St. Joseph Church
Bristol, Connecticut

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti
Pastoral Minister

One Hundred Years of Catholic Social Teaching

Title : Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Workers)

Author: Pope Leo XIII

Date: May 15, 1891

Context: This encyclical was published during the Industrial Revolution taking place in Western Europe and the United States. Pope Leo XIII wrote this letter in response to the growing attraction of socialism, nationalism and rampant capitalism that led to the marginalization of the Church in the lives of the faithful and Western culture at large.

Pope Leo was especially concerned about the losses of the Church among the working classes. He was also very concerned about the exploitation of the workers by owners of large industrial enterprises.

Main points:

1. the need for respect of human dignity of all persons

2. workers have the right to receive a just wage and to form trade associations

3. right to private property

4. right of the church to speak out on social issues

Title: Quadragesimo Anno (Reconstructing the Social Order)

Author: Pope Pius XI

Date: May 15, 1931

Context: Pope Pius XI wrote this encyclical in response to the Great Depression sweeping the world during the 1930's. It was also a response to the looming age of the dictators in Europe and Asia. In Italy, Japan, the Soviet Union and Germany fascist style governments were in place or were rising to power in those countries.

Main Points:

1. criticizes capitalism's terrible excesses

2. denounces the communist solution

3. the state has a positive responsibility in economic affairs

Title: Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress)

Author: Pope John XXIII

Date: May 15, 1961

Context: This encyclical was written on the seventieth anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's, Rerum Novarum. Pope John XXIII wanted to respond to the problems occasioned by the growing gap between rich and poor nations. He also wanted to address the dangers of the continuing cold war, especially in light of the crisis in Berlin of that year. He was the first Pope to make a major attempt to discuss aid to countries in the process of development and to call for major improvements in social structures.

Main Points:

1. examine the international economic scene

2. duty of advanced nations to aid economically underdeveloped countries

3. arms race adds to poverty

4. all Catholics must have a social commitment

Title: Pacem in Terris ( Peace on Earth)

Author: Pope John XXIII

Date: April 11, 1963

Context: Pope John XIII published this encyclical in the light of the recent "terror-filled" days of the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. This crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of global thermonuclear war. The increase in tensions and conflicts in the "third world" generated by the cold war competition between the superpowers compelled John XXIII to speak out for peace. He also responded to the growing problems of the impact of capitalism on the less developed nations. He wrote this letter to all people of good will concerned about peace and human dignity. Lastly,  John XXIII took up the issue of human rights and the rights and duties of the individual and the state.

Main points:

1. call for human rights and dignity as the foundation of peace in the world

2. new official pronouncement of the Catholic church on human rights

Title: Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World)

Author: Second Vatican Council (Paul VI)

Date: December 7, 1965

Context: This document of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was the Catholic Church's pastoral constitution concerned with the mission of the church in the modern world. The concern of the "fathers of the council" was to give pastoral guidance to the whole church as the shape the church's mission should take in addressing the "signs of the times." In it they insisted that the two great problems facing the Church were peace and social justice. The document insists that there can be no peace without justice.

Main Points:

1. Church must address the Gospel to the "signs of the times"

2. mission to be a prophetic voice in the world

3. called to see war in a new light and with a new attitude

4. addressed married life, sexuality, and conscience

Title: Popularum Progressio (On Promoting the Development of Peoples)

Author: Pope Paul VI

Date: March 26, 1967

Context: Pope Paul VI felt that it was important to address the issues of distributive and social justice. He was concerned about the war in Vietnam, the wars of African independence and the growing disparity between rich and poor nations and the conflict this did and could generate.

Main Points:

1. the goods of the earth belong to all

2. development of the third world is essential to peace

3. "development" is the new word for peace

4. if you want peace, work for justice

Title: Octagesimo Adveniens (Call To Action)

Author: Pope Paul VI

Date: May 14, 1971

Context: Pope Paul VI was the first Roman Pontiff to engaged in world-wide travel. This brought him into contact with the problems in Central America, Africa and Asia. One central insight he derived from his travels was a need to address the Gospel to the concrete needs of the location and situation of people and nations. As a result he addresses situations like urbanization and environmental issues. He continued the papal critique of Marxism and Socialism.

Main Points:

1. need to address the Gospel to concrete needs of people

2. critical of ideologies that lead to new forms of slavery

3. re-evaluate development

4. call to all people to action for justice

Author: World Synod of Catholic Bishops in Rome

Date: November 6, 1971

Context: The bishops were influenced by the Latin American Bishops Conference

at Medellin, Columbia in 1968. They were aware that the model of "development" was not working. Not only had economic growth failed to bring about a more equitable distribution of wealth, it had militated against such distribution. The bishops called the Church to put itself on the side of the poor. The Church must not scandalize the poor in  its opulence. The Church is called to treat all justly in the Church.

Main Points:

1. Called for social analysis and structural change

2. church mission and the transformation of the world

3. call to all for participation

4. action on behalf of justice, and the transformation of the world as constitutive to the preaching of the Gospel

Title: Evangelii Nuntiandi (Evangelization in the Modern World)

Author: Pope Paul VI

Date: December 8, 1975

Context; This encyclical letter was written to call the Church to a new evangelization effort in the world. This letter discussed the competing ideologies in the world that still attracted many people like, hedonism, communism, and atheism. Paul continued to echo  the concerns of the Second Vatican Council and the Synod of Bishops' , Justice in the World, 1971 by pointing out that action for justice was fundamental to the evangelizing mission of the church.

Main Points:

1. evangelization proclaims (like Jesus, Lk. 4:16-19) liberation from all forms of  oppression

2. teaching of the church must challenge all injustice

Title: Laborem Excerens (On Human Work)

Author: Pope John Paul II

Date: September 14, 1981

Context: This was the second major encyclical published by Pope John Paul II dealing with social questions. It was his desire to address the rights of workers and the value of human work. This was written with an eye toward the Solidarity movement in communist Poland. It was concerned with addressing those questions that concerned Pope Leo XIII in 1891 in the context of ninety years later.

Main Points:

1. developed themes from Rerum Novarum

2. work should be a humanizing force in life

3. rights of the worker to just pay, health care, working environment, vacation

Title: Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (On Social Concerns)

Author: Pope John Paul II

Date: December 30, 1987

Context: This encyclical critiques the continuing cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union and its effects on the growing gap between rich and poor nations.  The letter also critiques the excesses of capitalism and socialism. This critique continued themes that were surfaced by Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, On Human Work, 1981.

Main Points:

1. condemnation of the cold war and the imperialism and militarism they engender

2. criticizes both socialism and capitalism for its excesses

3. injustices built into the very structure of economic policy (structures of sin)

Title: Centesimus Annus ( On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum)

Author: Pope John Paul II

Date: May 15, 1991

Context: Pope John Paul II wrote his first encyclical after the cold war. The situation gave cause for optimism and concern. The situation would be characterized by emergence of nationalist and ethnic rivalries around the world. For the first time in papal teaching the system of democratic republicanism was advanced as the one type of   system that was likely to promote human rights and justice.

Main Points:

1. reiteration of previous teaching

2. continues to critique capitalism, but more optimistic about its possibilities

3. includes environmental concerns with others of social justice

Compiled by Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Created 8/14/1998