Rerum Novarum Quotes

Nothing is more useful than to look upon the world as it really is, and at the same time to seek elsewhere...for the solace to its troubles.

The socialists, therefore, in setting aside the parent and setting up a State supervision, act against natural justice, and destroy the structure of the home.

The social order will be all the more stable, the more it takes this fact into account and does not place in opposition personal interest and the interests of society as a whole, but rather seeks ways to bring them into fruitful harmony. In fact, where self-interest is violently suppressed, it is replaced by a burdensome system of bureaucratic control which dries up the wellsprings of initiative and creativity. When people think they possess the secret of a perfect social organization which makes evil impossible, they also think that they can use any means, including violence and deceit, in order to bring that organization into being. Politics then becomes a "secular religion" which operates under the illusion of creating paradise in this world.

28. It is a capital evil with respect to the question We are discussing to take for granted that the one class of society is of itself hostile to the other, as if nature had set rich and poor against each other to fight fiercely in implacable war. This is so abhorrent to reason and truth that the exact opposite is true; for just as in the human body the different members harmonize with one another, whence arises that disposition of parts and proportion in the human figure rightly called symmetry, so likewise nature has commanded in the case of the State that the two classes mentioned should agree harmoniously and should properly form equally balanced counterparts to each other.

Mas, além da injustiça do seu sistema, vêem-se bem todas as suas funestas consequências, a perturbação em todas as classes da sociedade, uma odiosa e insuportável servidão para todos os cidadãos, porta aberta a todas as invejas, a todos os descontentamentos, a todas as discórdias; o talento e a habilidade privados dos seus estímulos, e, como consequência necessária, as riquezas estancadas na sua fonte; enfim, em lugar dessa igualdade tão sonhada, a igualdade na nudez, na indigência e na miséria. Por tudo o que Nós acabamos de dizer, se compreende que a teoria socialista da propriedade colectiva deve absolutamente repudiar-se como prejudicial àqueles membros a que se quer socorrer, contrária aos direitos naturais dos indivíduos, como desnaturando as funções do Estado e perturbando a tranquilidade pública. Fique, pois, bem assente que o primeiro fundamento a estabelecer por todos aqueles que querem sinceramente o bem do povo é a inviolabilidade da propriedade particular.

All of our systems will inevitably fall short, accumulate errors, and crash. And this remains true whether the crash is immediate and obvious and leads to a great depression, or whether it is monotonous, laborious, and even perpetual.

a saying of St. John Paul II: “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.

the most important document of Leo’s pontificate, his bull Rerum novarum, issued on May 15, 1891. The subject of that bull was one with which few popes had dealt before: the proper relations between laborers and their employers. In the bull, Leo shows that he is aware of the inequities that have resulted from the contrast between “the enormous fortunes of a few individuals, and the extreme poverty of the masses.” Therefore, he writes, the time has come “to define the mutual rights and obligations of the rich and the poor, of capital and labor.” Such relations have become all the more tragic since labor organizations have disappeared in recent times, and “a small group of very rich people have been able to throw upon the masses of poor laborers a yoke that is little better than slavery itself.” Although it is an error to believe that between the rich and the poor there can only be class war, it is true that the defense of the poor merits special attention, for the rich have many ways to protect themselves, while the poor have no other recourse than the protection of the state. Therefore, laws should be such that the rights of the poor are guaranteed. In particular, this refers to the right of every laborer to a salary sufficient to sustain him and his family, without being forced to work beyond a fair limit. All this is to be done because “God seems to lean in favor of those who suffer misfortune.

CARTA ENCÍCLICA «RERUM NOVARUM» (15 de maio de 1891) O comunismo, princípio de empobrecimento 7. Mas, além da injustiça do seu sistema, vêem-se bem todas as suas funestas consequências, a perturbação em todas as classes da sociedade, uma odiosa e insuportável servidão para todos os cidadãos, porta aberta a todas as invejas, a todos os descontentamentos, a todas as discórdias; o talento e a habilidade privados dos seus estímulos, e, como consequência necessária, as riquezas estancadas na sua fonte; enfim, em lugar dessa igualdade tão sonhada, a igualdade na nudez, na indigência e na miséria.

1891: Pope Leo XIII’s historic encyclical Rerum Novarum affirms the right to private property while condemning Communism and criticizing the excesses of capitalism.

Rerum Novarum appeared in English under various titles, such as On the Condition of Labor. The encyclical was prompted by the sorrier aspects of the Industrial Revolution, and Leo was eager to affirm the rights and duties both of laborers and employers. This was welcomed by all laborers and by two or three employers.

Ante todo aclaro que todo lo que digo está en la Doctrina Social de la Iglesia, que comenzó a desarrollarse hace más de un siglo con León XIII en su encíclica Rerum Novarum. No condeno el capitalismo. Tampoco estoy en contra del mercado, sino a favor de lo que Juan Pablo II definía como “economía social de mercado”. No de una mera economía de mercado. Repito lo que él decía. Esto implica la presencia de una “pata” reguladora, que es el Estado, que debe mediar entre las partes. La mesa económica con dos patas no funciona. Con tres sí: el Estado, el capital y el trabajo. Después me enfoco preferencialmente hacia los pobres porque es lo que hacía Jesús y lo que dice el Evangelio. No es que me crea uno de sus discípulos, pero con todas mis limitaciones y pecados procuro ser fiel a su mensaje. Con respecto a que estamos mejor que antes, me pregunto cómo estaríamos antes. En lo que creo que todos podemos coincidir es que aumentó la concentración de la riqueza y la desigualdad. Y que hay mucha gente que se muere de hambre.

Whether it is popularly emphasized much or not, Catholic teaching in the famous encyclical Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII tracks Thomas Aquinas’s quote above very closely: “Private ownership, as we have seen, is the natural right of man, and to exercise that right, especially as members of society, is not only lawful, but absolutely necessary” (22). Immediately after this passage in Rerum, the famous encyclical repeats Thomas’s above words. Taken together, all this underscores the Catholic call to public aid, not by heavy taxation but by private charity instead. The same paragraph in Rerum Novarum refines this concept even further: “Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts of the mind [which cannot be taxed!], has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God’s providence, for the benefit of others.

la encíclica de 1891 de León XIII, la Rerum Novarum, que señaló el camino de la colaboración de clases para obtener una mejor y más justa distribución de la riqueza en el seno de la sociedad.