From the desk of the pastor for April 12, 2026

The Lord be with you! We left off our history of the Church with the death of St. John Vianney in 1859. As he brought God’s grace to France, the world changed dramatically.

The last decades of the nineteenth century witnessed one of the most dramatic transformations in human history. The Industrial Revolution had reshaped Europe and the Americas, pulling millions from the countryside into the crowded, smoky cities. Factories hummed day and night, and fortunes were made. For the laboring poor, however, life was often one of grinding toil, meager wages, unsafe conditions, and little recourse. Into this storm of social upheaval, the Catholic Church spoke with a clear and enduring voice.

On May 15, 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Rerum Novarum — "Of New Things" — a document that would become the cornerstone of Catholic Social Doctrine. It was the Church's formal answer to the great social question of the age: what is owed to the worker, and by whom?

Leo XIII began by firmly rejecting the socialist solution of abolishing private property. To strip individuals of what they lawfully own, he argued, is to rob them of their dignity and the fruit of their labor. A worker who earns wages has the right to save and to own — and the state exists to protect that right, not to erase it. At the same time, the encyclical offered an equally pointed critique of unbridled capitalism. Wealth carries moral responsibility. The rich are not free to exploit the poor simply because the law permits it. Justice demands a living wage — enough for a worker to support himself and his family in reasonable comfort.

Central to Rerum Novarum is the principle of the common good: the idea that society's institutions, laws, and economy must serve not merely the powerful few, but all its members, especially the most vulnerable. The document championed the right of workers to form associations and unions — a revolutionary affirmation at the time — and called on the state to intervene when necessary.

Pope LeoXIII grounded his teaching in the dignity of the human person, made in the image and likeness of God. No economic system that treats men and women as mere instruments of production can be just. Work should be seen as a participation in God’s Providential care - rest included!

Rerum Novarum did not solve the social question overnight, but it planted seeds that have grown across thirteen subsequent social encyclicals and into the heart of the Church's mission. From labor rights to poverty, from the environment to migration, the Church has continued to apply these founding principles to every new challenge of modern life. We should remember that as much as we may note the great changes of our present decade, some things never change. God created humanity to work with their hands and their souls for the common good. Just as Pope Leo XIII grounded his teaching on man as an image of God, may we ground our lives on Christ.

In His Sacred Heart,

Fr. John