CT News
May 16, 2026 : When Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church on May 8, 2025, he chose the name Leo XIV in part, he said a few days later, to honor Pope Leo XIII and his historical encyclical "Rerum Novarum" published May 15, 1891, a foundational document in Catholic social teaching that addressed the challenges of the industrial revolution.
Now, Pope Leo says, it can help us, along with the full body of social teaching, to navigate the developments of artificial intelligence.
Rerum Novarum set the foundations of Catholic social teaching about labor. Other popes have since built on the teachings laid out in the encyclical, including Pope Pius XI’s 1931 encyclical "Quadragesimo Anno" on the 40th anniversary of Leo XIII’s writing and Pope John Paul II’s 1981 encyclical "Laborem Exercens" on the 90th anniversary.
On the 135th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, EWTN explores how the groundbreaking encyclical transformed Catholic social teaching and continues to influence the Church’s approach to labor, economics, and human dignity today.
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