3 Things You Should Know About Rerum Novarum

Rerum Novarum was my introduction to Catholic Social Teaching. It led to a deep dive into the subject, including Quadragesimo Anno and Papal statements up to John XXIII and Paul VI.

From Aleteia

By Danirl Esparza

As Pope Leo XIV takes the reins, his papacy could become a defining moment for how the Church engages with the digital age.

As the Church enters a new chapter under Pope Leo XIV, many are looking to past papal teachings for clues about his priorities. One foundational text influencing his approach is Rerum Novarum – the landmark encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891, “on capital and labor.”

This document, which addressed the social and economic upheavals of the Industrial Revolution, remains strikingly relevant as the world now faces the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) and rapid technological change.

Here are three key takeaways from Rerum Novarum and how they might shape the direction of this new papacy.

1. The dignity of work and the rights of workers

At its core, Rerum Novarum insists on the dignity of human work and the rights of workers to fair wages, safe conditions, and reasonable hours. It was a bold response to the harsh realities of 19th-century factory life, where many laborers were reduced to mere cogs in a machine. Pope Leo XIII argued that work is not just a means of survival, but a vital expression of human creativity and dignity.

Why this still matters:

As AI reshapes entire industries, displacing workers and automating once-secure jobs, this principle is more relevant than ever. Pope Leo XIV, known for his pastoral sensitivity and deep connection to the working poor during his years in Peru, might draw on this tradition to advocate for policies that protect workers in the digital age. This could include pushing for ethical AI standards that prioritize human dignity over profit and ensuring that technological progress does not come at the cost of widespread unemployment or economic inequality.

2. The call for solidarity and the common good

Rerum Novarum also emphasizes the interconnectedness of all people, calling for solidarity in the face of social division. It rejects the extremes of both unchecked capitalism and radical socialism, promoting a vision of society where the needs of all, especially the most vulnerable, are prioritized.

Why this still matters:

AI, with its ability to rapidly amplify wealth but also deepen divides, presents a new kind of economic and social risk. Just as the Industrial Revolution concentrated power and wealth in the hands of a few, today’s tech-driven economy risks doing (and indeed does) the same. Pope Leo XIV, as a leader familiar with the struggles of the poor, may seek to address these gaps, calling for a more equitable distribution of the benefits of technological progress. His past work in Latin America, a region marked by stark economic disparities, could shape his approach to this modern challenge.

3. The role of the State in promoting justice

Finally, Rerum Novarum insists that the state has a duty to protect the rights of workers and ensure social justice. It argues that governments should not merely serve economic interests, but act as guardians of human dignity and the common good.

Why this still matters:

As governments grapple with how to regulate AI and protect their citizens from its potential harms, this principle takes on renewed importance. From data privacy to the ethical use of surveillance technologies, the Church’s moral voice could play a critical role in shaping global norms. Pope Leo XIV, as a former bishop deeply engaged in social justice, might push for a Church that stands as a moral counterweight to unchecked technological power.

As Pope Leo XIV takes the reins, his papacy could become a defining moment for how the Church engages with the digital age. By drawing on the lessons of Rerum Novarum, he has a powerful framework for navigating the ethical, economic, and social challenges of a rapidly changing world – one that insists on human dignity as the ultimate measure of progress.

The Dominicans Are Booming. Here’s Why. | Sr Mary Madeline Todd, OP

From The Conor Gallagher Show

Why are vocations surging in the Dominican Order today? Sr. Mary Madeline Todd, O.P. joins Conor again to explore the rich spiritual tradition of the Dominican Order, from its origins under St. Dominic to the four pillars that shape Dominican life: prayer, common life, study, and preaching. Sr. Mary Madeline shares what drew her to religious life, what daily life in a Dominican community looks like, and how a life of study, contemplation and community nourishes the mission of preaching Christ to the world. ⛪ Learn more about the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia here: https://nashvilledominican.org/ 👍 Like, Subscribe, or Follow The Conor Gallagher Show on your favorite podcast platform, and follow us on social media!   / conorgallaghershow     / conorgallaghershow     / conorgallaghershow   Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1qtdMK8... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... 📱TAN Digital: The Catholic App You Can Trust. Browse and listen to over 1,200 spiritual classics: https://tanbooks.com/tan-digital-app/ CHAPTERS 0:00 - Trailer 1:45 - Sister Mary Madeline's Vocation Story 12:10 - Saint Dominic 30:06 - Prayer 35:11 - Community Life 52:43 - Study 1:01:23 - Preaching 1:06:00 - How Parents Can Help Their Older Kids Discern a Religious Vocation

Mercy to the Cruel Is Cruelty to the Innocent

"Vatican apologists will say the Church does not make criminal policy." Bollocks! That's exactly what Francis and Leo have done in declaring the death penalty "inadmissible".

