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Br. Paul Nguyen, OMV

Modern Church History, Orlando
April 22, 2015
Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum
In this important encyclical letter, Pope Leo XIII relies on Scholastic argumentation and
the principle that virtue and human perfection govern everything, especially with respect to
labor.
Pope Leo XIII builds his argument by first establishing that man must work, pointing to
the family and the nature of human society. Then he moves to the justice of remuneration for
work, including the right to private property, and the mutual relationship between the employer,
who should justly compensate his employees, and the employee, who should diligently perform
his tasks. He then establishes the right of men to form private associations, and, together with the
necessity of work, concludes that men have the right to form private associations for the purpose
of securing an honest wage and prudent rest, or to provide for the incidental needs of those who
suddenly cannot work. He also holds that governments should recognize such associations and
even encourage them to serve the dignity of the working class well. Throughout the document,
Pope Leo points out where socialism and communism go astray in their excessive reliance on the
community of men (without considering their duty of religion) and an exaggerated materialism.
Thus the virtues of prudence, temperance, and justice are present throughout, and fortitude is
present in the Pope's validation of labor unions and associations designed to support laborers in
the face of injustices committed by employers or the State.
In today's society, with the persistent cry for an increase in wages and rampant
consumerism, this letter continues to be relevant. Perhaps the just minimum wage is not as high
as the $15 hourly wage that some request. Then again, perhaps it is, based on the reality of
inflation and depreciation of currency. Pope Leo XIII continuously refers to the virtues and a

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God-oriented economic system in which employees are expected to live frugally on what they
receive, and that they should, in fact, receive what is necessary to live well without excess
(including modest savings for one's own family or the needy poor). This is such an important
principle that he insists on the right of workers to assemble to demand justice, and for the men
who constitute a society to support one another directly, and by means of such associations.
Pope Leo XIII also refers multiple times to rest, and, because human society should
govern itself with respect to the common good, which includes worship, he not only calls for
avoiding excess in the length of the working day, but also for Sundays and holy days to remain
holy and set aside for worship. Again, today's society is in such dire need of this observance, as
so many professions demand work on Sundays, or make it impossible to earn a frugal living
without working on Sundays. This cascades through the whole moral life, as well, forfeiting the
sanctification of the weekly cycle and all the practices that came with it for spiritual well-being.
The Pope's affinity for St. Thomas Aquinas and the scholastics is evident in his
methodology of presenting prior views, answering them, and refuting them, and he clearly leans
heavily on virtue-ethics with a warm and balanced approach to exposing errors and calling men
onward to their own perfection.