Rev. Msgr. Gerald E. Twaddell, D.Phil., KCHS

Contributor

Once Pope Leo XIII had laid out the duties and responsibilities of employers, employees and the State he emphasized the foundations of his teachings in the dignity of the human person, and the importance of the social dimension of the persons needing to be affirmed.

1. The interests of the worker’s soul. Life on earth is not the final purpose for which a person is created. This life is only a means to attain truth and love goodness. It is in the soul, created in the image and likeness of God, that lies the sovereignty to rule and make use of creatures for the person’s advantage. All human beings are equal: there is no difference between rich and poor, ruler and ruled. “No man may with impunity outrage that human dignity which God Himself treats with great reverence, nor stand in the way of that higher life which is the preparation of the eternal life of heaven. Nay, more: no man has in this matter power over himself.” No person, then, has the right to consent to treatment incompatible with his human dignity. No one can yield his soul to servitude because what is at stake is not just human rights, but the sacred and inviolable rights of God. (§ 40)
2. The obligation to refrain from work on Sundays and certain holy days is not about idleness, and less still about spending money, especially for mere indulgences. It is a time to be hallowed by religion.
3. Rest together with religious observances allows the person to leave aside the tasks of daily life, opening a space to dwell on heavenly matters, and the worship due to God. (§ 41)
4. The Interests of the material life of the person.

Employees need to be kept safe from the cruelty of greedy employers who would treat them as no more than tools for money-making. It is neither just nor human to grind workers down by excessive labor that stupefies the mind and wears out the body.

1. Daily labor must not be extended longer than strength admits. How many and how long the periods of rest should be will depend on the nature and circumstances of time and place of the work. Consider, for instance, the particular demands of tasks such as mining or quarrying that call for shorter hours in proportion to the strain of the work and its effects on health. The season of the year also should be taken into account. Further what is suitable for a stronger person is not suitable for a weaker person. Particular care must be taken when the workers are children. The general rule for all is that workers ought to have leisure and rest proportionate to the wear and tear on their bodies and the rest needed to restore them.
2. Contracts between employers and employees must allow proper rest for soul and body. Anything less is a violation of what is right and just, contravening the duties a person has to God and to self.
3. Wages, according to liberal thought, are strictly a matter of free consent, so that as long as the employer pays what was agreed upon and the employee does the work specified there can be no other question of injustice. If one or other fails to fulfill their part of the contract, the public authority could intervene to correct the matter. Beyond that there can be no justification for action. (§43)

This notion, however, is incomplete because it leaves important considerations out of account. A person undertakes work to procure what is necessary for different activities of life, especially self-preservation. For that reason, labor has two aspects. First, it is personal since the energy used comes from the very person and is the exclusive property of the one who works. Such strength is given to the person by God. Secondly, work is necessary since without it the person cannot live, and natural law requires human beings to preserve their own life.

Even if these two aspects can be thought of separately, in reality they cannot be divided. Hence, it would be a crime for a worker to contract for a salary less than that needed to preserve life. (§ 44) Consequently, the natural law dictates that any free agreement must at minimum ensure that the wages will be sufficient to support a frugal, modest wage-earner. An agreement for anything less, extorted by force or fear by the employer, is unjust.

The same goes for excessive work hours or unhealthy work conditions, though these would be better addressed by societies or boards that will be seen shortly; but, if necessary, the State should be called upon for its sanction and protection. (§ 45) Extending this line of argument, natural law urges, since marriage is a natural right of every person, that wages should be sufficient for the worker to support a family and even to put aside some savings for the future. Laws should therefore favor ownership of property and encourage as many workers as possible to become owners. (§ 46)

Excellent outcomes can be expected if these provisions are enacted. First, property will become more evenly divided. Civil changes and revolutions have divided people into two classes, one holding power over the whole of labor, trade, and sources of supply because of its wealth, giving it also major influence over the government, the other made up of the needy, powerless majority, always at the mercy of efforts to launch an uprising. This can be avoided if working people have a realistic hope for a share in the land.