From Crisis

By Michael P. Tremoglie

The Vatican has departed with twenty centuries of Church and biblical teaching to align the magisterium with “critical criminology,” which denies individual moral agency.

"Nothing is more scandalous than a man who is proud of his humility." Marcus Aurelius did not have Pope Francis in mind when he wrote this, but he could have. Francis was proud of his humility. He carried his own luggage and chose an austere domicile over the Apostolic Palace.

While these gestures were seen as innocuous, one ostentatious display of humility was pernicious. He washed and kissed the feet of imprisoned criminals—including those convicted of serious offenses or mafia ties. His April 13, 2017, ritual included two criminals serving life sentences—a remarkable display of humility and compassion.

But Pope Francis never washed the feet of crime victims. They were literally the great unwashed. The individuals chosen for the rite were inmates convicted of violent crimes, migrants, young offenders, and the institutionalized rather than victims of crime.

One must wonder how Pope Francis’ preferential option for criminals affected his judgment when he wrote in Fratelli Tutti (263): “Today we state clearly that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible’ and the Church is firmly committed to calling for its abolition worldwide.” It was an unsubstantiated assertion that gave no thought to protecting the innocent.

This past April, Pope Leo XIV reiterated his predecessor’s call to abolish capital punishment in a speech at DePaul University. Like Francis, Leo grounded his message in “the dignity of the person,” which he asserted “is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed.”

“Human dignity” is the pretext for justifying the Church’s opposition to capital punishment and life imprisonment. Human dignity is an ill-defined, nebulous term. Invoking it absent a consideration of how not punishing criminals hurts crime victims is unconscionable. Furthermore, abolitionist popes such as Francis and Leo imply that Church Fathers such as Sts. Thomas Aquinas, Alphonsus Liguori, and Robert Bellarmine were not concerned with human dignity.

Vatican pronouncements about crime and punishment lack compassion for the human dignity of victims of murder, rape, robbery, and other crimes. The abolitionist popes repeat platitudes about justice and not absolving criminals of responsibility. But the Vatican makes no powerful declarations about protecting the innocent using terms comparable to “inadmissible” or “abolish.”

Vatican apologists will say the Church does not make criminal policy. But by calling for the abolition of the death penalty, the Catholic Church has done exactly that. They have weighed in on criminal policy and tried to influence the legal policies of the various governments for 1.4 billion Catholics across the globe.

Abolitionist popes such as Francis and Leo imply that Church Fathers such as Sts. Thomas Aquinas, Alphonsus Liguori, and Robert Bellarmine were not concerned with human dignity.

Remarkably, the Vatican declared the death penalty “inadmissible” and claimed society can protect the innocent from murderers without execution. Yet no serious evidence was offered that there are practical means to protect the innocent from cruel murderers without capital punishment. The Church replaced centuries of moral reasoning and common sense with an assertion it cannot prove.

Traditional Catholics note that this departure from centuries of Church teaching amounts to a novelty driven by contemporary secular attitudes rather than consistent doctrine. Both Leo and Francis completed a criminogenic and penological arc begun with Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes (25), which said: “it cannot be denied that men are often diverted from doing good and spurred toward evil by the social circumstances in which they live…human freedom is often crippled when a man encounters extreme poverty.” The phrasing of Gaudium et Spes adopted concepts that were used to substitute systemic blame for Thomistic personal guilt—concepts that were created in the early 20th century by people like Willem Bonger and Karl Kautsky, who crafted Marxism into a criminogenic theory later called critical criminology.

Not long after Vatican II, one of critical criminology’s earliest proponents, Richard Quinney, wrote in his landmark books The Social Reality of Crime, Critique of Legal Order, and Class, State, and Crime that crime was a function of economic structures. About the same time, Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez wrote in A Theology of Liberation that sin is not just an individual reality but a “social fact.” He maintained that sin is evident in oppressive structures. He equated liberation from sin with political liberation.

These are in stark contrast to the ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Angelic Doctor viewed the criminal who commits a heinous act as having fallen below the level of human dignity, degenerating into the status of a beast. For Aquinas, the state’s authority to execute was a direct delegation of divine justice. The Thomistic tradition did not merely tolerate execution; it integrated it into a coherent framework of natural law and civic duty. Aquinas permits death when the man is “dangerous and infectious to the community.”

