# Rerum Novarum **Summary.** *Rerum Novarum* ("Of New Things") is the encyclical Pope Leo XIII issued in 1891 on the condition of workers. It is the foundational document of modern Catholic Social Teaching, written to address the crisis of industrial labor. It defends the rights of workers while rejecting both unrestrained capitalism and socialism (Source: Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII, 1891). ## Substance Leo XIII wrote in response to industrialization, which had concentrated wealth and left many workers in poverty and insecurity. The encyclical's Latin title comes from its opening words; it is also known by the subject it treats, the rights and duties of capital and labor. The document makes several core claims: - **Private property is a natural right.** Leo defends private ownership against socialist proposals to abolish it. He argues that the right to own property follows from human labor and the needs of family life. - **Labor has dignity.** Work is not a mere commodity. Workers are persons, not instruments, and their labor deserves respect. - **Wages must be just.** A wage should be sufficient to support a worker and his family in reasonable comfort. A contract is not automatically fair simply because both parties agreed to it. - **Workers may form associations.** Leo affirms the right of workers to organize, including in trade unions and mutual-aid societies. - **The state has a role.** Public authority should protect the vulnerable, defend the common good, and secure just conditions, without absorbing what smaller bodies can do. Leo positioned the Church between two systems he judged inadequate. He rejected socialism for denying private property and setting class against class. He rejected an unregulated market that treated workers as disposable. This "third way" framing shaped Catholic Social Teaching for the century that followed. ## Why it matters in this wiki *Rerum Novarum* anchors the Catholic social tradition that later encyclicals build on and revisit. Later popes marked its anniversaries with their own documents, and its themes of labor, property, and the common good run through [[Catholic Social Doctrine]] into contemporary teaching like [[Fratelli Tutti]] and [[Laudato Si']]. It grounds later reflection on [[Human Dignity]] in economic life. ## Related - [[Catholic Social Doctrine]] - [[Fratelli Tutti]] - [[Laudato Si']] - [[Human Dignity]]