John Paul regards Rerum Novarum as an instruction of employers and workers in their respective rights and duties within the society. Human dignity for the full person, just wages, respect for private property, protection of the poor by the State, the existence of natural rights and their protection by the State; these are all true needs of persons. Human dignity demands minimum working conditions be met. The human person should never be seen or used as a means to an end. “The dignity of work, the Church instructs us through documents like Rerum novarum, is not just the concerns of individuals. Pope Leo XIII RERUM NOVARUM (On the Condition of Labor) This seminal work on modern Catholic social thought addresses the plight of the industrial workers in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. Leo XIII declared that the working poor must be cared for. Although Nigeria is the principal focus, the scope of reference is … Economic policy and debate should prioritize people and the dignity of work, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) argued in an article published Monday. It calls for the protection of the weak and the poor through the pursuit of justice while excluding socialism and class struggle as legitimate principles of change. The Dignity of the Human Person and the Sanctity of Human Life. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Rerum Novarum which addressed the growing inequality in industrialized societies. “No one can take away this human right,” (Centesimus Annus, 9)…not even the majority of a democratic political body, because this dignity does not arise from the state or the will of the governed. Employers have clear moral obligations: workers are not to be treated as slaves; the dignity of your workers' human personality must be respected; do not use people as things for gain; do not oppress the needy or the wretched for your own profit. Writing for the magazine First Things, Rubio cited Catholic social teaching and Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum novarum while reflecting that profit and human concern have drifted apart. This article defends the inviolability of the dignity of the human person and the right of every human being to a better quality of life in the hope of building a country where justice, truth and peace prevail. Human Dignity is an Unalienable Right. He emphasizes the dignity of labor and notes that through work, the human person can share in the Severe economic depression world wide and growing social injustice first social encyclical, Rerum Novarum, Pope John Paul II presents work as a fundamental dimension of human existence through which the person achieves fulfillment as a human being. (Rerum Novarum) Leo XIII 1891 Human dignity became the norm and standard by which the political, social, and economic structures were to be judged. “Workers are not to be treated as slaves; justice demands that the dignity of human personality be respected in them” (31). In Rerum Novarum (1891), Leo XIII … Ultimately, one very fundamental common denominator is found at the heart of this particular syncretism: human dignity.