The Catholic Faith, November/December 1999.~

_DOCTRINE I

John Paul II's RichReflections on

Rerum Novarumby Mary Claire Kendall

A s we approach the year, 2000, many Americans await with baited

breath the political platforms of the various Presidential candi..

dates. Who will be the most inspired? Who will address the most

pressing issues? Who will even be able to get to the issues, vaulting over the

distraction of personal peccadilloes?

I vote for Pope John Paul II. Ok, so he is not anAmerican citizen, he lives in the eternal city,and he isin the sunset of life.Toobad. For while plumbing thedepths of man's dignity and vocation with the light ofCreation, the Incarnation and Redemption, John PaulIIbrings forth the most humanly compelling programin his encyclicalletters LaboremExercensand Cen-tesimusAnnus. 1 .

The fulcrum of the Pope's compelling program is,of course, the landmark encyclical Rerum Novarum,meaning "New Things," which Pope Leo xm promul-gated on May 15,1891,to precisely address the "newthings" which the Industrial Age had ushered in. Andthe "new things" were not all positive. In this class-based era, capital, not land, was the primary engineof wealth, and labor was given a secondary place,squeezed as it was to yield maximum product for min-imum wages, thereby ensuring the greatest possibleprofits for their rich capitalist employers. Laborers,nolonger afforded the protection of by-then disbandedtrade guilds of the Pre-Industrial Age, bore in PopeLeo xm's words "a yoke little better than slavery it-self." In seeking to throw off this yoke they were incit-ed to violenceand lured by the theory of socialism,oneof the gravest threats among the "new things," with itspromise of relief through collectivizationof wealth.

In his encyclical, Pope Leo XIII presciently un-masked the false promises and solutions of socialism

and offereda remedy to the ills of capitalism. Tomakehis argument, he strongly defended the right to pri-vate property, explaining that this right benefitedboth classes, especially the poor by creating wealth,from which flowed the opportunity and incentive towork, save and acquire one's own property. And, heemphasized the rights and responsibilities of workingmen and their wealthy employers, both of whombeautifully complement and are utterly dependentupon one another.

Ninety years later, in Laborem Exercens, PopeJohn Paul II provided us with penetratingly sharp in-sights on Rerum Novarum, made all the more com-pelling by his experience with the misery and humandegradation wrought by communist collectivistschemes. His reflections on the relationship of "sub-jective" man to "objective" work, and that of labor tocapital provide particular insight:

Man has to subdue the earth and dominate it, be-cause as the "image of God" he is a person... asubjective being capable of acting in a plannedand rational way, capable of deciding about him-self,and with a tendencyto self-realization.Asaperson,manisthereforethesubjectofwork.As a per-son he works, he performs various actions be-longing to the work process; independently oftheir objective content, these actions must all

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serve to realize his humanity, to fulfill the callingto be a person that is his by reason of his very hu-manity...

. . . Wemust emphasize. . . theprimacyofmanoverthings. Everything contained in the concept ofcapital in the strict sense is only a collection ofthings. Man, as the subject of the work, and inde-pendently of the work that he does - man aloneis a person. This truth has important and decisiveconsequences.2

. . . human thought (set capital in opposition tolabor) . . . as though they were two impersonalforces, two production factors juxtaposed in thesame "economistic" perspective. . . consideringlabor solely according to its economicpurpose. . .This fundamental error of thought can and mustbe called an error of materialism . . .

Tenyears later, on May 1,1991,the hundredth an-niversary of Rerum Novarum,Pope John Paul II gaveus Centesimus Annus, an inspired document that"looks back," "looks around" (Le."at the 'new things'which surround us") and "looks to the future." In the"lookback"the Poperecounts:

A newform of property had appeared - capital;and a newform of labor3...The result of thistransformation was a society "divided into twoclasses, separated by a deep chasm." . . . (T)heprevailing political theory. . . sought to promotetotal economic freedom by . . . a deliberate lackof any intervention . . . another conception . . .was . . . appear(ing) in an organized and oftenviolent form, one which implied a new politicaland social structure... At the height of this clash. . . Pope Leo intervened. with a document thatdealt in a systematic way with the "condition ofthe workers." (An earlier encyclical of particularnote) LibertasPraestantissimum. . . called atten-tion to the essential bond between human free-dom and truth. . . Indeed, what is the origin of allthe evils to whichRerumNovarumwished to re-spond, if not a kind of freedom which, in the areaof economic and social activity,cuts itself offfromthe truth about man?

Indeed, the Pope closes the first chapter with thefollowing summary statement:

. . . the guiding principle of Pope Leo's encyclical,and of allof the Church'ssocialdoctrine,is a cor-rectviewof thehumanpersonand of his uniquevalue inasmuch as man " . . . is the only creatureon earth, which God willed for itself." God hasimprinted his own image and likeness on man (d.Gen 1:26),conferring upon him an incomparabledignity. . . (B)eyond the rights which manacquires by his own work, there exist rightswhich do not correspond to any work he per-forms, but which flow from his essential dignityas a person.

