Another Anniversary

     Yesterday I spoke of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the American Civil War with the firing on Fort Sumter.  In checking out some of my favorite blogs this morning I became aware of another anniversary that happened thirty years later.  120 years ago Pope Leo XIII published an encyclical (letter) entitled Rerum Novarum ("Of New Things") which was the first formal attempt by the Vatican to clarify Church teaching in the emerging industrialized revolutions of the societies of Europe and the United States.  Pope Leo placed the Church behind the rights of workers to unionize and receive a just wage - rights they did not have and rights, in light of recent events in this country, that are still under attack.

     Other popes have spoken on these issues over the years - John XXIII and John Paul II for example - as well as many labor leaders in both Church and civil society.  Our Pittsburgh area was a major area of that development,  The unions came about to give a voice to the voiceless, and to address an entire range of issues that placed the worker in the realm of a servant or slave which could be used and even at times abused.  The "peasants" are no longer the "slaves" of the "lordly class". 

     Our teachings on social justice, though, flow from the Gospels (Matthew 25 - to do for the least of our brothers).  For 120 years Rerum Novarum's explanation of this Gospel mandate has been reaffirmed again and again by the Church in her calls for justice in society, economics and politics.  Catholic teaching in this area is strong, clear and needs to be heard and understood.

     I read that the Catholic University of America's Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies is hosting a conference at CU on May 2 - 3 of this year.  Maybe it can help remind us of our rich and powerful heritage in this area.