Book contents
- Catholic Social Teaching
- Law and Christianity
- Frontispiece
- Catholic Social Teaching
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction Contingency, Continuity, Development, and Change in Modern Catholic Social Teaching
- Part I Historical Background
- Part II Leo XIII to Francis: The Documentary Tradition
- 3 Rerum novarum (1891)
- 4 Quadragesimo anno (1931)
- 5 Pope Pius XII on Social Issues
- 6 Development in Catholic Social Teaching: John XXIII to Paul VI
- 7 Social Teaching in Pope John Paul II
- 8 Pope Benedict XVI on the Political and Social Order
- 9 The Social Teaching of Pope Francis
- Part III Themes in Catholic Social Teaching
- Part IV Evaluative and Critical Reflections
- Bibliography
- Index of Names and Subjects
- Index of Ecclesiastical Texts
4 - Quadragesimo anno (1931)
from Part II - Leo XIII to Francis: The Documentary Tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 July 2019
- Catholic Social Teaching
- Law and Christianity
- Frontispiece
- Catholic Social Teaching
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction Contingency, Continuity, Development, and Change in Modern Catholic Social Teaching
- Part I Historical Background
- Part II Leo XIII to Francis: The Documentary Tradition
- 3 Rerum novarum (1891)
- 4 Quadragesimo anno (1931)
- 5 Pope Pius XII on Social Issues
- 6 Development in Catholic Social Teaching: John XXIII to Paul VI
- 7 Social Teaching in Pope John Paul II
- 8 Pope Benedict XVI on the Political and Social Order
- 9 The Social Teaching of Pope Francis
- Part III Themes in Catholic Social Teaching
- Part IV Evaluative and Critical Reflections
- Bibliography
- Index of Names and Subjects
- Index of Ecclesiastical Texts
Summary
This chapter explores how Pius XI’s social encyclical Quadragesimo anno – “On the Reconstruction of the Social Order”– not only reiterated Leo XIII’s condemnation of socialism and his critique of aspects of capitalism, but also outlined a program for Catholics to follow in order to address the social and economic upheavals of the time in a lasting and far-reaching manner. It also analyzes the two primary contributions of Quadragesimo anno to Catholic social doctrine. The first concerns Pius XI’s articulation of two principles of Catholic social teaching: subsidiarity and social justice. The second contribution is the encyclical’s articulation of a very substantial prescription for fundamental social change. While the developments at the level of principle introduced by Quadragesimo anno have proved lasting and become a set fixture of Catholic social doctrine, we observe how the particular proposals associated by Pius XI with these principles– most notably, the development of vocational groups and the establishment of a type of corporatist social order– had, by the time of Saint John XXIII, been considerably relativized by the magisterium.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Catholic Social TeachingA Volume of Scholarly Essays, pp. 90 - 107Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019
- 2
- Cited by