Living Wage - Catholic Social Teaching

Catholic Social Teaching

In 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued a papal bull entitled Rerum Novarum, which is considered the Catholic Church's first expression of a view supportive of a living wage. The Church recognized that wages should be sufficient to support a family. This position has been widely supported by the church since that time, and has been reaffirmed by the papacy on multiple occasions, such as by Pope Pius XII in 1931 Quadragesimo Anno and again in 1961, by Pope John XXIII writing in the encyclical Mater et Magistra. More recently, Pope John Paul II wrote:

  • "Hence in every case a just wage is the concrete means of verifying the whole socioeconomic system and, in any case, of checking that it is functioning justly" - Laborem Exercens, 1981

Read more about this topic:  Living Wage

Famous quotes containing the words catholic, social and/or teaching:

    “Go, you are dismissed.
    [Ite missa est.]”
    —Missal, The. The Ordinary of the Mass.

    Missal is book of prayers and rites used to celebrate the Roman Catholic mass during the year.

    “The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The non-payment is quite equally necessary for social order. For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware, between these two contradictory necessities.”
    —Simone Weil (1909–1943)

    “History is Philosophy teaching by examples.”
    —Thucydides (c. 460–400 B.C.)