Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] They Lied to You About Rerum NovarumThe foundational document of modern Catholic Social Teaching calls private property sacred and condemns instigating class envy in the poor.In his first address to the College of Cardinals, Leo XIV explained his choice of name was inspired by “Pope Leo XIII [who] in his historic Encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.” I knew of Rerum Novarum as the foundation of Catholic Social Teaching, and I had accepted the common claim that it rejects both socialism and capitalism. But there was a certain...