SOCIAL ENCYLICALS

1. THE CONDTION OF LABOR (RERUM NOVARUM, Encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII,
May 15, 1892)
In this Encyclical, Pope Leo XIII examinees the situation of the poor people and workers
in industrialized countries. He states several important principles that should guide the
responses to the needs of these people. He then articulates the role of the church,
workers and employers and the law and public authorities in working together to build a
just society. Employers are given the major role as agents for change.

Major Areas of Concerns:

Care for the poor
Rights of the workers
Role of private property
Duties of workers and employers
Return of Christian morals Role of Public authority
Role of the Church
1. The church has the right to speak out of these matters affecting religion and morality.
2. Through use of Gospel principles, the church can help reconcile and help unify
classes.
3. The goal of the church is to help reconciles and help unify classes.
4. Their church can educate people to act justly.

2. QUADRAGESIMO ANNO (Reconstruction of the Social Order, Pope Pius XI, 1931)
After forty commemorates the 40th anniversary of The Condition of Labor, This
encyclical was written during a major depression was shaking the economic and social
foundations of society. He strongly criticizes the abuses of both capitalism and
communism and attempts to update Catholic Social teaching to reflect changed
conditions.

Major Areas of Concerns: On the Church Doctrine

Role of the church 1. Encouraged adaptability to changing conditions
Responsible Ownership 2. Inspired a truly Christian social science
Labor and Capital 3. Taught in seminaries and universities
Public Authority 4. Many priests and lay people are committed to
Churchs teaching
Just Social Order 5. Doctrine had influence outside the church
Capitalism and Socialism
Role of the Church:
a. Church has a right and duty to deal with these issues.
b. Its a God given task
c. Church must pass judgment on social and economic questions as they affect
moral issues.
 3. MATER ET MAGISTRA (Christianity and Social Progress, Pope John XXIII, 1961)
Pope John XXIII begins this encyclical by receiving the major points of The Condition of
Labor, and After Forty Years. He notes that new political, social and economic
developments have necessitated Christianity and Social Progress. He urges a
reconstruction of social relationships according to the principles of Catholic social
teaching and states the responsibility of individual Christians to work for a more just
world.

Major Areas of Concerns: Role of the Church

Just Remuneration 1. Individual Christians must advance civil institutions and
Subsidiary human dignity and faster a unity between people.
Agriculture 2. Many Catholics are already involved in these efforts
Economic Development
Role of the Church
International Cooperation
Socialization

4. PEACE ON EARTH (Paceam in Terris, Pope John XXIII, 1963)

Pope John XXIII contends that peace can be established only if the order set down by
God is fully observed. Pope John XXIII sketches a list of rights and duties to be followed
by individuals, public authorities, national governments, and the world community.
Peace needs to be based on an order found on truth, built according to justice, vivified
and integrated by charity and put into practice in freedom.

Major Areas of Concerns:

Rights and Duties
Role of Public Authorities
Common Good
Christian World Order
International Relation
Disarmament

Rights:
1. Rights to life and worthy standard of living (includes rights to the proper development
of life to basic security).
2. Rights of cultural and moral values (includes freedom to reach for an express
opinion, freedom information, right to education).
3. Rights to religion and conscience
4. Rights to choose ones state in life (includes rights to establish a family and pursues
a religious vocation).
5. Economic rights (includes rights to work, to a just and sufficient wage and to hold
private property).
6. Rights to meeting and association.
 7. Political rights (includes to participate in public affairs and juridical protection on
rights).

5. PASTORAL CONSTITUTION OR THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD (Gaudium

et Spes, Second Vatican Council, December, 1995).
Vatican IIs Pastoral Constitution is the most important document in the churchs social
tradition. It announces the duty of the people of God to scrutinize the signs pf times in light
of the people gospel in doing so, it finds that changes characteristics the world.