Modern Vatican policy, however, forbids death even when the perpetrator remains dangerous and infectious, while simultaneously seeking to abolish its functional equivalent, life imprisonment without parole. By subscribing to this hypothesis, the modern magisterium has aligned itself with a failed secular ideology: that crime is an environmental byproduct rather than a moral choice. In its rush to extend an asymmetrical mercy to the perpetrator, the Vatican does not elevate human dignity; it reduces the human being to a mere automaton incapable of moral agency.

Ultimately, by trading the timeless natural law of the Church Fathers for 20th-century conflict theory, Rome has emphasized, if not outright abandoned, the innocent victim.

The Catholic opposition to the current Vatican leadership’s progressivism wants not only a liturgical return but also a return to a social doctrine that restores the Thomistic and New Testament ideas of personal responsibility, the dignity owed to crime victims, and the dignity of punishment for the offender. They are adherents to the Midrash maxim: “Whoever becomes merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful.” 

Feria (Commemoration of Ss Tiburtius & Susanna, Virgin, Martyrs)

Today's Holy Mass from SSPX Australia. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.

Ss Tiburtius & Susanna, Martyrs (11 August) ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

Ss Tiburtius & Susanna, Martyrs

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

Laurence is followed today by the son of Chromatius, prefect of Rome, Tiburtius, who also suffered upon burning coals for the confession of his faith. Though forty years intervened between the two martyrdoms, it was the same Holy Spirit that animated these witnesses of Christ and suggested to them the same answer to their executioners. Tiburtius, walking upon the fire, cried out: “Learn that the God of the Christians is the only God, for these hot coals seem flowers to me.”

Equally near to the great Archdeacon stands an illustrious virgin, so bright herself as not to be eclipsed by him. A relative of both the Emperor Diocletian and the holy Pope Caius, Susanna, it is said, one day beheld the imperial crown at her feet. But she obtained a far great nobility; for, by preferring the wreath of virginity, she won at the same time the palm of martyrdom.

Now, as St. Leo remarks, on the glorious solemnity whose Octave we are keeping, if no one is good for himself alone, if the favors of Divine Wisdom profit not only the recipient, then, no one is more wise than the martyr, no eloquence can instruct the people so well as his. It is by this excellent manner of teaching that, as the Church tells us today, “Laurence enlightened the whole world with the light of his fire, and by the flames which he endured he warmed the hearts of all Christians. By the example of his martyrdom, faith is enkindled and devotion fostered in our souls. The persecutor lays no hot coals for me, but he sets me on fire with desire of my Savior.” (Pseudo-Augustine, Sermo 30 de Sanctis) If, moreover, and it is not mere theory to repeat it in our days, if, as St. Augustine remarks, “circumstances place a man in the alternative of transgressing a divine precept or losing his life, he too must know how to die for the love of God, rather than live at enmity with him.” (Augustine, Tract. in Joan. 51)  Morality does not change, neither does the justice of God, who in all ages rewards the faithful, as in all ages he chastises cowards.

The Mozarabic Missal eloquently expresses the grandeur of St. Laurence’s martyrdom in this beautiful formula which precedes the Consecration on the day of this feast.

POST SANCTUS

Hosanna in the highest. It is truly meet and just, at all times, but especially in honor of thy saints, to return thanks to thee, O God, co-eternal Trinity, consubstantial and co-operatrix of all good things, and to offer sacrifice of praise on this illustrious day of thy most blessed martyr Laurence. The glorious triumph of whose passion brought round again by the circle of the year, the Church doth joyfully celebrate: for in teaching he was nearly equal to thine Apostles; but in the confession of Lord not unequal. He adorned the snow-white robe of the Levite with the purple of the blood of martyrdom: thou didst so inflame his heart with thy fire which thou camest to cast on the earth, that he felt not the invisible fire; by the strong purpose of his mind he overcame the flames that surrounded his body; and strong in faith, feared not the burning coal.

Placed upon the gridiron, thy chaste minister offered himself a new sacrifice to thee: and burnt as a holocaust upon the altar, sent up a sweet savor to the Lord. There, the incomparable Martyr, while his heart and bowels and the marrow of his bones were melting away, suffered his limbs to be roasted, with invincible virtue of patience. There stretched out he lay hanging over the fire: crude impiety broiled the holocaust of piety, and inhaled the hot vapors from the liquefying members. Thy minister laid his own body on the altar, a new kind of sacrifice to be celebrated. The praiseworthy Levite was to himself both pontiff and victim. And he who had been a minister at the offering of the Lord’s Body, in offering himself performed the office of priest.

