Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum (May 15,1891) is recognized as the first ‘social encyclical’ of modern times. It applies Christian principles to questions about the rights of laborers which had emerged especially as a result of the ‘industrial revolution’. In his introduction to Centesimus Annus (henceforth CA), Pope John Paul II proposes to undertake a ‘rereading’ of Rerum Novarum (RN), examining the ‘worker question’ at the end of the 20th century.
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