What did the encyclical “Rerum Novarum” concern and how did the Church follow its teachings?
Rerum Novarum, by Pope Leo XIII, dealt with the conditions of the working class and laid down the principles of social justice. After this great, progressive encyclical, Catholic social doctrine has steadily presented successive authoritative documents. An outstanding encyclical after Rerum Novarum is Quadrogesimo Anno by Pope Pius XI, issued in 1931-forty years after the first great social pronouncement of the Church. These were followed by Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress) and Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), by Pope John XXIII in 1961 and 1963. In 1967 Pope Paul VI issued Populorum Progressio (Development of Peoples). In 1965, Vatican Council II issued the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which deals with the dignity of the human person, the problem of atheism, the community of mankind, etc. It also deals with the nobility of marriage and the family, culture and socioeconomic life, the political community, and the fostering of peace. In Am
