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Simón Apablaza
R R
ERUM ERUM
N N
OVARUM OVARUM
Background, content, and significance of Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum
At the end of the 19
th
century and the beginning of the 20
th
, thanks to the“industrial revolution” factories prospered, but in this prosperity capitalism had becomeabusive. Workers found themselves in worse and worse situations, receiving lower wagesand working longer hours. The conditions for work did not give workers any rights,except that of receiving money in for exchange of work, but the ferocious competition infinding work made the workers hurt each other by offering their work for a lesser price,even arriving to extremely poor wages on which they could barely live. The right to leavefor sickness, retirement, paid holidays, are all things of our days. In those days absencefrom work immediately meant the sack and, of course, without compensation. As thewages could not pay for the cost of living of a family, many times the mothers andchildren were obliged to work together with their husbands and fathers, workingsometimes even 12 to 16 hours a day in order to subsist.
Faced with this situation there came a solution: socialism, that proposed thesuppression of private property and its equal distribution among the citizens, which notonly violated the rights of the legitimate owners, but also altered competition and the roleof the state.The Church gave a response to this problem trying to reconcile employers withemployees, and to unite the workers, so that all together could improve the workingconditions to make them more just and in accord with the circumstances of each person.
The response of the church came through one of the most important figures in moderntimes, Pope Leo XIII with his encyclical
Rerum Novarum
.
1
See Document 10. 1, Samuel Coulson, called in and examined, ‘From evidence by factory workers onthe conditions of child labour, 1832’, in the Class Reader. p, 102-3.
2
Cf. John Paul II,
Centesimus Annus
§ 4; but to see a more detailed view of the background of thisEncyclical see: John Molony, “The Making of
Rerum Novarum
, April 1890- May 1891” in
The Church Faces the Modern World: Rerum Novarum and Its Impact,
Ed. Paul Furlong & David Curtis (GreatBritain :Earlsgate Press, 1994), 27-39.
1
Simón Apablaza
P
RINCIPLES
OF
R
ERUM
N
OVARUM
Such was the impact of Rerum Novarum that several encyclicals commemorate it,as is the case of
Quadragesimo Anno
that commemorated forty years, and
Centesimus Annus
that commemorate one hundred years. This is a proof of the lasting value of
Rerum Novarum
, praising its correct diagnosis of its contemporary situation and that ithad the courage to propose the right solutions for it.Why was this encyclical so important that all other works are based on it? It is notonly that it was a great encyclical; Rerum Novarum is the cornerstone of the socialteaching of the church.
The conflict of class struggles
Industrialization created more problems than it solved, or so, no doubt, believedthe workers. Employers were demanding too much of the poor and little better thanslaves of workers. There was no sense of social responsibility and the employees foundthemselves at a loss, for they could not defend themselves. Workers therefore soon startedto have violent reactions and demonstrations. If we had to make comparisons, the sweat-shops of our days -eradicated as much as possible, or hidden from the public eyes- werethe general reality. The workers were seriously presented with the decision of acceptingthe harsh conditions -we have said it was little better than slavery- or facing real possibility of starvation for the whole family.
In this context no doubt Marxist ideology, had so much influence. It was all aclass struggle, power struggle: rich against the poor, bourgeoisies against the workers.The people accepted this, embraced it and hated the slaver capitalists.
Rerum Novarum
thus, said something completely contrary to this. It not only saidthat the rich and the poor were not to be against each other, but that they shouldharmonize with each other because “
each needs each other: capital cannot do without
3
Cf. Leo III,
Encyclical Letter: Rerum Novarum
, Downloaded from:Http://www.vatican.va,accessed 20-
10-2006, § 14-16; cf. John Paul II,
Centecimus Annus
§ 5.
4
There were unhealthy conditions of work, low wages, cruelty against women and children, and agrowing gap between the rich and the poor. The majority of the capitalists were men whose only aim wasmoney. It was only predictable that the working class were to rebel, and so there were riots, machinewrecking. See. Rodger Charles, Christian Social Witness and Teaching, The Catholic tradition formGenesis to
Centesimus Annus
. V.1 (Wiltshire: Cromwell Press, 1998), 290-293.
2
Simón Apablaza
labour, nor labour without capital
”.
And it proposes a real bridge: the church, for there isno intermediary more powerful. She brings the rich and working class together, byreminding each of their duties of Justice. Then the document makes a further step sayingthat the Church “
tries to bind class to class in friendship and good feeling
”.
And this issome thing only the church can do, because she gives us a glance into eternity.
Right of workers and dignity of work
Work is one of the activities that belong to man that not only acts as mean toachieve bread, but it his duty on earth that gives dignity.
Socialism takes away thedignity of work and considers it only a mean to an end: to provide bread. And so bytaking away private property, socialism denies the right of the father to provide for hisfamily, destroying the familiar organization. This is a serious injustice to workers and it isdone by denying workers the fruit of their labour.
Leo XIII did not use this language: “
dignity of work
” as such. This is actually aterminology used by John Paul II in
Laborem Exercens
. However it is worth noticing thatwe find the essence of it here in
Rerum Novarum
.
5
Leo III,
Rerum Novarum
§ 19.
6
Leo III,
Rerum Novarum
§21.
7
John Paul II said that Class struggle derives from ‘atheism’ -thanks to socialism-, because it does notrespect the dignity of the person. Once we lose sight of the transcendental, we lose sight of theimportance of the temporal as well. And with it goes our transcendental dignity, which is that we have been created as the image and likeness of God and we have been created for perfect things not from thisworld. “
Marxist class struggle and Militarism have the same root: atheism and contempt for human person
”. John Paul II,
Centesimus Annus
§14
8
Cf. John Paul II,
Centesimus Annus
§ 6.
9
For man, God has decreed work, even before the fall. God had said to man to cultivate and care for thegarden (Gen 2:15). God had given work to him. It was not burdensome, for Adam was still at peace withhimself and with God. Work is not only a means for earning bread that one may dispense if there wereothers sources of income, but it is a duty for man on earth. After original sin, work became a redemptivereality. For this God had said “
with sweat on your brow shall you eat your bread
” (Gen. 3:19). From thatmoment work helps man to free himself form evil, to pay his debts with justice and to be responsible anduseful, to “collaborate” day after day, so as to say, with his own salvation, especially when food is scarceand uncertain. See Carlo Carreto,
Love is for Living
(London: Darton a, Longman and Tood Ltd., 1976),74-82.
10
Leo III,
Rerum Novarum
§ 10, 14.
3
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