Rerum Novarum
Encyclical Letter on Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour
Pope Leo XIII
ISBN 9781860821530
CTS Booklet D680
This volume was brought back to the attention of the world with the election of Pope Leo XIV. According to Goodreads there are 58 editions of this Encyclical Letter available in English. The Catholic Truth Society was quick to reprint it. I ordered it as soon as it was available. The CTS also made an audio version of it available for free through one of their podcasts. I listed to the audio version and then read the physical when it arrived.
The description of this reprint edition states:
“First published in 1891, Pope Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum” was the Church’s bold response to the upheaval caused by the Industrial Revolution. Since being elected Pope in May 2025, Pope Leo XIV has spoken movingly about how this document shaped his understanding of the Church’s mission in the world, especially in light of today’s rapid technological and economic changes.
When Robert Francis Cardinal Prevost was elected Pope in May 2025, he chose the regnal name Leo XIV – a deliberate echo of Pope Leo XIII, whose groundbreaking encyclical Rerum Novarum laid the foundations of Catholic Social Teaching. Pope Leo XIV has spoken movingly about how this document shaped his understanding of the Church’s mission in the world, especially in light of today’s rapid technological and economic changes.
First published in 1891, Rerum Novarum was the Church’s bold response to the upheaval caused by the Industrial Revolution. Pope Leo XIII addressed the worsening conditions faced by workers, the threats to family life, and the dangers posed by both unrestrained capitalism and socialist ideologies. In their place, he set out a clear and compassionate vision of society rooted in the dignity of the human person.
This landmark document defends the right to private property, the need for just wages, and the importance of rest and religious freedom. It upholds the family as the cornerstone of society and denounces child labour and exploitation. Crucially, it insists that economic life must serve the good of the person, not the other way around.
Now reprinted by CTS in honour of the election of Pope Leo XIV, Rerum Novarum offers timeless wisdom for anyone concerned with justice, work, and the role of faith in public life.”
The description of the previous edition from the CTS states:
“Rerum novarum (from its first two words, Latin for "of revolutionary change"), or Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor, is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 15 May 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes.
It discussed the relationships and mutual duties between labor and capital, as well as government and its citizens. Of primary concern was the need for some amelioration of "The misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class." It supported the rights of labor to form unions, rejected socialism and unrestricted capitalism, whilst affirming the right to private property.
"Rerum Novarum" is considered a foundational text of modern Catholic social teaching. Many of the positions in Rerum novarum were supplemented by later encyclicals, in particular Pius XI's Quadragesimo anno (1931), John XXIII's Mater et magistra (1961), and John Paul II's Centesimus annus (1991).”
I highlighted several passages while reading this volume some of them are:
“Therefore, venerable brethren, as on former occasions when it seemed opportune to refute false teaching, We have addressed you in the interests of the Church and of the common weal, and have issued letters bearing on political power, human liberty, the Christian constitution of the State, and like matters, so have We thought it expedient now to speak on the condition of the working classes. It is a subject on which We have already touched more than once, incidentally.”
“In any case we clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that 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 organisation 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.”
“To this must be added that the hiring of labour 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 labouring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.”
“It is surely undeniable that, when a man engages in remunerative labour, the impelling reason and motive of his work is to obtain property, and thereafter to hold it as his very own. If one man hires out to another his strength or skill, he does so for the purpose of receiving in return what is necessary for the satisfaction of his needs; he therefore expressly intends to acquire a right full and real, not only to the remuneration, but also to the disposal of such remuneration, just as he pleases.”
“What is of far greater moment, however, is the fact that the remedy they propose is manifestly against justice. For, every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own.”
“Is it just that the fruit of a man's own sweat and labour should be possessed and enjoyed by any one else? As effects follow their cause, so is it just and right that the results of labour should belong to those who have bestowed their labour.”
“Hence we have the family, the "society" of a man's house - a society very small, one must admit, but none the less a true society, and one older than any State. Consequently, it has rights and duties peculiar to itself which are quite independent of the State.”
“Provided, therefore, the limits which are prescribed by the very purposes for which it exists be not transgressed, the family has at least equal rights with the State in the choice and pursuit of the things needful to its preservation and its just liberty. We say, "at least equal rights"; for, inasmuch as the domestic household is antecedent, as well in idea as in fact, to the gathering of men into a community, the family must necessarily have rights and duties which are prior to those of the community, and founded more immediately in nature.”
“The contention, then, that the civil government should at its option intrude into and exercise intimate control over the family and the household is a great and pernicious error. True, if a family finds itself in exceeding distress, utterly deprived of the counsel of friends, and without any prospect of extricating itself, it is right that extreme necessity be met by public aid, since each family is a part of the commonwealth.”