It is therefore, O Lord, thy power and thy might that we praise in him. For who would believe that a body formed of fragile structure could, without thee, endure such torments? Who would not think that human members would yield before the heat of the fire, had not a fiercer flame, coming from thee, fired the interior man? By thy power it was, that the soul, rejoiced with spiritual dew, exulted at the broiling of its own body: the Martyr bade them turn him and devour him: lest he should obtain the crown by only one death; and thus, the mildness of the torments should retard life-giving death, and he should be less gloriously crowned. Through thee, our Lord, who art the Savior and Redeemer of all souls.

The following commemoration is made of SS. Tiburtius and Susanna:

ANT. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven, who despising an earthly life, have obtained heavenly rewards, and washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.

℣. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye just.

℟. And glory all ye right of heart.

COLLECT

May the constant protection of Thy holy martyrs Tiburtius and Susanna, support us, O Lord: for Thou never ceasest mercifully to regard those whom Thou grantest to be assisted by such helps. Through, etc.

Ss Tiburtius & Susanna: Know Your Saints

A sermon for today. Please remember to say 3 Hail Marys for the Priest.

St Susanna, Virgin & Martyr: Butler's Lives of the Saints

Ss Tiburtius, Martyr, & Chromatius, Confessor: Butler's Lives of the Saints

St Susanna, Virgin & Martyr

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:

THIRD AGE

SHE was nobly born in Rome, and is said to have been niece to Pope Caius. Having made a vow of virginity, she refused to marry; on which account she was impeached as a Christian, and suffered with heroic constancy a cruel martyrdom. No genuine acts of her life are now extant: but she is commemorated in many ancient Martyrologies, and the famous church which is at present served by Cistercian monks, has born her name ever since the fifth century, when it was one of the titles or parishes of Rome. St. Susanna suffered towards the beginning of Dioclesian’s reign, about the year 295.

Sufferings were to the martyrs the most distinguishing mercy, extraordinary graces, and sources of the greatest crowns and glory. All afflictions which God sends are in like manner the greatest mercies and blessings; they are the most precious talents to be improved by us to the increasing of our love and affection to God, and the exercise of the most heroic virtues of self-denial, patience, humility, resignation, and penance. They are also most useful and necessary to bring us to the knowledge of ourselves and our Creator, which we are too apt to forget without them. Wherefore whatever crosses or calamities befall us, we must be prepared to bear them with a patient resignation to the divine will; we ought to learn from the martyrs to comfort ourselves, and to rejoice in them, as the greatest blessings. How base is our cowardice, and how criminal our folly, if, by neglecting to improve these advantageous talents of sickness, losses, and other afflictions, we make the most precious mercies our heaviest curse! By honoring the martyrs, we pronounce our own condemnation.

Ss Tiburtius, Martyr, & Chromatius, Confessor

From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:

Abridged from the Acts of St. Sebastian, &c.

A. D. 286.

AGRESTIUS CHROMATIUS was vicar to the prefect of Rome, and had condemned several martyrs in the reign of Carinus; and, in the first years of Dioclesian, St. Tranquillinus being brought before him, assured him, that having been afflicted with the gout, he had recovered a perfect state of health by being baptized. Chromatius was troubled with the same distemper, and being convinced by this miracle of the truth of the gospel, sent for Polycarp, the priest who had baptized Tranquillinus, and receiving the sacrament of baptism, was freed from that corporal infirmity, by which miracle God was pleased to give him a sensible emblem of the spiritual health which that holy laver conferred on his soul; from that time he harbored many Christians in his house, to shelter them from the persecution, and resigned his dignity, in which he was succeeded by one Fabian. Chromatius’s son Tiburtius, was ordained subdeacon, and was soon after betrayed to the persecutors, condemned by Fabian to many torments, and at length beheaded on the Lavican road, three miles from Rome, where a church was afterward built. He is mentioned in several ancient Martyrologies with his father Chromatius, who, retiring into the country, lived there concealed in the fervent practice of all Christian virtues.

Collect of Ss Tiburtius & Susanna, Virgin, Martyrs, Martyrs ~ Indulgenced on the Saints' Feast

According to the Apostolic Penitentiary, a partial indulgence is granted to those who, on the feast of any Saint, recite in his honour the oration of the Missal or any other approved by legitimate Authority.

