has-been-striking-back-against-capitalism-for-more-than-a-century |access-date=14 May 2025 |website=Quartz}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Vásquez |first1=Manuel A. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-history-of-religions-in-latin-america/progressive-catholicism-in-latin-america/ED51C7FD3E87B59EBC70A9C3D38229DC |title=The Cambridge History of Religions in Latin America |last2=Peterson |first2=Anna L. |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-521-76733-0 |editor-last1=Freston |editor-first1=Paul |location=Cambridge |pages=372–397 |chapter=Progressive Catholicism in Latin America: Sources and Its Evolution from Vatican II to Pope Francis |access-date=14 May 2025 |editor-last2=Dove |editor-first2=Stephen C. |editor-last3=Garrard-Burnett |editor-first3=Virginia|via=Cambridge University Press & Assessment}}</ref> In regards to the rich and the poor, Leo writes: "The richer class have many ways of shielding themselves, and stand less in need of help from the State; whereas the mass of the poor have no resources of their own to fall back upon, and must chiefly depend upon the assistance of the State. And it is for this reason that wage-earners, since they mostly belong in the mass of the needy, should be specially cared for and protected by the government."<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 37 --><ref name="Rousseau 2001, pp. 41–42"/>

The principle of the "[[preferential option for the poor]]" does not appear in ''Rerum novarum'' and was developed more fully in radically different ways by later theologians and popes. The phrase "option for the poor" is not without its controversy within Catholic social teaching. Although regularly used into the 21st century, the phrase came into common use only in the 1970s, largely among [[Latin American liberation theologians]], and has accrued little papal rearticulation within the encyclical tradition. In 1968, in response to [[Paul VI]]'s ''[[Populorum progressio]]'' (1967), the Latin American bishops met in [[Medellín]], Colombia, and issued a series of documents condemning "structural injustice" (e.g. 1:2, 2:16, 10:2, and 15:1), calling for a "struggle for liberation", and insisting that "in many instances Latin America finds itself faced with a situation of injustice that can be called institutional violence" (2:16). The bishops in Medellín then insisted on giving "effective preference to the poorest and most needy sectors of society", thus giving the first voice to what is now concretized as "the preferential option for the poor". It was at Medellín that the Latin American bishops took the most decisive step toward an "option for the poor".<ref>{{cite book |last=Dorr |first=Donal |year=1992 |title=Option for the Poor: A Hundred Years of Vatican Social Teaching |edition=revised |location=Maryknoll |publisher= Orbis Books |page= 226|isbn= 978-0-883-44827-4}}</ref>

== Right of association ==
Leo distinguishes the larger [[civil society]] (the commonwealth and public society) and smaller private societies within it. Civil society exists to protect the common good and preserve the rights of all equally. Private societies serve various special purposes within civil society. Trade unions are one type of private society, and a special focus of the encyclical. About them, he writes: "The most important of all are workingmen's unions, for these virtually include all the rest. ... [I]t were greatly to be desired that they should become more numerous and more efficient."<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 49 --><ref>{{cite book |last=Holland |first=Joe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rbMutYO8_9EC |title=Modern Catholic Social Teaching: The Popes Confront the Industrial Age, 1740–1958 |year=2003 |publisher=Paulist Press |isbn=978-0-8091-4225-5 |page=[https://www.google.it/books/edition/Modern_Catholic_Social_Teaching/rbMutYO8_9EC&pg=PA189 189] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Hughes |first=Denis M. |date=13 May 2016 |title=Catholic social teachings call to the dignity of creation |url=https://www.ncronline.org/catholic-social-teachings-call-dignity-creation |access-date=14 May 2025 |work=National Catholic Reporter |issn=0027-8939}}</ref>

