A Pocket Guide to Rerum Novarum | Pope Leo XIII's Landmark Encyclical and Its Application to Our Time

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Pope Leo XIV has expressed concern about how artificial intelligence (AI) will affect the labor economy and the development of young people seeking productive expression of their God-given gifts. How do these concerns relate to those of the pontiff from whom the pope took his name, Leo XIII, in his groundbreaking 1891 encyclical written during the second phase of the Industrial Revolution?

Relevant, accessible, crucial—for such a time as this.

Many of the same challenges that society faced in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are confronting our communities today, from the disparity between the rich and poor, to the rise of giant corporations, to the advent of technologies that threaten to further dehumanize workers. This special edition of the monumental encyclical is enhanced with incisive notes and discussion questions to help you explore its prophetic teachings individually or in small groups.

In a clear, straightforward style, Pope Leo XIII expounds on key issues such as:

• The dangers of socialism for the rights of individuals and families
• The rise of propaganda aimed at whipping up class envy
• How the right to private property is imperative both in divine law and civil law
• Ten obligations of employers to workers and four obligations of workers to employers
• Ways the Church and the gospel uphold human dignity and guide us to our final goal
• How Christians are called to live frugally and use resources wisely for the sake of their families and the common good
• The duty of the government to provide distributive justice
• The wisdom of subsidiarity and the need for voluntary associations in which Christians and workers can support each other

Ultimately, all work is meant to prepare us for Heaven, and nothing should deter us from this path. Pope Leo XIII’s watershed document provides the standard for how Christians and all people of goodwill are called to work for the dignity of others and for justice in the distribution of resources. A must-read in our age of materialistic individualism, on the one hand, and temptation to collectivism, on the other, Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical points the way for Christian societies today to safeguard basic human rights, preserve private property, and, above all, save souls.