The Pope then reflects on how the incorrect viewof the human person led to World Wars I and II. Withits roots in atheism, this incorrect view led to a reor-ganization of the social order "without reference tothe person's dignity and responsibility." For ''by re-sponding to the call of God . . . man becomes awareof his transcendent dignity." Otherwise, "the essenceof freedom" is transformed into "self-Iove carried tothe point of contempt for God and neighbor, a self-love, which. . . refuses to be limited by any demandof justice." With great clarity, the Pope trumpets,"Without the terrible burden of hatred. . . such cruelwars would not have been possible. . . "

After the two World Wars, various responses toMarxism ensued, which marks the beginning of thePope's "look around." One response sought to preserve"free market mechanisms ensuring... conditions forsteady and healthy economic growth..." while avoid-ing "making market mechanisms the only point ofreference for social life . . ." through "public control,which upholds the principle of the common destina-tion of material goods." Others were anti-Marxistideological responses that increased the power of thestate, setting up systems of "'national security,' aimedat controlling the whole of society in a systematic way. . . in order to make Marxist infiltration impossible. . .(B)utin so doing they run the grave risk of destroyingthe freedom and values of the person, the very thingsfor whose sake it is necessary to oppose communism.A third response was:

TEN YEARS LATER, ON MAY 1, 1991, THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF RERUM

NOVARUM, POPE JOHN PAUL II GAVE US CENTES/MUS ANNUS,

AN INSPIRED DOCUMENT THAT "LOOKS BACK," "LOOKS AROUND" (I.E. "AT THE 'NEW THINGS'

WHICH SURROUND US") AND "LOOKS TO THE FUTURE."

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. . . "the affluent. . . consumer society (that) seeksto defeat Marxism on the level of pure material-ism by showing how a free market society canachieve a greater satisfaction of material humanneeds than Communism, while equally excludingspiritual values. . . (but) insofar as it denies anautonomous existenceand value to morality, law,culture and religion, it agrees with Marxismin the sense that it totally reduces man to thesphere of economicsand the satisfaction of ma-terial needs.

At the same time, a widespread process of "de-colonization" occurred, resulting in countries soyoung in their "journey towards the construction of agenuine independence" that the lure of commu-nism as a shortcut to development, given other pre-vailing forces,isvery real.

Finally,the Pope points to the "more lively senseof human rights" after World War II: .

. . .a development in the awareness of the rights

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of the individuals. . . (and) rights of nations, aswell as a clearer realization of the need toact in order to remedy the grave imbalancesthat exist between the various geographicalareasof the world. In a certain sense, these imbalanceshave shifted the center of the socialquestion fromthe national to the international level.

Continuing his "look around,"with much relishthe Pope discusses "The Year 1989" and the roll-back of communism, thus bringing to fruition theprinciples of Rerum Novarum. As the Pope writes:

Certainly, the decisive factor,which gave rise tothe changes was the violation of the rights ofworkers. It cannot be forgotten that the funda-mental crisis of systems claimiIJ.gto express therule and indeed the dictatorship of the workingclass took place in Poland in the name of sol-idarity. It was throngs of working people, whichforeswore the ideology, which presumed tospeak in their name. On the basis of a hard, livedexperience of work and of oppression, it wasthey who recovered and, in a sense, rediscov-ered the content and principles of the Church'ssocial doctrine. . .

But, the Pope cautions "(t)he events of 1989 . . .have positive and negative consequences (which) . . .are opportunities for human freedom to cooperatewith the merciful plan of God who acts within histo-ry. " For instance, "social, regional and national in-justices committed during and prior to the years inwhich Communism dominated" may reignite. Yet,even that circumstance provides the "opportunity"to "create or consolidate international structures ca-pable of intervening. . ."

The final three chapters, "Private Property andthe Universal Destination of Goods," "State and Cul-ture," and "Man Is the Way of the Church" reaffirmwith eloquence and grace the principles of RerumNovarumand explain how they might be fully appliedto the "new things" of today and the future. The Popeoutlines the most pressing issues of the post-industri-al world, and offers a program that adheres to the"truth about man" and the "merciful plan of God." Inthe view of the Pope, one of the most urgent tasks isthat of giving aid to third and fourth world countries(i.e. developing and underdeveloped), who are notparticipating in the post-industrial economic boomfor lack of resources and education, among othercauses.Otherwise, the tensions caused by these "graveimbalances" will explode into regional, national andinternational conflicts. For it is this chasm betweencountries as opposed to the earlier chasm betweenclasses that predominates in the world today and cre-ates the conditions and possibility for instability and

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wart. The Pope's prescience in this regard is, I believe,what will distinguish Centesimus Annus in years tocome, not unlike Rerum Novarum was recognized forits prescience in foreseeing the Socialist threat.

Yes, I would vote for John Paul II, if I could. But,in lieu of that, hopefully the candidates for the 2000presidential race will read at least Centesimus Annusand gain insight into the most important and com-pelling issues of 2000 and beyond.

Mary Claire Kendall writes from Bethesda, Maryland.

1 "Laborem Exercens" ("On Human Work") was pro-mulgated on September 14,1981; and "Centesimus Annus"("On the Hundredth Anniversary") was promulgated onMay 1, 1991.

2 Having laid out this groundwork, the Pope later spellsout the rights of workers, which include:

(1) "just remuneration for work done" and "the rightto a working environment and to manufacturingprocesses, which are not harmful to the workers'physical health or to their moral integrity;"

(2) various "social benefits" (i.e., "the right to rest, theright to a pension and to insurance for old age andin case of accidents at work."); and

(3) the right to "form associations (i.e. unions) for thepurpose of defending vital interests of those em-ployed in the various professions."

3 ". . . labor for wages, characterized by high rates ofproduction. . . determined solely by efficiency,with a viewto increasing profits... its price determined by the law ofsupply and demand, without taking into account the bareminimum required for the support of the individual and hisfamily... (and) continually threatened... by unemployment,which, in the absence of any kind of social security, meantthe specter of death by starvation."

4This does not minimize the continuing need to reducepresent-day disparities between rich and poor individualsand classes through just and humane policies; it is simplythat the "new things" that most urgently command our at-tention are those that relate to redressing the "grave imbal-ances" between rich and poor countries.