“We affirm without hesitation that all the striving of men will be vain if they leave out the Church. It is the Church that insists, on the authority of the Gospel, upon those teachings whereby the conflict can be brought to an end, or rendered, at least, far less bitter; the Church uses her efforts not only to enlighten the mind, but to direct by her precepts the life and conduct of each and all; the Church improves and betters the condition of the working man by means of numerous organisations; does her best to enlist the services of all classes in discussing and endeavouring to further in the most practical way, the interests of the working classes; and considers that for this purpose recourse should be had, in due measure and degree, to the intervention of the law and of State authority.”
“The following duties bind the wealthy owner and the employer: not to look upon their work people as their bondsmen, but to respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character.”
“But the Church, with Jesus Christ as her Master and Guide, aims higher still. She lays down precepts yet more perfect, and tries to bind class to class in friendliness and good feeling. The things of earth cannot be understood or valued aright without taking into consideration the life to come, the life that will know no death.”
“As for those who possess not the gifts of fortune, they are taught by the Church that in God's sight poverty is no disgrace, and that there is nothing to be ashamed of in earning their bread by labour.”
“Neither must it be supposed that the solicitude of the Church is so preoccupied with the spiritual concerns of her children as to neglect their temporal and earthly interests. Her desire is that the poor, for example, should rise above poverty and wretchedness, and better their condition in life; and for this she makes a strong endeavour.”
“Tertullian calls these contributions, given voluntarily by Christians in their assemblies , deposits of piety, because, to cite his own words, they were employed "in feeding the needy, in burying them, in support of youths and maidens destitute of means and deprived of their parents, in the care of the aged, and the relief of the shipwrecked."”
“There is another and deeper consideration which must not be lost sight of. As regards the State, the interests of all, whether high or low, are equal. The members of the working classes are citizens by nature and by the same right as the rich; they are real parts, living the life which makes up, through the family, the body of the commonwealth; and it need hardly be said that they are in every city very largely in the majority.”
“But although all citizens, without exception, can and ought to contribute to that common good in which individuals share so advantageously to themselves, yet it should not be supposed that all can contribute in the like way and to the same extent.”
“We have said that the State must not absorb the individual or the family; both should be allowed free and untrammelled action so far as is consistent with the common good and the interest of others.”
“From this follows the obligation of the cessation from work and labour on Sundays and certain holy days. The rest from labour is not to be understood as mere giving way to idleness; much less must it be an occasion for spending money and for vicious indulgence, as many would have it to be; but it should be rest from labour, hallowed by religion.”
“The preservation of life is the bounden duty of one and all, and to be wanting therein is a crime. It necessarily follows that each one has a natural right to procure what is required in order to live, and the poor can procure that in no other way than by what they can earn through their work.”
“That such a spirit of willing labour would add to the produce of the earth and to the wealth of the community is self evident. And a third advantage would spring from this: men would cling to the country in which they were born, for no one would exchange his country for a foreign land if his own afforded him the means of living a decent and happy life.”
“And here we are reminded of the confraternities, societies, and religious orders which have arisen by the Church's authority and the piety of Christian men. The annals of every nation down to our own days bear witness to what they have accomplished for the human race. It is indisputable that on grounds of reason alone such associations, being perfectly blameless in their objects, possess the sanction of the law of nature. In their religious aspect they claim rightly to be responsible to the Church alone. The rulers of the State accordingly have no rights over them, nor can they claim any share in their control; on the contrary, it is the duty of the State to respect and cherish them, and, if need be, to defend them from attack.”
“Those Catholics are worthy of all praise - and they are not a few - who, understanding what the times require, have striven, by various undertakings and endeavours, to better the condition of the working class by rightful means.”
“Such rules and regulations, if willingly obeyed by all, will sufficiently ensure the well being of the less well-to-do; whilst such mutual associations among Catholics are certain to be productive in no small degree of prosperity to the State.”
“In regard to the Church, her cooperation will never be found lacking, be the time or the occasion what it may; and she will intervene with all the greater effect in proportion as her liberty of action is the more unfettered.”
I hope those quotes give you a feel for this volume.
I am glad the CTS choose to reprint this volume again at this time. Originally published in 1891, and the CTS had editions that I could find in 1951, 1954, 1979, 1983, 2002, and now in 2025.
I fell in love with the books and booklets from The Catholic Truth Society, since 2018 I have read 450 of them and read many of them more than once. I am very grateful for both versions of this volume that they have made available. My only regret is that they did not choose to make an eBook version available. Whether you listen to it or give it a read I can highly recommend this excellent resource. It is another great resource from the Catholic Truth Society.
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2025 Catholic Reading Plan! For other reviews of books from the Catholic Truth Society click here.
Books about Pope Leo XIV:
LEO XIV: Portrait of the First American Pope - Matthew Bunson
Pope Leo XIV Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy - Christopher White
Books By Pope Leo XVI:
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