Other private societies are families, business partnerships, and religious orders. In ''Rerum novarum'', Leo strongly supports the right of private societies to exist and govern themselves. He wrote: "Private societies, then, although they exist within the body politic, and are severally part of the commonwealth, cannot nevertheless be absolutely, and as such, prohibited by public authority. For, to enter into a 'society' of this kind is the natural right of man; and the State has for its office to protect natural rights, not to destroy them[.]"<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 51 --><ref name="Skillen & McCarthy 1991, pp. 156–157">{{cite book |editor-last1=Skillen |editor-first1=James W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OQuVzjVBxqUC |title=Political Order and the Plural Structure of Society |editor-last2=McCarthy |editor-first2=Rockne M. |year=1991 |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |isbn=978-0-8028-4851-2 |page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Political_Order_and_the_Plural_Structure/OQuVzjVBxqUC&pg=PA156 156]–[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Political_Order_and_the_Plural_Structure/OQuVzjVBxqUC&pg=PA157 157] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref> In regards to the state, Leo states: "The State should watch over these societies of citizens banded together in accordance with their rights, but it should not thrust itself into their peculiar concerns and their organization, for things move and live by the spirit inspiring them, and may be killed by the rough grasp of a hand from without."<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 55 --><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schlag |first1=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HasBEQAAQBAJ |title=Rethinking Subsidiarity: Multidisciplinary Reflections on the Catholic Social Tradition |last2=Koller |first2=Boglárka |year= 2024 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-031-50143-2 |page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Rethinking_Subsidiarity/HasBEQAAQBAJ?&pg=PA65 65] |access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref>

The Pope deplores government suppression of religious orders and other Catholic organizations. He also supports unions but opposes at least some parts of the then emerging [[labor movement]]. He urges workers, if their union seemed on the wrong track, to form alternative associations. About such societies that he criticizes, Leo writes: "Now, there is a good deal of evidence in favor of the opinion that many of these societies are in the hands of secret leaders, and are managed on principles ill-according with Christianity and the public well-being; and that they do their utmost to get within their grasp the whole field of labor, and force working men either to join them or to starve."<!-- ''Rerum novarum'', p. 54 --><ref name="Skillen & McCarthy 1991, pp. 156–157"/>

== Legacy and influence ==
''Rerum novarum'' is considered a foundational text of modern Catholic social teaching,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/publications/rerum-novarum-the-condition-of-labor |title='Rerum Novarum' (The Condition of Labor)|publisher= Berkley Center, Georgetown University |access-date=3 May 2025 |archive-date=14 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414044746/http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/publications/rerum-novarum-the-condition-of-labor |url-status=dead }}</ref> and Leo came to be popularly known as "The Social Pope" and "The Pope of Workers".<ref name="Nichols 2025"/><ref name="Hanson 2025"/> In 1891, American economist [[Henry George]] wrote an open letter in response to ''Rerum novarum'' titled ''[[The Condition of Labor]]''. In the letter, George argued that abolishing private property is justified through divine law.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Benestad |first=J. Brian |date=July 1985 |title=Henry George and the Catholic View of Morality and the Common Good, I: George's Overall Critique of Pope Leo XIII's Classic Encyclical, 'Rerum Novarum' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3486053 |journal=The American Journal of Economics and Sociology |volume=44 |issue=3 |pages=365–378 |doi=10.1111/j.1536-7150.1985.tb02359.x |jstor=3486053|access-date=14 May 2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Benestad |first=J. Brian |date=October 2012 |title=A Catholic Response to Henry George's Critique of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41721431 |journal=The American Journal of Economics and Sociology |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=913–937 |doi=10.1111/j.1536-7150.2012.00844.x |jstor=41721431|access-date=14 May 2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref> ''Rerum novarum'' can also be interpreted as a criticism of the perceived illusions of socialism,<ref>{{cite book |last=Uzawa |first=Hirofumi |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-22922-2_1 |title=Building a New Europe: Volume 2: Eastern Europe's Transition to a Market Economy |year=1993 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-349-22922-2 |editor-last1=Baldassarri |editor-first1=Mario |series=Central Issues in Contemporary Economic Theory and Policy |location=London |pages=19–31 |chapter='Rerum Novarum' Inverted: Abuses