The most important social statement of the Roman Catholic Church in
recent centuries has been a document known as Rerum Novarum * issued on May 15, 1891 by 81-year-old Leo XIII as a papal
encyclical—an open letter to the bishops of the church. Dealing
directly and forcibly with the social ills facing the world at the turn
of the century, it condemned socialism as immoral but supported trade
unions and higher wages, state regulation of industry and broader
distribution of property and wealth. Brought up to date 40 years later
by Pope Pius XI, it is the starting point of modern Catholic social
thought, and the ideological bedrock on which today's huge Christian
Democratic parties in Italy, Germany and Belgium are founded.Last week, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, Pope John
XXIII issued his own social encyclical, a message firmly oriented
toward the new problems of the mid-20th century. Titled Mater et Magistra
and addressed broadly to “all Christians,” it is
25,000 words long—probably the longest encyclical in history—and
ranges farther and wider than either of its two predecessors. It is
also more polished; John and his advisers have been tinkering with it
for many months, and its publication was reportedly delayed several
times for last-minute changes.A Creation of Free Men. “Mother and Teacher of all nations,” it begins,
“the Universal Church has been instituted by Jesus Christ so that all
who in the long course of centuries come to her for loving embrace may
find fullness of higher life and a guarantee of salvation.” What
follows sets forth “new aspects of the social question,” and recommends
means for the “reconstruction of social relationships in truth, justice
and love.”Mater et Magistra takes careful measure of the massive power that
science and technology have given the state to raise living standards
and increase social welfare. It also warns the state of the danger this
power carries to restrict the freedom of the individual. The state must
therefore be careful to protect “the right that individual persons
possess of being always primarily responsible for their own upkeep and
that of their own family, which implies that in the economic systems
the free development of productive activities should be permitted and
facilitated.”Pope John left no doubt that in the church's view progress and “the
natural right of private ownership, inclusive of productive goods,” are
inseparable. But John was also aware that the set of the modern state
is toward what he calls “socialization”—”the fruit and expression of a
natural tendency, almost irrepressible in human beings, the tendency to
join together to attain objectives which are beyond the capacity and
means at the disposal of single individuals.” But socialization does
not necessarily turn men into automatons. “For socialization is not to
be considered as a product of natural forces working in a deterministic
way. It is, on the contrary, as we have observed, a creation of men,
beings conscious, free and intended by nature to work in a responsible
way.”
