THE CONTEXT OF RERUM NOVARUM

Rerum Novarum is the magna carta of the working class. It marks the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching which argues in the context of a relational anthropology that avoided the opposite extremes of individualism and collectivism.

 

            The Church’s concern for social matters certainly did not begin with Rerum Novarum, for the Church has never failed to show interest in society. Nonetheless, this Encyclical marks the beginning of a new path. Grafting itself onto a tradition hundred years old, it signals a new beginning and a singular development of the Church’s teaching in the area of social matters.

            In the 19^th c, events of an economic nature produced a dramatic social, political and cultural impact. Events connected with the Industrial Revolution profoundly changed centuries-old societal structures, raising serious problems of justice and posing the first great social question – the labor question – prompted by the conflict between capital and labour. This produced a situation of poverty, motivated a change of political power from land owner to Industrial Capitalist. It created the urban working class.

            In this context, the Church felt the need to become involved and intervene in a new way: the res novae (new things) brought about by these events represented a challenge to her teaching and motivated her special pastoral concern for masses of people. A new discernment of the situation was needed, discernment capable of finding appropriate solutions to unfamiliar and unexplored problems.

            The historical context of RN was the terrible exploitation and poverty of European and North American workers. The issue was not people are poor, but why are they poor? In responding to this question the Encyclical condemned not only the one sided individualism but also the socialistic approach that subordinated the individual to the society. (this is not a socialism, but a communism. We find at one side the focus on the individual, forgetting the society; at the other side the subordination of the individual to the society where the individual disappears.) Pope Leo XIII defended the Relational Anthropology that avoids the opposite extremes of Individualism and Collectivism in striking a balance.