Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno

HELL LOW clashmates!

So today, group 1 will be reporting RERUM NOVARUM and QUADRAGESIMO ANNO!

So guys, are you excited? Though just a bit?

Oh come on, have mercy!!!!!

OPENING PRAYER

We are about to start in . . .

Rerum Novarum

“On the Condition of Labor”

Pope Leo XIII

May 15, 1891

Translation: Of New Things

Pope Leo XIII (2 March 1810 - 20 July 1903)

born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family

was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church

reigning until the age of 93, he was the oldest pope

known for intellectualism, the development of social teachings

Pope Leo XIII (2 March 1810 - 20 July 1903)

impacted Roman Catholic Mariology and promoted both the rosary and the scapular.

the first Pope to be filmed on the motion picture camera

first Pope of whom a sound recording was made

Papacy ended: 20 July 1903 (25 years, 150days)

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Modern era of Catholic social teaching begins with Rerum Novarum. With varying success, Catholic clergy and laity had attempted to apply the teaching of the Church to problems of poverty and justice in the nineteenth century world of industry and labor. When he was a papal diplomat in Belgium, the future Pope Leo XIII had seen the abject condition of working people, so often caught between exploitation by unbridled capitalism and the temptation to submit to the rising power of socialism, or revolutionary Marxism or anarchism. On a natural law foundation, Pope Leo XIII defends the rights of workers, the need for justice and solidarity, but at the same time he affirms the natural right to private property — a balance that will carry Catholic social teaching through the economic and social crises of the twentieth century and the rise and fall of communism.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Rerum Novarum is subtitled "On the Conditions of Labor". In this document, Leo set out the Catholic Church's response to the social conflict that had risen in the wake of industrialization and that had led to the rise of socialism. The Pope taught 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:

"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 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.


The encyclical declared private property a fundamental principle of natural law. Rerum Novarum thus dramatically adapted Thomistic ideas about property, as the Pope attempted to shift the class alliances of the church, aligning with its erstwhile opponent, the bourgeoisie, in the face of the perceived threat of socialism.


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 found their first expression in this document.

Impact and Legacy

Rerum Novarum has been interpreted as a primer of the Roman Catholic response to the exploitation of workers.

The encyclical also contains a proposal for a living wage, though not called by that name in the text itself ("wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner").

In Belgium, it is commemorated annually on the Catholic liturgical feast of the Ascension (also a public Holiday there) by the Christian Labour Movement (which has a traditional link with the Christian Democrat parties, all substantively Roman Catholic), as a kind of counterpart to the socialist Labour Day (also a public holiday in Belgium) on May 1.

In protecting the rights of private individuals, however, special consideration must be given to the weak and the poor. For the nation, as it were, of the rich, is guarded by its own defenses and is in less need of governmental protection, whereas the suffering multitude, without the means to protect itself, relies especially on the protection of the State. Wherefore, since wage workers are numbered among the great mass of the needy, the State must include them under its special care and foresight. (#54)

Labor which is too long and too hard and the belief that pay is inadequate not infrequently give workers cause to strike and become voluntarily idle. This evil, which is frequent and serious, ought to be remedied by public authority, because such interruption of work inflicts damage not only upon employers and upon the workers themselves, but also injures trade and commerce and the general interests of the State...(#56)

The following duties . . . concern rich men and employers: Workers are not to be treated as slaves; justice demands that the dignity of human personality be respected in them, ... gainful occupations are not a mark of shame to man, but rather of respect, as they provide him with an honorable means of supporting life. It is shameful and inhuman, however, to use men as things for gain and to put no more value on them than what they are worth in muscle and energy. (#31)

If the question be asked: How ought man to use his possessions? the Church replies without hesitation: "As to this point, man ought not regard external goods as his own, but as common so that, in fact, a person should readily share them when he sees others in need. No one, certainly, is obliged to assist others out of what is required for his own necessary use or for that of his family, . . . But when the demands of necessity and propriety have been met, it is a duty to give to the poor out of that which remains. (#35-36)

When men know they are working on what belongs to them, they work with

far greater eagerness and diligence. Nay, in a word, they learn to love the land cultivated by their own hands, whence they look not only for food

but for some measure of abundance for themselves and their dependents.