of Socialism and Illusions of Capitalism |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-22922-2_1 |access-date=2 September 2020 |editor-last2=Mundell |editor-first2=Robert|via=SpringerLink}}</ref> as well as a primer of the Catholic response to the [[exploitation of workers]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eS3EieaG_PEC |title=Essential Catholic Social Thought |first= Bernard V. |last=Brady |publisher=Orbis Books |location=Maryknoll, New York |year=2008 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=eS3EieaG_PEC&pg=PA60 60] |isbn=978-1-57075-756-3|access-date=19 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref> The encyclical contains a proposal for a living wage, although the text does not use this term and instead states: "Wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner."<ref name="Camp 1967, p. 83"/> The American theologian [[John A. Ryan]], also a trained economist, elaborated the idea in his book ''A Living Wage'' (1906).<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eS3EieaG_PEC |title=Essential Catholic Social Thought |first= Bernard V. |last=Brady |publisher=Orbis Books |location=Maryknoll, New York |year=2008 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=eS3EieaG_PEC&pg=PA74 74]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=eS3EieaG_PEC&pg=PA76 76] |isbn=978-1-57075-756-3|access-date=19 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref> [[Leo XIV]] chose his [[papal name]] in honor of Leo XIII and ''Rerum novarum'',<ref>{{cite news |date=8 May 2025 |title=Chi era Leone XIII, il 'predecessore' di Leone XIV |url=https://www.cdt.ch/news/chi-era-leone-xiii-il-predecessore-di-leone-xiv-393434 |access-date=14 May 2025 |work=Corriere del Ticino |language=it |issn=1660-9646}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Cannavò |first=Salvatore |date=9 May 2025 |title=Americano, non trumpiano |url=https://jacobinitalia.it/americano-non-trumpiano/ |access-date=14 May 2025 |magazine=Jacobin Italia |language=it |trans-quote=Prevost has an evident sensitivity for Bergoglian themes, and the choice of the name Leo, referring to the writer of ''Rerum Novarum'', the first great encyclical of social doctrine of the Church, seems to present a program of social openness.}}</ref> saying in his first address to the [[College of Cardinals]] that "Pope Leo XIII, with the historic Encyclical<!-- Capitalized in original --> ''Rerum novarum'', addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution."<ref>{{cite web |last=Merlo |first=Francesca |date=10 May 2025 |title=Pope Leo XIV to Cardinals: Church must respond to digital revolution |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-05/pope-leo-xiv-addresses-cardinals-10-may-2025-vatican.html |access-date=14 May 2025 |website=Vatican News }}</ref> 

''Rerum novarum'' inspired a significant number of Catholic social literature, and even many non-Catholics acclaim it as among the most definite writing on the subject.<ref name="Ryan 1911"/> It was so influential that successive popes wrote encyclicals that celebrated its anniversaries, such ''Quadragesimo anno'', ''Octogesima adveniens'', and ''Centesimus annus''.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Montefusco |first1=Antonio |last2=Potestà |first2=Gian Luca |date=13 October 2020 |title=L'enciclica dell'ultimo dei No Global? |url=https://jacobinitalia.it/lenciclica-dellultimo-dei-no-global/ |access-date=14 May 2025 |magazine=Jacobin Italia |language=it |trans-quote=An encyclical is a circular letter, generally – but not always – addressed by a pope primarily to churches and episcopates. Among the encyclicals, some are conveniently defined as 'social', as they concern the state of the world rather than the doctrinal teaching of Christian doctrine. The most famous remains ''Rerum novarum'', in which Leo XIII at the end of the nineteenth century opened the eyes of the Church to the world of work, claiming a space for analysis and intervention in competition with the impetuous growth of socialist movements and trade unions. The subsequent 'social' encyclicals were mainly published on the occasion of anniversaries: forty years later (''Quadragesimo anno''), eighty years later (''Octogesima adveniens''), one hundred years later (''Centesimus annus'')...<!-- Elipsis in original -->}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Lomonaco |first=Amedeo |date=14 May 2021 |title=Rerum Novarum, una finestra aperta sul terzo millennio |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/it/papa/news/2021-05/rerum-novarum-130-anni-enciclica-leone-xiii-doppio-click.html |access-date=14 May 2025 |website=Vatican News}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Wells |first=Cristopher |date=14 May 2025 |title=Leo XIII's times and our own |url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2025-05/leo-xiii-s-times-and-our-own.html |access-date=14 May 2025 |website=Vatican News}}</ref> A journalist for ''[[The Pall Mall Magazine]]'' referred to ''Rerum novarum'' as "a magnificent confirmation from the Papal Chair of Cardinal Manning's doctrines".