Sowing the Seeds of Liberation Theology

I haven't spent much time thinking about the 19th century beginnings of the modern social justice movements in the Church. I could probably write a seminar paper (or a book!) on how these movements evolved in the 20th century, but I haven't spent much time digging deeper back into the nineteenth century, except for the places where Church social justice movements collided with the lives of British writers, like in the life of Christina Rossetti.

I came across this nugget on The Writer's Almanac today, and thought I'd pass it along. In a year of more revelations about church officials who have abused their power, it's good to celebrate this anniversary of a piece of writing that continued moving the Church towards social justice and liberation for the poor and the oppressed.

Here's the quote from the site:

"It was on this day in 1891 that Pope Leo XIII issued an official Roman Catholic Church encyclical addressing 19th-century labor issues. It's called Rerum Novarum, Latin for 'Of New Things,' and it is considered the original foundation of Catholic social teaching.
He said in the open letter that while the Church defends certain aspects of capitalism, including rights to private property, the free market cannot go unrestricted — that there is a moral obligation to pay laborers a fair and living wage.

He had much more to say to employers; first, he told them 'not to look upon their work people as their bondsmen.' He told them it was never OK to cut workers' wages. And he told them to 'be mindful of this — that to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute for the sake of gain, and to gather one's profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine. To defraud any one of wages that are his due is a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven.'

With these words Leo began a new chapter in the Catholic Church, one where social justice issues became incorporated into official Church doctrine, an essential part of faith, where the Church would stake out official positions and be vocal on issues like labor, war and peace, and the duties of governments to protect human rights."

The Pope Leo link will get you to the whole document, a document which seems full of relevant thoughts for us today, even though it was written over a century ago.