(#66)

The oppressed workers, above all, ought to be liberated from the savagery of greedy

men, who inordinately use human beings as things for gain. Assuredly, neither justice nor humanity can countenance the exaction of so

much work that the spirit is dulled from excessive toil and that along with it the body sinks crushed from exhaustion. The working

energy of a man, like his entire nature, is circumscribed by definite limits beyond

which it cannot go. (#59)

If, therefore, any injury has been done to or threatens either the common good or the interests of individual groups, which injury cannot in any other way be repaired or prevented, it is necessary for public authority to intervene. (#52)

So guys, ano kaya pa ba?

Breathe in guys. AJA!

May next pa noh! Hehe =>

QUADRAGESIMO ANNO

Quadragesimo Anno “In the 40th Year”

Pope Pius XI

15 May 1931

40 years after Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum

Pope Pius XI31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939

born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti

papal motto "Christ's peace in Christ's kingdom"

Predecessor : Benedict XV Successor: Pius XII

Papacy began: 6 February 1922 Papacy ended: 10 February 1939 (17 years, 4 days)

issued numerous encyclicals including and Quas Primas establishing the feast of Christ the King


In the midst of the great depression, in the age of dictators and ruthless totalitarian systems of the right and the left, Pope Pius XI celebrates the fortieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum. He reaffirms the principles set out by Leo XIII and applies them to the current situation. His teaching shows how Catholic social doctrine develops and becomes more specific, even as it maintains its great principles: peace and justice, solidarity, the common good, subsidiarity, the right to property, the right to associate and the fundamental role of the family in society. But by affirming human rights, Quadragesimo Anno paved the way this courageous Pope’s attacks on Nazism (Mit brennender sorge, 1937) on Soviet communism (Divini Redemptoris, 1937), Italian fascism (Non abbiamo bisogno, 1938) and masonic anticlericalism in Mexico (Nos es muy concida, 1938).


Writing in response to the alarming concentration of wealth and power in the socio-economic realm, Pius XI calls for the reestablishment of a social order based on the principle of subsidiarity. In commemorating the 40th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, this encyclical reaffirms the need for a social order animated by justice.

Changes Since Rerum Novarum

Pope Pius XI issued his encyclical exactly forty years after Rerum Novarum. In the interim there were other papal statements from Leo XIII, and also the encyclical Singulari Quadam of Pope Pius X. Pius XI subtitled his encyclical Reconstruction of the Social Order. In the first part he reviews and applauds the encyclical of his predecessor. The Church can be credited with participating in the progress made and contributing to it. It developed a new social conscience.


The welfare State has become a reality and the once powerless workers have unionized and form a powerful opposite to representatives of capitalism.

But for Pope Pius, this did not solve the social problems that Leo XIII talked about. New problems developed including a degree of industrialization, which was unthinkable in 1891. Industrialization has become an undeniable fact, affecting not only the workers in factories but society as a whole. The division of societies into opposing social classes increased, said the Pope. Both sides are highlighting differences and resulting social unrest is truly possible.


Private PropertyThe Church has a role in discussing these issues. Social and economic issues are vital to her not from a technical point of view but in terms of moral and ethical issues involved. Ethical considerations include the nature of private property concerning which, within the Catholic Church, several conflicting views had developed. Pope Pius XI proclaims private property to be essential for the development and freedom of the individual. Those who deny private property deny personal freedom and development. But, says Pius, private property has a social function as well. Private property loses its morality if it is not subordinated to the common good. Therefore governments have a right to pursue redistribution policies. In extreme cases, the Pope recognises that the State has a right to expropriate private property.