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Finn |first=Richard |date=11 October 2021 |title='The Pressing Question of the Hour': Fr. Vincent McNabb O. P. & the Reception of ''Rerum Novarum''<!-- Sic capitalization --> |journal=New Blackfriars |volume=102 |issue=1101 |pages=677–693 |doi=10.1111/nbfr.12682|doi-access=free |postscript=. Citing p. 678.}}</ref> The encyclical also influenced [[Hilaire Belloc]] in ''[[The Servile State]]'' (1912), and ''Rerum novarum'' can be considered the first distributist document.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Schulz, Jr. |first=William Patric<!--do not change; this name is not spelled in error--> |title=Dorothy Day's Distributism and Her Vision for Catholic Politics |year=2017 |degree=PhD |publisher=Louisiana State University |url=https://repository.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5354&context=gradschool_dissertations|page=7|access-date=14 May 2025|via=<!-- Louisiana State University -->LSU Scholarly Repository }}{{free access}}</ref> In the latter half of the 19th century, Catholic thought had expanded its focus in the fields of economics and sociology, in large part due to the social upheaval brought about by the advent of [[mass production]], the rise of a definitive capitalist framework, and the rise of [[labor rights]] movements. The Catholic social teaching became a central theme for Catholic activists of the era in the wake of Leo's ''Rerum novarum''.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first1=Martin |editor-last1=O'Neill |editor-first2=Thad |editor-last2=Williamson |last=Jackson |first=Ben |date=16 April 2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X2n6PQ-dFsEC|title=Property-Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond |location=West Sussex |chapter=Property-Owning Democracy: A Short History |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |isbn=978-1-4473-6034-6|page=[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Property_Owning_Democracy/X2n6PQ-dFsEC&pg=PA37 37]|quote=A version of this idea, although not the precise phrase, had earlier been floated in British political debate by the sometime Liberal MP and Catholic social theorist Hilaire Belloc in ''The Servile State'' (1912). Influenced by Catholic social doctrine, especially Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical ''De Rerum Novarum'' {{sic}}, ... .|access-date=14 May 2025|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Fanning |first=Bryan |date=3 September 2021 |title=Three Roads to the Welfare State: Liberalism, Social Democracy and Christian Democracy |location=Bristol |publisher=Bristol University Press |page=[https://www.google.it/books/edition/Three_Roads_to_the_Welfare_State&pg=PA91 91] |isbn=978-1-4473-6034-6}}</ref> In Italy, the Catholic movement in favor of social reforms that referred to ''Rerum novarum'' was politically organized into the various [[Christian democratic]] parties that later formed post-war Italy's ruling party ''[[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Democrazia Cristiana]]''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/rerum-novarum_(Dizionario-di-Storia)/|title=Rerum novarum|encyclopedia=Dizionario di Storia|year=2011|language=it|location=Rome|publisher=Italian Encyclopedia Institute|access-date=May 14, 2025|via=Treccani}}</ref> Many conservative Catholics considered ''Rerum novarum'' to be strongly progressive in character.<ref>{{cite web |date=9 May 2025 |orig-date=20 July 1998 |title=Rerum Novarum <!-- | Catholic Social Teaching, Labor Rights, Social Justice | Britannica --> |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rerum-Novarum |access-date=May 14, 2025 |website=Encyclopaedia Britannica Online}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Dyja |first=Thomas |date=May 11, 2025 |title=Opinion: intimate and humane, Pope Leo is a true son of Chicago |url=https://observer.co.uk/news/opinion-and-ideas/article/pope-leo-is-a-true-son-of-chicago |access-date=May 14, 2025 |work=The Observer |issn=0029-7712 |quote=There were different ways to be Catholic, and those who heard the call of ''Rerum Novarum'' ('of new things'), the encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 and considered by many conservative Roman Catholics to be extremely progressive, had a radical side befitting the city of the Haymarket riot – a 19th century protest in favour of an eight-hour workday – and the 1968 Democratic convention.}}</ref> Through the ''[[Catholic Worker]]'', a platform for the [[Catholic Worker Movement]] by [[Dorothy Day]] and [[Peter Maurin]], many American Catholics became conscious of ''Rerum novarum'' and Leo's social doctrine.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Livingstone |editor-first=Elizabeth |title=Day, Dorothy (1897–1980), co-founder |year=2014 |encyclopedia=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199659623.001.0001/acref-9780199659623-e-1588 |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199659623.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-965962-3|access-date=19 May 2025 |via=Oxford Research Encyclopedias |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