V. O Lord, hear my prayer.

R. And let my cry come unto thee.
Let us pray.
Lord, let the constant succour of Thine holy Martyrs Tiburtius and Susanna continually defend us, for Thou never failest to look in mercy upon all them unto whom Thou dost grant the aid of such helpers.

Through Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.

R. Amen. 

Bishop Strickland Asks Whether Vatican II Surrendered to Modernism

Well, DUH! Even Joseph Ratzinger admitted that Gaudium et Spes was a kind of ‘counter syllabus’ in opposition to Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus.

From LifeSiteNews

By Emily Mangiaracina

Bishop Joseph Strickland pointed out that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger once described Gaudium et Spes as a kind of ‘counter syllabus’ in opposition to Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors.

Bishop Joseph Strickland questioned in a recent video address whether the Second Vatican Council compromised with the modern world.

Strickland highlighted the dangers of modernism as well as Pope St. Pius X’s warnings against this “synthesis of all heresies.” The bishop pointed out that in 1910 the saintly pope required priests, bishops, and others “entrusted with teaching the Catholic faith” to take the Oath Against Modernism in which they swore that they “rejected the principles of modernism and would faithfully preserve the doctrine handed down from the apostles.”

Link to video

Strickland pointed out that this oath “reflected the conviction that modernism posed an ongoing danger to the life of the church,” and that all priests ordained between 1910 and 1967 were required to take this oath. This included almost everyone involved in the Second Vatican Council with “very few exceptions.”

“How were those bishops to understand the oath they had sworn while participating in a council that sought a new relationship between the church and the modern world? How were they to reconcile St. Pius X’s uncompromising warnings against modernism with the council’s desire for greater engagement with contemporary society?” Strickland asked.

“These are not questions that can simply be dismissed. They deserve careful, honest, and prayerful consideration,” he added.

“There’s an enormous difference between proclaiming the Gospel to the world and permitting the world to become the standard by which the Gospel is interpreted.”

“That distinction, I believe, lies at the heart of the crisis we are witnessing today,” Strickland continued.

The prelate went on to directly address the Second Vatican Council, which he said deserves honest reflection. He pointed out that, unlike all other previous ecumenical councils, Vatican II “did not define new dogmas or issue new anathemas against heresy.” It was described rather as a “pastoral” council, both by Pope John XXIII, who opened it, and Pope Paul VI, who closed the council. Pope Paul VI himself said during a January 12, 1966, general audience that given this pastoral character of Vatican II the council avoided infallible dogmatic definitions.

The stated purpose of Vatican II, Strickland noted, was to “present the perennial truths of the Catholic faith in a manner more accessible to the modern world.”

“Can the church engage the modern world without absorbing the assumptions of the modern world? That question is more urgent today than ever before,” the bishop said.

He went on to take aim at one of the council’s main documents, Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, that “set forth a vision of engagement between the church and contemporary society that has profoundly influenced Catholic life during the past six decades.” 

“Many have seen this as a positive development. Others have raised serious questions that some of its language has been interpreted in ways that move beyond authentic engagement and toward accommodation with the spirit of the age,” Strickland noted.

Such concerns “deserve careful consideration,” he said, “precisely because St. Pius X warned us that modernism often enters the Church gradually, clothed in language that appears entirely reasonable.” 

He pointed out that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI, once said that Gaudium et Spes functioned as a kind of “counter syllabus” in opposition to the Syllabus of Errors, which was issued by Pope Pius IX as an accompaniment to his encyclical Quanta Cura.

Ratzinger saw Gaudium et Spes as “an attempt at reconciliation between the church and the modern age,” Strickland said. This raises the question: “If the Church had previously warned so forcefully about the dangers posed by liberalism, rationalism and the spirit of the age, warnings found especially in the teachings of blessed Pius IX and St. Pius X — what exactly was being reconciled?”

“Were the concerns that prompted those solemn warnings no longer valid? Had the danger somehow disappeared? Or had the Church simply adopted a different pastoral approach while leaving those earlier warnings entirely intact?” 

“These are questions that deserve thoughtful answers,” Strickland said.

Critics of the Second Vatican Council have pointed out that in addition to containing errors Vatican II has resulted in weak, tepid catechesis from the pulpit and in Catholic parishes and schools. This has been attributed in part to the council’s promotion of more engagement with contemporary society in the sense of “listening” to the modern world.