A second consequence would be greater abundance of the fruits of the earth since people would be more eager to work the land they own. A third benefit is that people would have a greater desire to remain in the country of their birth that assures them a decent and happy life. These advantages suppose that people’s means not be drained by excessive taxation. (§ 47)

1. Associations and other organizations can also assist employees and employers in providing aid to those in distress. These include societies for mutual help, benevolent foundations created to provide for workers, their widows and children in case of some calamity, illness, or even death. (§ 46) Most important are workers’ unions. The artisans’ guilds of earlier times demonstrated the advantages that could be obtained from such association. In the present age, unions, adapted to the needs of more educated people, different habits and demands of daily life can supply similar benefits. It is desirable that they become more numerous and more efficient. (§ 49)

Scripture instructs us that: “A brother that is helped by a brother is like a strong city.” (Proverbs 18:19) This is the impulse that binds people together in civil society; it is also the motive that leads them to join in subordinate, but real, independent societies. (§ 50) Civil society exists for the common good, being concerned with the interests of all, and so is called a “public society.” But “private societies” have as their purpose plainly the advantage of their members, within, but not including all members of, the public society. As part of the commonwealth, they cannot be absolutely prohibited by the public authority.

The State must protect private societies, because to try to suppress or forbid their existence contradicts the very principle on which the existence of the State itself rests. (§ 51) Of course, if people join together to pursue unlawful purposes, the State may justly dissolve them, provided precautions are taken to avoid violating rights of persons by unreasonable regulations. “Laws only bind when they are in accordance with right reason, and, hence, with the eternal law of God.” (§ 52)

Private societies in the Church such as confraternities and religious orders should be independent of State control. However, in many places “State authorities have laid violent hands on these communities …have taken away their rights to corporate bodies and despoiled them of their property.” “Catholic societies, however peaceful and useful, are hampered in every way, whereas the utmost liberty is conceded to individuals whose purposes are at once hurtful to religion and dangerous to the commonwealth.” (§53)

Associations of workers are more numerous than in the past, but there is evidence that many are led secretly by persons whose principles are at odds with Christian beliefs. These organizers seek to command the whole field of labor and force Christians to choose between joining them or starving. In the face of such coercion, Christians must form their own associations and unite “to shake off courageously the yoke of so unrighteous and intolerable an oppression.” (§54)

Many Catholics have organized groups to better the conditions of families and individuals by infusing a spirit of equity in the mutual relations of employees and employers, to keep the precepts of duty and the Gospel before their eyes, to inculcate self-restraint, and to establish harmony among divergent interests and classes in the body politic. Some have promoted mutual action to assist people in finding suitable employment. Others have used their wealth to found organizations to create insurance societies for workers. “The State should watch over these societies of citizens banded together in accordance with their rights, but it should not thrust itself into their peculiar concerns and their organization.” (§ 55)

Such societies also have the right to have rules and structures best suited to their purposes. (§ 56) The most important purpose is the true betterment of the members, beginning by helping them fulfill the duties of religion and morality. (§ 57) Next, their organization should foster harmonious interactions, with the offices arranged with clear responsibilities so that no member should suffer any harm. Further, common funds must be administered with strict honesty. Careful consideration and explicit expression must be given to the mutual rights and duties of employers and employees, so that if anyone has a complaint the dispute may be settled according to the rules of the society. Another purpose that must be addressed is the provision of “a continuous supply of work at all times and seasons.” Finally, a fund should be established from which members may be helped in their needs, whether of accident, illness, old age, or distress. (§ 58)

Pope Leo XIII expressed his conviction that if people would obey these rules and regulations that all the prosperity of society would result because the experience of the transformations that came about from the earliest ages of the Church through the centuries put to rest the criticisms and complaints that originally were made against Christianity. (§ 59) If workers will form such associations and pursue policies that contribute to the common good, even people whose prejudices and greed lead them to object will finally be won over when they see that the workers prefer “right dealing to mere lucre, and the sacredness of duty to every other consideration.” (§ 60) The pope even sees in these associations and unions rooted in Christian principles a hope to bring back those who had given up on religion to support and defend them. These associations should offer them “a haven where they may securely find repose.” (§ 61)

The remainder of the encyclical urges the bishops to take up the task of announcing the principles, duties, rights, and interests laid out in its pages not only to the rulers of commonwealths, but also to employers and employees (§ 63) as the way to bring the power of Christian charity to bear in combating the evils of recent times as the “surest antidote against worldly pride and immoderate love of self.” (§ 64)

As we listen to Pope Leo XIV address the same issues about workers and all the connected topics that are presented in “Rerum Novarum” we will hear substantially the same ideas. These are as timely as they were in 1891, or when Benedict XV celebrated the 40th anniversary with “Quadragesimo Anno,” and Pope St. John Paul II with “Laborem Exercens,” in 1981, as well as the hundredth anniversary encyclical “Centesimus Annus” in 1991. We look forward to the contributions that Pope Leo XIV will make to the application of Catholic Social Teaching during his pontificate.

