This encyclical, written during the height of capitalist corruptions during the Industrial Revolution (1891), is a challenge against both unrestrained capitalism and socialism/communism. Pope Leo XIII makes the case for distributism, which seeks to preserve the individual rights to property and family while also calling governments to have a “preferential option for the poor”: holding the wealthy accountable through taxation and working with the Church to create efficient workers unions just like the successful labor guilds in the medieval and late medieval world.

If I had to sum up this teaching in a slogan, it would be “private property for all.”

Motivated to resist both communism and unbridled capitalism (by affirming the rights of workers and encouraging unions), this encyclical casts a modern vision of mutually delimiting and beneficial relations between state, labour, family, and church.

just covering all my bases

Especially recommended for people under the misconception that the Church operates under the principles of socialism, or that the State has no duties towards the citizens.

Nog nooit eerder had ik deze tekst in zijn geheel gelezen. Vaak genoeg hoorde ik mensen eruit citeren. Ik herken er dan ook veel uit. Nu, in aanloop naar volgende week, is het een mooie tekst om in mijn hoofd te laten marineren. Ondanks zijn 20 pagina's staat er ontiegelijk veel in en heb ik het gevoel het nog een paar keer te moeten lezen om het goed tot me door te laten dringen. Zeker als je gelovig bent en/of geïnteresseerd in politiek is dit superinteressant en nog altijd actueel.