Capital and LabourA related issue, says Pius, is the relation between capital and labour and the determination of fair wages. Pius develops the following ethical mandate: The Church considers it a perversion of industrial society, to have developed sharp opposite camps based on income. He welcomes all attempts to alleviate these cross differences. Three elements determine a fair wage: The worker's family responsibilities, the economic condition of the enterprise and the economy as a whole. The family has an innate right to development, but this is only possible within the framework of a functioning economy and sound enterprises. For this Pope Pius concludes that solidarity not conflict is a necessary condition, given the mutual interdependence of the parties involved.


Social OrderIndustrialization, says Pius XI, resulted in less freedom at the individual and communal level, because numerous free social entities got absorbed by larger ones. A society of individuals became a mass and class society. People are much more interdependent than in ancient times and become egoistic or class-conscious in order to save some freedom for themselves. The pope demands more solidarity, especially between employers and employees through new forms of cooperation and communication. Pius draws a negative view of Capitalism, especially of the anonymous international finance markets. He identifies here problems: dangers for small and medium-size enterprises who have insufficient access to capital markets and are squeezed or destroyed by the larger ones. He warns, that capital interests can become a danger for states, who would be reduced to be “chained slaves of individual interests”


Communism and SocialismRegarding Communism and Socialism, Pope Pius noted increasing differences. He condemns communism but also the social conditions which nourish it. He demands that moderate socialism not only distance itself from totalitarian communism as a matter of convenience, but as a matter of principle, in light of the dignity of the human person. Dignity and human freedom are ethical considerations, which cannot be solved from a hostile class confrontation. Ethics are based on religion and, declares the Pope, this is the realm where the Church meets industrial society.

QUOTABLE QUOTES

The function of the rulers of the State is to watch over the

community and its parts; but in protecting private individuals in their rights, chief consideration

ought to be given to the weak and the poor. (#25)

QUOTABLE QUOTES

Every effort must therefore be made that fathers of families receive a wage large enough to meet ordinary family needs

adequately. But if this cannot always be done under existing circumstances, social

justice demands that changes be introduced as soon as possible whereby

such a wage will be assured to every adult workingman. (#71)

QUOTABLE QUOTES

Twin rocks of shipwreck must be carefully avoided. For, as one is wrecked upon, or

comes close to, what is known as "individualism" by denying or minimizing

the social and public character of the right of property, so by rejecting or minimizing

the private and individual character of this same right, one inevitably runs into

"collectivism." (#46)

QUOTABLE QUOTES

Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative

and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and

higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of

the body social, and never destroy and absorb them. (#79)

QUOTABLE QUOTES

...the right ordering of economic life cannot be left to a free competition of forces. For from this source, as from a poisoned spring, have originated and spread all the errors of individualist economic teaching. ... it held that economic life must be considered and treated as altogether free from and independent of public authority, because in the market, i.e., in the free struggle of competitors, it would have a principle of self direction which governs it much more perfectly than would the intervention of any created intellect. But free competition, while justified and certainly useful provided it is kept within certain limits, clearly cannot direct economic life.... (#88)

QUOTABLE QUOTES

...the riches that economic-social developments constantly increase ought to be so distributed among individual persons and classes that ... the common good of all society will be kept inviolate. (#57)

QUOTABLE QUOTES

It follows from the twofold character of ownership, which we have termed individual and social, that men must take into account in this matter not only their own advantage but also the common good. (#49)

MORAL LESSONS:

“The difference between the impossible and the possible

lies in a man’s determination.”

MORAL LESSONS:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue

that counts.”

MORAL LESSONS:

“The road to success is always under construction.”

“It is not the fall that hurts, it’s the sudden

stop.”

MORAL LESSONS:

That’s all guys.

T.H.A.N.K. YOU=>

CLOSING

PRAYER

CLOSING PRAYER

Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno

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