Catholic Social Teaching, rooted in Pope Leo XIII’s landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum, challenges us to seek just wages, uphold the right to organize and collectively bargain, and affirm the dignity of every worker. Over time, further papal teachings –Laborem Exercens by Pope St. John Paul II in 1981 and his encyclical Centesimus Annus in 1991, and Pope Francis’s encyclical Fratelli Tutti in 2020 – have expanded this moral vision to include solidarity, subsidiarity, and a global economy of compassion.
(Image of Pope John Paul II courtesy of Wikipedia)
