Scribd
Upload
198 views2 pages

Rerum Novarum: Capital and Labor Rights

The document provides a reflection on Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum from 1892 on the rights and duties of capital and labor. It summarizes the key points of the encyclical, including that the Pope viewed the conditions of workers as similar to slavery and dismissed socialist ideas of eliminating private property. However, the reflection criticizes the encyclical for encouraging social classes and not alleviating wealth disparity. It also disagrees with the Pope's message to the poor to accept their conditions without protest. While the encyclical recognized some worker rights, the reflection argues it viewed labor issues through too religious a lens and did not adequately tackle poverty.

Uploaded by

Joji Salaver
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
198 views2 pages

Rerum Novarum: Capital and Labor Rights

The document provides a reflection on Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum from 1892 on the rights and duties of capital and labor. It summarizes the key points of the encyclical, including that the Pope viewed the conditions of workers as similar to slavery and dismissed socialist ideas of eliminating private property. However, the reflection criticizes the encyclical for encouraging social classes and not alleviating wealth disparity. It also disagrees with the Pope's message to the poor to accept their conditions without protest. While the encyclical recognized some worker rights, the reflection argues it viewed labor issues through too religious a lens and did not adequately tackle poverty.

Uploaded by

Joji Salaver
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Labor Law 2 – Prof.

Evelyn Battad 2010-36356 | Block 2C


Rerum Novarum: Rights and Duties of Capital Labor Reflection Paper

In the encyclical, Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII spoke of the condition of the

working classes. The Pope discussed how workers are in a situation where they work in

conditions a little better than slavery. One solution proposed by socialists was to

eliminate private property ownership, but the Pope dismissed this saying that it is in the

nature of man to possess property as his own. The encyclical emphasized how the

workers and the rich are dependent upon each other and discussed how socialism

threatens the workers in this context.

Firstly and most importantly, it is appalling to read that the Pope speaks from a

highly privileged standpoint where it encourages the idea of social classes and does not

help alleviate in the reduction of wealth disparity. The other points discussed in the

encyclical merely reinforces this by discussing safeguards for the worker’s rights. The

encyclical said that the worker ought to complete the tasks that they freely agree to

because it enables him to earn an honorable livelihood. The Pope aimed a message at

the poor by consoling them and telling them to accept their lot and strive to betterment

without doing harm to others, and above all to avoid strikes, thus preserving order and

peace. I disagree because to view labor in this way only affirms that the great body of

working men still permit themselves to be ruled and exploited by the capitalists.

Contrary to what the Pope has consistently pointed out in the encyclical, I think it’s

better to consider socialist values in improving the lives of working men because

capitalism only aims to make profit regardless of the cost to the individual, but socialism

does not pursue profit as its highest goal and instead focuses on social cohesion and

the common good. Under socialism, workers are no longer exploited because they own

the means of production.


Labor Law 2 – Prof. Evelyn Battad 2010-36356 | Block 2C
Rerum Novarum: Rights and Duties of Capital Labor Reflection Paper

Rerum Novarum also discusses how the poor has a special status in regard to

social issues. The Catholic principle that God is on the side of the poor was expressed

in this document. To tackle a social issue like poverty in a religious stance becomes so

problematic because it gives out the wrong notion that the poor has to remain poor and

they shall be forever subject to the exploitations of the rich and the powerful. Such is in

accordance to how society works, and the poor will be rewarded for all their hard work

in their next life. Viewing it this way does not eradicate poverty but merely reaffirms it,

allows the rich to deny it the protection that it needs, and takes advantage of the

vulnerability of such population. But the encyclical makes these all okay because, in so

many words, this is the order of the things and that God will be there to help the plight of

the poor.

In conclusion, the encyclical manifests a problematic stance on the relationship

of labor and capital because it was viewed from the lens of religion. However, it also

presents severable valuable points in the protection of labor. Despite the archaic

perspective of social classes, which is understandable as this was written in the context

of the society more than a century ago, it is comforting to know that the predicaments of

the working class were already being tackled and that their rights were recognized and

safeguarded. Some of these were the right to form unions, right to a just wage, and right

to humane conditions of work. The encyclical strongly favors the unions, stating that

workers are to use their unions to secure just compensations and conditions. The Pope

also wrote that the wage must be enough to support a worker and his family and that

the conditions of the work should not be detrimental to the well-being of the worker.

You might also like