Leo XIII
良十三世

Words of Pope Leo XIII on labour as relevant today as they ever were

At a time when workers continue to struggle for decent wages and rights, panelists at a conference marking the 120th anniversary of the publication of the encyclical, Of Things New (Rerum Novarum), penned by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, said the papal words of the 19th century on labour and the rights of workers still hold an important, contemporary lesson.

Held at the Catholic University of America on May 2, the conference looked at the historic and contemporary context of the 1891 encyclical that is still considered to be the basis of Church social teaching.

Peter Kodwo Cardinal Turkson, the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said at a May 3 round up programme that the current times call for a renewed effort to fulfill the demands of the encyclical.

He described the main function of the state in the time of Pope Leo as being the same as today; the pursuit of the common good, “which is not reduced to one’s nation, but considered from a world standpoint; awareness that this good cannot be limited to material goods, but must include the moral good of society;” placing priority on people and families; respecting the free initiative of people; and aiding the neediest in society.

 “Putting those priorities into effect is necessary in these times,” he said.

The Ghanaian cardinal told CNS and the National Catholic Reporter that numerous recent events point to the need for the modern world to take to heart the lessons of Rerum Novarum.

He added that the effort by several states in the United States of America (US) to do away with collective bargaining for state employees and the huge demonstrations in Italy and England at the beginning of the year mounted by students, who were worried about their ability to find work, are examples of insecurity among workers in many parts of the world.

“Rerum Novarum has won admiration and interest precisely because it lays down basic rules on the social questions,” Cardinal Turkson said, particularly on “how is human dignity ensured in the midst of turmoil?”

He added that questions about workers rights, about the role of government in overseeing various aspects of society and about the power of capitalism, come down to always ensuring human dignity.

“For me, the criteria are how people are treated,” he said. “A society decides to entrust to a government... to give it a mandate to ensure their well-being. I tend to judge every government by how well that government treats its own citizens.”

A government should not interfere with its citizens, as it has an obligation to ensure their well-being and to protect them from becoming victims, including at the hands of unscrupulously run businesses. “Governments, at the end, are judged by how well their citizens live, and how happily,” he noted.

In one of two responses to Cardinal Turkson’s formal remarks, Bishop Stephen Blaire, of Stockton, California, said workers today face an economic revolution, in much the same way as in the time of Pope Leo.

Bishop Blaire, who is the chairperson of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said, “The current revolution is a technological one.”

He went on to say, “Global poverty envelops the earth. Millions are unemployed. Working conditions around the globe are often deplorable. Church-state relationships in many instances are adversarial?

He said one example where Rerum Novarum hits the nail on the head lies in the needs of the poor in the US to have a voice on Capitol Hill amid budget and financial reform.

“The poor have no lobbyists with huge bank accounts to speak for them,’’ he explained.

He cited the creation by more than 40 Christian leaders of a Circle of Protection, a plan to stand with the poor amid budget cuts. “It requires shared sacrifice by all, including raising adequate revenue, eliminating unnecessary military and other spending and addressing the long-term costs of health insurance and retirement programmes fairly,” he said.

John Sweeney, from the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations, cautioned that at the time of Rerum Novarum untrammeled capitalism had changed the traditional relationship between master and worker, as a result of unregulated industries and failed systems.

“Today, the problem is that for the past 30 years, some industries have been waging all-out war” against the gains workers made through the growth of unions in earlier generations.

He noted that Rerum Novarum and later documents, such as the 1986 pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All, by the US bishops, have been powerful tools in shaping how the Church and society should respond to the needs of the poor, by starting from a focus on human dignity.

“It is time for the Church to re-emphasise Rerum Novarum,” he continued. “Let us remind our entire Church that Rerum Novarum is not a cafeteria of suggestions and ideas from which we are free to pick and choose, but the modern expression of an unbroken line that stretches from the Book of Genesis, throughout the Old Testament, to the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ himself.”

Sweeney also said that a renewed partnership between Church and labour is needed “if the labour movement is to survive and perpetuate our mission of being what amounts to an action arm of Catholic social teaching.”

 22 May 2011

Who was Pope Leo XIII, the father of social doctrine?

Cardinal Robert F. Prevost has selected the name Pope Leo XIV, an apparent nod to Pope Leo XIII, who deserves to be called the founding father of Catholic social doctrine in modern times, with his encyclical Rerum Novarum as its foundational document.

This body of teaching includes moral principles like the dignity and inviolability of the human person, the right to private property, the conditions for a just war and much else.

Commonly known by the title On the Condition of the Working Classes, the lengthy Rerum Novarum sets out a body of papal teaching in response to the state of industrial society in the late 19th century. In doing so, says Catholic writer Robert Royal, Pope Leo’s 1891 encyclical “has shaped Catholic social teaching ever since.”

