Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum novarum is the basis of Catholic social teaching. This is the foundation of the Church’s thought on the Christian approach to economic and economic matters. It was created in times of social unrest related on the one hand to numerous strikes of exploited workers, and on the other hand to the nascent communism, which, according to the pope, was “a medicine more dangerous than the disease itself”. Leo XIII sees the errors of the system in which there is no place for human solidarity, but he directs the main axis of criticism at socialism as an ideology incompatible with human nature. The document not only became the basis for the program of political groups referring to Christian social thought, but also had a huge impact on the pastoral activity of the Church in the 20th century. It was the last century that brought new challenges, such as the emergence of communist states characterized by a totalitarian form of government and bloody terror. In this context, the work of Leo XIII appears as a prophetic warning against downplaying Marxist thought. The aim of this work is primarily to show this last aspect of the encyclical Rerum novarum.
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