Major Areas of Concerns:

Human Dignity
Common Good
Signs of the Times
Public Responsibility
Respect for Families
Right of Culture
Justice and Development
Peace
The Church in the Modern World
1. The church and humanity experience the same earthly situation
2. History, Science and Culture reveal the true nature of the human person
3. The church can be helped by the world in preparing the ground for the gospel
4. The church isnt bound to any particular political, economic or social system
5. The church needs to purify itself continually
6. The churchs mission, part saving and eschatological, begins in this world, Jesus is
the Lord of History
7. Individual Christian need to envelop the world with a Christian spirit and witness to
Jesus in the midst of Human society.

6. LABOREM EXERCENS (Encyclical letter of Pope John II on Human Work)

This document was written to commemorate the ninetieth anniversary of Leo VIIIs
Rerum Novarum. It focuses on human work.
In order to achieve social justice in the various parts of the world, in the various
countries, and in the relationships between them, there is a need for every new
movements of solidarity of the workers and with the workers. This solidarity must
present whenever it is called for by the social degrading of the subject of work, by
exploitation of the workers, and by the growing areas of poverty and even hunger, the
church is firmly committed to this cause, for she considers it her mission, her service, a
proof of her fidelity to Christ, so that she can only be the church of the poor

7. SOLLICITUDO REI SOCIALIS (Encyclical letter of John Paul on Social Concerns)

Twenty-five years earlier Pope John Paul wrote Populurom Progress which for the first
time in detail the development of people, imperialism which impedes such development.
 Sollicitudo Rei Socialis is more incisive critique of imperialism. John Paul II points to
increasing poverty as the basis reality of the contemporary world. Third world is getting
poorer, while the first world richer. The former get the wealth, the latter the debts, the
gap is getting wider.

8. CENTISIMUS ANNUS (Encyclical letter of John Paul II on the Hundredth Anniversary of

Rerum Novarum)
Pope John Paul II writes Centisimus Annus to commemorate the one hundredth
anniversary of the epoch making Rerum Novarum. Centisimus Annus endeavors to
solve the social problems, it has events proper of its era, circumstances that were
absent in times past.

What is SOCIAL ENCYCLICAL(S)

Papal Social Encyclicals:

An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the
ancient Christian church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any
bishop. The word comes from Latin encyclia (from the Greek "en kyklo, ") meaning
"general" or "encircling", which is also the origin of the word "encyclopedia".

Pope Leo XIII

Rerum Novarum:
On the Condition of Workers
Issued on the fifteenth of May 1891. Literally "Of New Things," on capital and labor and the
condition of the working class. This was the most significant of all the encyclicals before or
since. Rerum Novarum broke down the barriers that separated the church from the worker.
Rarely had the Church spoken on social matters in such an official and comprehensive

Pope Pius XI
Quadragesimo Anno:
On the Reconstruction of the Social Order
Issued May 15, 1931. Literally "In forty Years," commemorating the fortieth anniversary of
Rerum Novarum. This encyclical repeated many of the themes of Rerum Novarum: the dignity
of labor, the rights of workers to organize, etc. Quadragesimo anno also emphasized the
immorality of keeping economic control in the hands of a few. It recognized the principle of
subsidiarity, which held that higher levels of authority should act only when lower levels cannot
deal with a problem. **

Pope John XXIII

Mater et Magistra:
Mother and Teacher
Issued May 15, 1961. Literally "Mother and Teacher," on Christianity and Social progress. This
encyclical gave an updated interpretation of the classic theme of private property and introduced
the notion of private initiative as an extension of private property. While Rerum Novarum and
Quadragesimo Anno left responsibility for social justice with the individual, Mater et Magistra
placed some in the hands of the state. (this encyclical needs to be read in conjunction with
Pacem in Terris, literally "Peace on Earth,"
Pope John XXIII's other great encycical.) **
Pacem in Terris: Peace on Earth

Pope Paul VI
Octogesima Adveniens:
A Call to Action
(May 14, 1971) Issued for the Eightieth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum Populorum Progressio:
On the Development of People Issued March 26, 1967. Literally "On the Progress of Peoples."
As a vigorous endorsement of Mater et Magistra, Populorum Progressio presented Catholicism
as a advocate of a pluralistic, decentralized approach to economic problems. **

Pope John Paul II

Laborem Exercens:
On Human Work
Issued on September 14, 1981. Literally "On Human Work." Laborem Exercens focused on the
themes that work is central to the social question and that work has potential not only to
dehumanize but also to be the means whereby the human person cooperates in God's ongoing
creation.