After the 31-year pontificate of Blessed Pius IX, the cardinals at the conclave to elect his successor evidently wanted someone who would be an interim pope. Cardinal Pecci, nearing the age of 68 and believed to be in frail health, seemed to fit the bill on both counts. He was elected on 20 February 1878. No doubt to the electors, surprise, Pope Leo went on to serve as pope for 25 years, making his pontificate the third longest in history, after only those of Pius IX and Pope St. John Paul II.

On the political side, he achieved limited but real success, especially in Germany, where estrangement between the government and the church was largely healed. Elsewhere - and especially in France and Italy - there was little or no improvement. But beyond the sphere of politics, the years of his pontificate saw significant growth for the Church in many places, along with a continued expansion of missionary efforts. He had little interest in ecumenism; after study by a papal commission, he declared in 1896 that Anglican orders were “absolutely null and utterly void.”

Two documents of Pope Leo stand out in particular. One is “Rerum Novarum,” dated 15 May 1891.

Responding to what he calls “socialism” - understood broadly to include any social movement or school of thought advocating the abolition of private property - Pope Leo here vigorously defended the right of private ownership as a natural right and necessary basis for the exercise of other rights. But in doing so, he positioned himself on the side of the working class, affirming such things as the right of workers to decent working conditions, a just wage, labor unions and the right to strike.

Catholics also will have a special interest in a second document of Leo XIII - Testem Benevolentiae (“Witness to Good Will”) - containing a condemnation of “Americanism.”

The name “Americanism” refers to a set of ideas that the Vatican, rightly or wrongly, associated with the Church in the United States but that in fact may more commonly have been found in some Catholic circles in France. The real-life Americanizers had little interest in theories but were convinced of the need for Catholic immigrants to become integrated into American secular society. They denied having any personal sympathy with the “Americanism” condemned in Pope Leo’s letter, which is cast in the form of a letter to Cardinal Gibbons dated 22 January 1899.

Whether or not Americanism was a problem then, the pope’s letter unquestionably does anticipate some real problems that have surfaced in American Catholicism in more recent times. (abridged)

Russell Shaw
OSV News

 18 May 2025

People before profits, pope says

Although almost 135 years have passed since Pope Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum, his encyclical on the economy and labour, Pope Leo XIV - who chose his name to honour that predecessor - said, “The dignity of workers continues, all too often, to be violated.”

Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical was “born in a time of profound industrial transformations,” his successor said, but it remains “strikingly relevant in the globalized world we inhabit.”

Writing to business leaders and others attending the 13 November conference of the Industrial Organisation of Argentina, the country’s largest association of manufacturing businesses, Pope Leo reminded the leaders of some of the key teachings of his predecessor.

“It was strongly affirmed,” he said, “that ‘it is neither just nor human so to grind men down with excessive labour as to stupefy their minds and wear out their bodies,’” and that workers have a right to a just wage, to form unions or other associations, and to live with dignity.

For the Catholic Church, the pope said, the economy “is not an end in itself but an essential - yet partial - aspect of the social fabric in which God’s plan of love for every human being unfolds.”

That means that production and profit cannot be pursued without concern for the growth and development of the people involved, he said.

Pope Leo XIII “also warned that those who enjoy material abundance must carefully avoid harming, even in the slightest way, the livelihood of the less fortunate, which - however modest - must be considered sacred, precisely because it constitutes the indispensable support of their existence,” he said.

“These words remain a constant challenge,” the pope said, because “they invite us not to measure the success of a business solely in economic terms, but also by its capacity to generate human development, social cohesion, and care for creation.”

When business decisions literally impact the lives of thousands of families, “holiness must flourish,” Pope Leo said. “The world urgently needs entrepreneurs and leaders who, out of love for God and neighbour, work for an economy that serves the common good.”

He prayed that the Argentine leaders would renew their commitment to “an innovative, competitive and, above all, human industry - capable of sustaining the development of our people without leaving anyone behind.”

 23 November 2025


◆ 歷代教宗簡史, 鄒保祿著, 台灣聞道出版社, 1983.
◆ 教宗良十三世小傳, 鄒保祿著, 台灣聞道出版社, 1987.
◆ The Practice of Humility - 60 Lessons on the Virtue of Virtues, by Leo XIII, TAN Books, 2024.


https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en/holy-father/leone-xiii.html
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en.html
Pope Leo XIII the father of social doctrine, Sunday Examiner, 18 May 2025.

通諭
《新事》通諭, 原譯名《勞工問題》, 戴明我譯, 香港真理學會, 1949.[資料來源: 天主教香港教區社會訓導文獻]