From a socialist perspective, ''Rerum novarum'' can be described as being situated between laborers and industrialists, and opened up space for anti-capitalist critique and at the same time restricted it;<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Poggi |first1=Stefano |last2=Bartolini |first2=Stefano |date=4 March 2025 |title=Il nuovo corporativismo della Cisl |url=https://jacobinitalia.it/il-nuovo-corporativismo-della-cisl/ |access-date=14 May 2025 |magazine=Jacobin Italia |language=it |trans-quote=In 1891, with the encyclical ''Rerum novarum'', Leo XIII laid the foundations of the 'social doctrine' of the Catholic Church, in response to the challenges posed by the modern world. After having naturalized, and therefore legitimized, social inequalities as a necessary and unavoidable 'natural' fact, the then Pope argued in favor of the need for harmony so that everyone could cooperate for the common good under the aegis of the state, he railed against conflict between classes, demonized strikes, defined as 'serious disorder', and indicated that medieval guilds of arts and crafts, to be remodeled according to the times, were the main instrument through which to remove conflict and achieve cooperation and harmony between classes within them. But already in the following years these ideas, aimed at the future while looking at the past, showed their limits, with an activism of the white leagues that, while advocating harmony between classes, actually practiced conflict.}}</ref> it envisioned a [[cooperative]] workplace with management shared by workers and employers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cossen |first=William S. |date=24 September 2018 |title=Teaching the Rank and File |url=https://jacobin.com/2018/09/rank-and-file-labor-schools-catholic |access-date=14 May 2025 |magazine=Jacobin |issn=2158-2602}}</ref> Despite its condemnation of socialism, Leo and his ''Rerum novarum'' were influential on the mainstream socialist and labourist parties, particularly the [[Labour Party (Ireland)|Labour Party]] in Ireland.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Puirseil |first=Niamh |date=3 May 2016 |title=Labour in Name Only |url=https://jacobinmag.com/2016/05/irish-labour-party-social-democracy-welfare-state-church |access-date=2 August 2020 |magazine=Jacobin |issn=2158-2602}}</ref> Others, notably Archbishop Victor Sanabria, interpreted the encyclical as not rejecting socialism.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Miller |first=Eugene D. |date=October 1993 |title=Labour and the War-Time Alliance in Costa Rica 1943–1948 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-latin-american-studies/article/abs/labour-and-the-wartime-alliance-in-costa-rica-19431948/45CCFE172975F4D0043A9D0912525507 |journal=Journal of Latin American Studies |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=515–541 |doi=10.1017/S0022216X00006659 |issn=1469-767X |jstor=158266|access-date=14 May 2025|via=Cambridge University Press & Assessment|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In particular, socialists contested the understanding and condemnation of socialism,<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Blatchford |first=Robert |date=1891 |title=Socialism: A Reply to the Pope's Encyclical |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/blatchford/1891/popes_socialism.htm |magazine=Clarion Pamphlet |issue=1 |access-date=14 May 2025 |via=Internet Marxists Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Doyle |first=Peter |year=1997 |title='Nothing new and nothing true'. Some Socialist Reactions to Rerum novarum |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/efr_0223-5099_1997_act_232_1_5140 |journal=Publications de l'École Française de Rome |volume=232 |issue=1 |pages=367–382|access-date=14 May 2025|via=Persée}}</ref> and argued that it conflated private and [[personal property]].<ref name="Hanson 2025"/> Christian socialists, such as [[John Wheatley]] and Samuel Keeble, rejected the mutually exclusive claim, which was reiterated by Pius XI in ''Quadragesimo anno'', "by virtue of its<!-- E.g. ''Rerum novarum'' --> consistent endorsement of the legitimate claims of the working class" and that the encyclical had ''de facto'' endorsed many aspects of the labor movement's social and political program, particularly "affirming some of the political devices by which socialism was to be approached (a living wage, rights of association)".<ref name="Williams 2020, pp. 39–42"/>

