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ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIIION CAPITAL AND LABOR

RERUM NOVARUM

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RERUM NOVARUM

The opening words and the title of

the Encyclical issued by Leo XIII, 15 May, 1891, on

the "Condition of Labour". Although

the Encyclical follows the lines of

the traditional teaching concerningthe rightsand duties of property and

the relations of employer and employee, it applies

the old doctrinesspecifically to modern conditions.

Opening with a description of the grievances ofthe working classes, it proceeds to refute

the false theories of the Socialists, and to defend

the right of private ownership.

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The true remedy, continues the pope, is to be found in thecombined action of the Church, the State, the employer

and the employed. The Church is properly interested inthe social question because of

itsreligious and moral aspects; the State has

the right and the duty to intervene on behalfof justice andindividual and social well-being; and

employers and workers should organize into bothmixed and separate associations for mutual

protection and for self protection. All this is set forth

with sufficient detail to reach the principal problemsand relations of industrial and social life.

RERUM NOVARUM

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Probably no other pronouncement onthe social question has had so many readers

or exercised such a wide influence. Ithas inspired a vast Catholic social literature,

while many non-Catholics have acclaimed it asone of the most definite and reasonableproductions ever written on the subject.

Sometimes criticized as vague, it is as specificas any document could be written for several

countries in different stages of industrialdevelopment.

RERUM NOVARUM

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On one point it is strikingly definite: "Let it be takenfor granted that workman and employer should, as

a rule, make free agreements, and in particularshould agree freely as to wages; nevertheless, there

is a dictate of natural justice more imperious and

ancient than any bargain between man and man,that remuneration should be sufficient to maintainthe wage-earner in reasonable and frugal comfort.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

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Although this doctrine had been a part ofthe traditionalteaching for many centuries, it

had never been stated with such precision andauthority. As the years go by and

thoughtful men realize more and more howdifficult it is to define the full requirementsofjustice in the matter of wages, a constantlyincreasing number of persons look up on thisstatement ofLeo XIII as the most fruitful and

effective principle of industrial justice that hasever been enunciated.

RERUM NOVARUM

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GRACIAS!

PRESENTERS:Kimberly Anne PasquinCharlotte Kay AmuendaSalve Grace LosbanesRose Kareen DefensorMarie Faye Mondeja