Rerum Novarum
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(Conspiracy Nation, 2/18/05)
-- In 1891, Pope Leo XIII (image, left) issued an encyclical, titled Rerum Novarum, seeking to
conciliate the factions of capital and labor.
At the time, Pope Leo's message was considered by many
conservative Roman Catholics to be "extremely progressive." [1] In
hindsight, however, Rerum Novarum
(a.k.a. "On The Condition of the Working Classes") seems pacificatory
in view of subsequent labor explosions.
In Rerum Novarum,
Pope Leo (Vincenzo Gioacchino Pecci, 1810-1903) demolished socialist
pretensions that the abolition of private property would bring about a
workers' paradise. He showed this to be a pipe dream and a waste of
energy.
On the other hand, Pope Leo defended the dignity of workers,
urged fair treatment and a just wage, and was fearless in his
denunciation of greedy capitalists. As a force for the betterment of
working people, he urged the creation of workingmen's unions, "to unite
working men of various grades into associations, help them with their
advice and means, and enable them to obtain fitting and profitable
employment." [2]
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Pope Leo's proposed workingmen's unions in his time were to be
guided by the Church, and government was to butt out. In these times,
such associations might be better guided by representatives of various
religious groups. Being independent of the government, they might lobby
in behalf of workers, as the American Association of Retired Persons
(AARP) now lobbies in behalf of elder Americans.
The Nitty Gritty
This being Conspiracy Nation,
we now journey into some of the controversial portions of Pope Leo's
1891 encyclical. As already noted, Pope Leo's message was conciliatory
between the factions of capital and labor overall. He urged that both
sides shared a common interest as social beings in this volatile world
and so ought to seek their common advantage. A "great mistake" is "the
notion that class is naturally hostile to class, and that the wealthy
and the working men are intended by nature to live in mutual conflict."
Pope Leo is conciliatory. But given the over-representation of
capitalist views via their press subsidiaries, Conspiracy Nation now extracts
some of Pope Leo's more provocative statements.
In 1891, as today, the situation was one of "enormous fortunes of
some few individuals, and the utter poverty of the masses..." where
"working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the
hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition."
The "hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the
hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men
have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a
yoke little better than that of slavery itself." [2]
The State evidently has a greater duty to look out for the interests
of its working classes than those of any other class. It is the labor
of the workers which primarily causes the State to grow rich. "Justice,
therefore, demands that the interests of the working classes should be
carefully watched over by the administration, so that they who
contribute so largely to the advantage of the community may themselves
share in the benefits which they create..." [2] Yet we find instead, in
our own time, a government in thrall to artificial corporate beings.
Labor is divinely ordained and in the realm of natural law. "Man's
labor is necessary; for
without the result of labor a man cannot live, and self-preservation is
a law of nature, which it is wrong to disobey." Great is the
responsibility borne by those fortunate one's possessing wealth. They
are reminded 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; but to misuse men
as though they were things in the pursuit of gain, or to value them
solely for their physical powers -- that is truly shameful and
inhuman... wealthy owners and all masters of labor should be mindful of
this -- that to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute
for the sake of gain, and to gather one's profit out of the need of
another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine." [2]
"Therefore, those whom fortune favors are warned that riches do not
bring freedom from sorrow and are of no avail for eternal happiness,
but rather are obstacles; that the rich should tremble at the
threatenings of Jesus Christ." [2]
Yes, the fortunate few have an absolute right to possession of
private property. Pope Leo demonstrates, in Rerum Novarum, that private
ownership is a natural right. How one uses
that personal wealth, however, is another matter. "True, no one is
commanded to distribute to others that which is required for his own
needs and those of his household; nor even to give away what is
reasonably required to keep up becomingly his condition in life." But
beyond these reasonable needs, declared Pope Leo, to be a steward of
great sums and to utilize such riches for personal vanity in the midst
of tremendous human suffering is to risk the wrath of heaven. [2]
"True worth and nobility of man lie in his moral qualities, that is,
in virtue; that virtue is, moreover, the common inheritance of men,
equally within the reach of high and low, rich and poor; and that
virtue, and virtue alone, wherever found, will be followed by the
rewards of everlasting happiness." [2]
------- Notes -------
[1] "Rerum Novarum." Encyclopedia Britannica online, 2005.
[2] All other quotes are from Rerum Novarum: Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor.
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