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 (Portugal)|Estado Novo]]'' ("New State") promulgated by Salazar accepted the idea of corporatism as an economic model, especially in labor relations. 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. In this sense, the Catholic social movement was not only powerful in its own right but also resonated with an older Portuguese political culture that emphasized a natural law tradition, patrimonialism, centralized direction and control, and the perceived natural orders and hierarchies of society.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wiarda |first=Howard J. |year=1973 |title=The Portuguese Corporative System: Basic Structures and Current Functions |journal=Iberian Studies |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=73–80 |postscript=. Citing p. 74.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bruneau |first=Thomas C. |date=Summer 1976 |title=Portugal: Problems and Prospects in the Creation of a New Regime |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44641388 |journal=Naval War College Review |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=65–82 |issn=0028-1484|postscript=. Citing Wiarda 1973.|access-date=14 May 2025|jstor=44641388 }}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Catholicism}}
* [[Class collaboration]]
* [[Integralism]]
* [[List of encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII]]
* [[Political Catholicism]]
* [[Subsidiarity]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist|group=nb}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Bowker |first=John |title=Rerum Novarum |year=2003 |encyclopedia=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780192800947.001.0001/acref-9780192800947-e-6058 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acref/9780192800947.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-280094-7 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book|editor-last1=Cooney|editor-first1=Anthony|editor-last2=Medaille|editor-first2=John, C.|editor-last3=Harrington|editor-first3=Patrick|year=2002|title=Catholic Social Teaching|publisher=Third Way Publications|isbn=0-9535077-6-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Curran|first=Charles E.|year=2002|title=Catholic Social Teaching, 1891–Present: A Historical, Theological, and Ethical Analysis|publisher=Georgetown University Press|isbn=0-87840-881-9}}
* {{cite book|last=George|first=Henry|date=11 September 1891|url=http://grundskyld.dk/1-Condition_of_Labor.html|title=The Condition of Labor: An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII|location=New York|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101113235854/http://grundskyld.dk/1-Condition_of_Labor.html |archive-date=13 November 2010 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Racine |first=Jacques |title=Rerum Novarum |year=2004 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to Canadian History |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195415599.001.0001/acref-9780195415599-e-1349 |publisher=Oxford University Press  |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195415599.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-541559-9 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book|last=Ryan|first=John A.|year=1906|title=A Living Wage|location=New York|publisher=Macmillan}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Walsh |first=Michael |editor-first1=Andrew |editor-last1=Louth |title=Rerum Novarum |year=2022 |encyclopedia=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780199642465.001.0001/acref-9780199642465-e-6111 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199642465.001.0001 |isbn=978-0-19-964246-5 }}

== External links ==
* [https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum_en.html ''Rerum novarum''] – full text and official English translation from the Vatican's official website
* [http://www.virtualplater.org.uk/?page_id=1143 ''Rerum novarum''] – an exposition with guided readings (4.2) at VPlater Project: online modules on Catholic Social Teaching

{{history of the Roman Catholic Church|state=collapsed}}
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[[Category:1891 documents]]
[[Category:1891 in Christianity]]
[[Category:Distributism]]
[[Category:Documents of the Catholic Social Teaching tradition]]
[[Category:Encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII]]
[[Category:May 1891]]