Sollicitudo Rei Socialis:

On the Twentieth Anniversary of Populorum Progressio
Issued on December 30, 1987. Literally "On Social Concerns," commemorating the twentieth
anniversary of Populorum Progressio. Solicitudo Rei Socialis presented an overview of modern
social problems with some guidelines for action. It dealt with authentic human development and
adopted a critical attitude toward both capitalism and communism. Solicitudo Rei Socialis
warned that economic development alone may not set people free but only enslave them more.
**

Centesimus Annus:
The Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum
Issued on May 1, 1991. Literally, "The Hundredth Year," commemorating the one hundredth
anniversary of Rerum Novarum. Centesimus Annus brought Rerum Novarum up to date and
tied it to "the preferential option for the poor" done in the context of the collapse of communism
in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Centesimus Annus still criticized both capitalism and
communism.

The Dignity Of Work

1. Work is more than a way to make a living; its a form of continuing participation in
Gods creation.
 2. Work is a necessity, part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human
development and personal fulfillment. In boosting the world's economic and social
assets, the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in
his or her integrity: "Man is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social
life.
3. Work is, as has been said, an obligation, that is to say, a duty, on the part of man. . .
Man must work, both because the Creator has commanded it and because of his own
humanity, which requires work in order to be maintained and developed. Man must work
out of regard for others, especially his own family, but also for the society he or she
belongs to, the country of which he or she is a child, and the whole human family of
which he or she is a member, since he or she is the heir to the work of generations and
at the same time a sharer in building the future of those who will come after him or her in
the succession of history.
4. Work is a good thing for man a good thing for his humanity because through work
man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his or her own needs, but he or she also
achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed, in a sense, becomes "more a human
being.

The Rights of Workers

The basic rights of workers must be respected:
A. The right to productive work
The obligation to earn one's bread by the sweat of one's brow also presumes the right to
do so. A society in which this right is systematically denied, in which economic policies
do not allow workers to reach satisfactory levels of employment, cannot be justified from
an ethical point of view, nor can that society attain social peace. All people have the right
to work, to a chance to develop their qualities and their personalities in the exercise of
their professions, to equitable remuneration which will enable them and their families "to
lead a worthy life on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level" and to assistance in
case of need arising from sickness or age.
B. Right to decent and fair wages and benefits
A living wage is a fundamental right of workers and a moral imperative of employers
because it provides workers with the means and resources to form and support a family.
Because work is this important, people have a right to employment. In return for their
labor, workers have a right to wages and other benefits sufficient to sustain life in dignity.
C. Right to the organization and joining of unions
The right of association means that workers have the right to form associations for the
purpose of defending the vital interests of those employed in the various professions.
These associations are called labor or trade unions. If there are existing associations,
workers have the right to join.
D. Right to private property
The Catholic tradition has long defended the right to private ownership of productive
property. Small and medium-sized farms, businesses, and entrepreneurial enterprises
are among the most creative and efficient sectors of our economy. They should be
highly valued by the people such as land ownership and home ownership.
E. Right to economic initiative
Every person has a duty to contribute to building up the economy. Everyone must
contribute to economic development through their individual vocations and talents.
F. Right to decent working condition
Adequate safety and health standards should be observed in the workplace to ensure
the basic social protection for workers. The prevention of accidents and diseases and
the protection of workers health and welfare are basic rights for workers to decent
working condition.