Issued in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical to focus exclusively on social justice matters, explores the challenges of integral human development today. Caritas in Veritate, like Pope John Paul II’s social encyclical Sollicitudo rei Socialis, commemorates Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio and applies its insights to the current situation.… Read More »Caritas In Veritate – Integral Human Development in Love & Truth
Context Pope John Paul II issued his last major social encyclical, Centesimus Annus, in 1991. It commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of Rerum Novarum. Momentous historical events shape its content. Communism fell in much of Eastern Europe in 1989. The Gulf War had just ended, and the USSR would soon… Read More »Centesimus Annus – The Hundredth Year
Context Pope John Paul II’s 1987 social encyclical Sollicitudo rei Socialis marks the twentieth anniversary of Populorum Progressio. Sollicitudo rei Socialis is also known by the English title On Social Concerns. It was the first major Catholic Social Teaching document to mark the anniversary of a social encyclical other than… Read More »Sollicitudo Rei Socialis – On Social Concerns
Context Pope John Paul II issued Laborem Exercens to mark the ninetieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum. It is also known by the English title On Human Labour. John Paul II’s own experience as a manual labourer and his personalist philosophical ethics shape this social encyclical. Major Issues Unemployment and the… Read More »Laborem Exercens – On Human Labour
Context Pope Paul VI issued the social encyclical Populorum Progressio in 1967. It is also known by the English title On the Progress of Peoples. As the 1960s progressed the hopes of former colonies for freedom and economic development met many obstacles. Conflicts, poverty and inequality seemed to be growing.… Read More »Populorum Progressio – On Development
Context When Pope John XXIII issued Pacem in Terris in 1963, the Second Vatican Council was still in progress. It was the time of the Cold War, the erection of the Berlin Wall, and a growing threat of nuclear war. In fact Pacem in Terris was a response to the… Read More »Pacem in Terris – Peace on Earth