In May 1891, Pope Leo XIII opened a
new chapter in the mission of the Catholic Church when he issued an open letter
entitled Rerum Novarum—Of New Things. The letter dealt with the Church’s
position on an issue of increasing global concern: the dangers of unregulated Capitalism. Much of the Western world was
still in the throes of the Industrial Revolution. Capitalism was in full flower, and other beliefs—the labor
movement, Socialism, Communism—were developing in response to it. The letter addressed the
responsibilities of Capitalists to the larger community.
Under
the banner, “The Rights and Responsibilities of Capital and Labor,” the Pope
noted:
. . . some opportune remedy must be
found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the
majority of the working class: for the ancient workingmen's guilds were
abolished in the last century, and no other protective organization took their
place. Public institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion. Hence,
by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated
and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked
competition. The mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which,
although more than once condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different
guise, but with like injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men.
To this must be added that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are
concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very
rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a
yoke little better than that of slavery itself.
The
Pope argued that the remedy proposed by the new Socialist movement—to renounce
private property—was not ethical, as it “would rob the lawful possessor,
distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the community”
and that “Socialists, therefore, by endeavoring to transfer the possessions of
individuals to the community at large, strike at the interests of every
wage-earner, since they would deprive him of the liberty of disposing of his
wages, and thereby of all hope and possibility of increasing his resources and
of bettering his condition in life.”
Instead,
the Pope called for a regulated approach to Capitalism that protected the
worker and the Capitalist. He
wrote, “ . . . the first thing of all to secure is to save unfortunate working
people from the cruelty of men of greed, who use human beings as mere
instruments for money-making. It is neither just nor human so to grind men down
with excessive labor as to stupefy their minds and wear out their bodies.” He added, “ . . . wages ought not to be
insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse
evil the workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor
will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice.” He argued that unions were a proper
mechanism for ensuring that workers receive proper compensation and conditions
for their work, comparing them to medieval guilds.
One
hundred and twenty-four years later, the Pope’s words continue to ring
true. The Information Revolution
and the resulting globalization of capitalism have pretty much destroyed the
ideal of community in many industries.
No longer do bosses and workers live in the same physical community,
dependent one another for services outside the workplace. At the same time, globalization—in the
form of a global business supply chain—has diminished the impact of community
on workers themselves. In
the process, greed becomes less tangible when the boss never even sees his
workers and the workers have no relationship with their bosses outside work,
not even a shared culture.
For
centuries, greed has been a “deadly sin” in the Christian community. It was Christ, after all, who said that
it is easier to put a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into
heaven. The issue goes well beyond money.
It speaks to our respect for each other across social classes, for sure,
but also across significant cultural divides in this new global economy. What Pope Leo XIII did 124 years ago
set a new direction for the Catholic Church at the height of the Industrial Revolution.
The question for today is whether
we can re-invigorate the Rerum Novarum
as both an individual morality and a societal ethic that will guide us through
the dangerous waters in what has yet to take shape as a new social order.
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