Quadragesimo anno

AfidchaoDomingoSEM 3Quadragesimo annoQuadraregismo AnnoIn the Fortieth YearPope Pius XI15 May 1931

40 years after Leo XIIIs Rerum NovarumRerum NovarumSUMMARYWriting amid the economic woes of the Great Depression, Pope Pius XI develops a doctrine that navigates a middle path between unregulated capitalism and socialist collectivism. He defends private property and the wage system, while emphasizing that the fruits of industry should be distributed equitably among members of society. He reiterates his predecessors' contention that economies must be founded upon a set of reciprocal rights and duties between employers and employees, but also introduces several new concepts, notably that of subsidiarity, which would become crucial in later Catholic economic teaching.

HISTORICAL CONTEXTQuadregismo anno "Forty years" was timed to mark the fortieth anniversary of an earlier encyclical On the Condition of Workers given by Leo XIII. The two popes encouraged labor unions and rejected both individualism and socialismIMPORTANT