Rev. Msgr. Gerald E. Twaddell, D.Phil., KCHS

Contributor

After laying out the duties and responsibilities of employers and employees to one another, Pope Leo XIII shifted his attention to the proper role of the State in meeting the challenges he had identified at the beginning of “Rerum Novarum.”

First, the pope makes explicit just what kind of entity he is addressing. A State is a government whose institutions conform with right reason and natural law. Its first duty is to ensure that the laws, the institutions, the general character and administration of the commonwealth promote public well-being and private prosperity. A State thrives as a result of moral rule, well-regulated family life, respect for religion and justice, moderate and fair public taxes, progress in the arts and trades and abundant production of the land. In arranging everything in this way every class will benefit and the interests of the poor will be advanced.

In brief, the state must serve the common good. To the extent that the general laws protect the working class, the less need there will be for special means to address them. (§ 32)

A further consideration is that the State must further the interests of all. The working classes are as truly citizens as the rich, and naturally constitute the majority of the members of the commonwealth. Hence, “Among the many and grave duties of rulers who would do their best for the people, the first and chief is to act with strict justice — with that justice which is called distributive — toward each and every class alike.” (§ 33)

Though all citizens contribute to the common good, they do so in diverse ways: some govern, others defend the commonwealth, still others exercise a variety of trades and professions. But since the most important good that a society can possess is virtue, the body politic needs to “to see to the provision of those material and external helps ‘the use of which is necessary to virtuous action.’”

Such goods are principally the product of those whose labor allows States to grow rich. Justice therefore calls for the State to watch out for the interests of those who labor so that “they may find their life less hard and more endurable.” This will serve the advantage of the entire commonwealth. (§ 34)

The State must not subjugate either individuals or families in their freedom of action so long as these are consistent with the pursuit of the common good. The safety of the commonwealth is the central concern of the rulers, and never their own advantage. Their power to rule, after all, comes from God, whom they should imitate in exercising it, that is with a fatherly solicitude, guiding the whole and upholding all its members. (§ 35)

Consequently, should the general interest or some class suffer, the public authority must intervene for the good of the whole community as much as for the protection of those who are enduring some harm. When such troubles arise, the authorities must maintain peace and good order in a manner consistent with divine and natural law.

The pope listed and offered examples of a number of areas to attend to: the discipline of family life, duties of religion, exacting standards of personal and public morality, sacredness of justice, assurance that no one be harmed with impunity. To these he added the evils of employers unjustly burdening their employees or degrading them “with conditions repugnant to their dignity as human beings,” and putting health at risk by excessive labor, or by work unsuited to the worker’s age or sex. In all these matters, “there can be no question but that, within certain limits, it would be right to invoke the aid and authority of the law,” provided the law does not reach beyond what is necessary to remedy the evil. (§ 36)

Respect for Rights

The Public authority has a duty to prevent and to punish injury to the rights of every individual, and particularly those of the poor and badly off. The wealthy have resources to shield themselves from harm so that they have less need of assistance from the State. The poor, though, have no such resources and stand in need of State assistance. Wage earners, then, who belong to the mass of the needy should receive special care and protection from the government. (§ 37)

However, public authority has a duty to provide legal protection for private property, especially when passionate greed crosses the line of duty. For though it is just for all to strive to better their condition, “neither justice nor the common good allows any individual to seize upon that which belongs to another.” The vast majority of workers prefer to improve their lot by honest labor; nevertheless, there are many who are eager for revolution who would like to incite others to the violent takeover of lawfully owned property. The authority of the law must restrain such firebrands. (§ 38)

This is not to say that worker strikes are not justified by excessive hours of labor, or exceedingly hard work or insufficient wages. Such situations need to be prevented by “public remedial measures” because of the impact of strikes on both workers and employers, on trade and on the general public. “The laws should forestall and prevent such troubles from arising; they should lend their influence and authority to the removal in good time of the causes which lead to conflicts between employers and employed.” (§ 39)

The final article of this series will present Pope Leo XIII’s teachings on the implications of all these principles for the responsibility of the State to protect the interests of workers.