OUTLINE

I. INTRODUCTION

1. Human Work on the Ninetieth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum

• Ninety years ago LeoXIII, the great pope of the “social question,” wrote
his encyclical Rerum Novarum (“Of New Things”).

2. In the Organic Development of the Church’s Social Action and Teachings

• I intend to bring out “new and old.”

• “Work” is part of what is as “old” as human life; “New” is our present

human situation.

3. The Question of Work, the Key to Social Question

• In the history of the church’s social teaching the issue of work has
emerged many times, finding its source in Scriptures, in the book of
Genesis, the Gospel, and the Apostles writings.

II. WORK AND HUMAN BEING

4. In the Book of Genesis

• The church is convinced that work is a fundamental dimension of

Humanity’s existence to earth, a belief confirmed by science and God’s
revealed words.

5. Work in the Objective Sense: Technology

• Work is --- Objectively --- what a human being does when dominating on
earth.
 • Work has been changing during the ages, from domestic animals and
extracting resources from earth and sea, to cultivating the earth,
transforming, changing, and using the produce.

6. Work in the Subjective Sense: The Worker as Subject

• We must pay more attention to the one who works than to what the worker
does.

• The self-realization of the human person is the measure of what is right

and wrong.

7. A Threat to the Right Order of Values

• This Christian “Gospel of Work” has to oppose the materialistic and

economist thought of the modern age.

• These nineteenth-century ideas have given way to a more human thinking

about work, by the danger of treating work as“Merchandise” or as an
impersonal “Work Force” remains as long as economics is understood in a
materialistic way.

8. Work Solidarity

• Worker solidarity has brought profound changes.

• It was such an irregularity that gave rise --- in the last century --- to the
“worker question” or the “proletariat question,” provoking a great burst of
solidarity among workers, mainly in industry.

9. Work and Personal Dignity

• Through work we not only transform the world, we are transformed

ourselves, becoming “a more human being.”

• Work, however, can also be used to lessen people’s dignity, condemning

them to forces labor in concentration camps.
 10. Work and Society: Family and Nation

• Work is a foundation of family life; it is a condition making family

possible, as the family needs earnings, normally produced by work.

• Everyone is thus a member of a nation working to increase the common

good of the society and adding this way to heritage of the whole humanity.

III.CONFLICT BETWEEN LABOR AND CAPITAL TODAY

11. What the Conflict Is About

• The encyclical Rerum Novarum was written in a period, --- by no means

over as yet --- when the conflict arose between “capital” and “labor,”
between the small group of owners of the means of production and the
larger group of people who lacked those means and who share in
production only through their labor.

12. The Priority of Labor

• When the bible says that humanity is to subdue earth, it speaks about the
resources of the earth, resources that can serve us only through our work.

13. Economism and Materialism

• The opposition of labor and capital is not caused by the way labor and
capital is organized. Capital and labor became two opposed impersonal
forces.

14. Work and Ownership

• When we speak about labor and capital, we are speaking about people,
about those who work without being the owners of the means of
 production and about the entrepreneurs (or their representatives) who
owns the means.

15. The “Personalist” Argument

• Workers not only want fair pay, they also want to share in the
responsibility and creativity of the very work process.

IV. RIGHTS OF WORKERS

16. Within the Broad Context of Human Rights

• Though part of these wider human rights, the rights given by work are
specific. Work is a duty, because our creator demanded it and because it
maintains and develops our humanity.

17. Direct and Indirect Employer

• The indirect employer conditions the conduct of the direct employer.

18. The Employment Issue

• It is particularly painful when it affects the young, who after their

preparation see their wish to work and their readiness to take on their own
responsibility sadly frustrated.

19. Wages and Social Benefits

• Highlighting the place of morality, the key issue in this matter is that of
just to pay for work, whether he works is done for a private owner of the
means of production, or in a “socialized” system.

20. Importance of Union

 • To secure these rights, the workers need the right to association in labor or
trade unions. These organizations should reflect the particular character of
each work or profession.

21. Dignity and Agricultural Work

• Agricultural work is difficult, often physically exhausting, and sometimes

not appreciated by the rest of the society, to the point that agricultural
people feel that they are social outcast, which accelerates the exodus from
countryside to the cities.

22. Disabled Person and Work

• Disabled people are usually human in spite of their limitations. They

should be supported so that they can share in all aspects of social life.

23. Work and Emigration

• Emigration is an age-old phenomenon, today widespread because of the

complexity of modern life.

V. ELEMENTS FOR A SPIRITUALITY OF WORK

24. A Particular Task for the Church

• Guided by faith, hope, and love, we seek to understand the meaning work
has in the eyes of God and how it is part of our salvation.

25. Work is Sharing in Criterion

• Through the centuries people have been working to better their lives. For a
believer there is no doubt that this is God’s intention. Created in God’s
image we were given the mandate to transform the earth.
 26. Christ the Man of Work

• Jesus Christ himself showed that to work is to share creation. He not only
proclaimed, but, first and foremost, lives the “gospel of work” by his
deeds.

27. Human Work in the Light of the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ

• All work is linked with toil. The original blessing of work, sharing in the
mystery or creation, being created in the meaning of God, is contrasted
with the curse that sin brought with it.

Reference: John Paul II (The Encyclicals in Everyday Language), 1994