Justice Origins

Painting: Pope Leo XIII (1878) by Henry Schile (https://sdcason.com/pope-leo-xiii-by-henry-schile-public-domain-catholic-painting/)

With the world, moving towards industrialization, the Catholic Church, Pope Leo the 13th, became concerned for how workers were to be to be treated. This was the starting point for Catholic social teaching. His encyclical Rerum Novarum became the source for the Church’s response to these concerns.

Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891, included natural law and scripture to support social justice in the age of industrialization. In this encyclical natural law and scripture were used in the development of the document. Paragraph 20 states:

“…. The following duties bind the wealthy owner and the employer:  not to look upon their work people as their bondsmen, but to respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character. They are reminded that, according to natural reason and Christian philosophy, working for gain is creditable, not shameful, to a man, since it enables him to  earn an honorable livelihood; but to misuse men as though they were things in the pursuit of gain,  or to value them solely for their physical powers - that is truly shameful and inhuman.”

Deut. 24:14 - “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.

James 5:4 - Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of armies.

Here are some points of interest:

• The term, “social justice” was first used by Luigi Taparelli, an advisor to the Vatican. It is believed he used that term to make the case why poor and disenfranchised people should be treated as others.

• Injustice, economic issues, and The Great Depression in the first half of the 20^th Century are seen as some of the reasons that led to the “effort to codify a moral code with social justice at its core.

• This led to the U.N. (United Nations) Charter in 1945, Then in 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)was drafted by a U.N. committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt. It included two categories of rights:

o   Political/civil

o   Social/economic

I encourage you watch our first short video, Justice Origin here: https://youtu.be/1QbyaegOG20