Quadragesimo Anno.

Written to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum, it portrayed

the same anxious concern for the welfare of the workers and of the poor
and their families as well as for the kinds of constrictions placed on them by the
state, by industry and by finance capitalism, and especially by the
economic and social problems flowing from the stock market crash in 1929
and the devastating world-wide depression which followed. Quadragesimo
Anno confronts four serious contemporary problems: wealth continued to
remain in the hands of a very few people; such concentration of wealth led to
the amassing of economic and political power in the hands of a few individuals or
nations; although the conditions of workers had improved since Rerum Novarum,
especially under pressure from the trade unions, there was still a large increase
in the number of the industrial poor, while the lot of farmers everywhere had
not improved at all; and the problems of unemployment had risen alarmingly,
especially in the industrial cities following the collapse of so many companies and
industries after the stock market crash.
Quadragesimo Anno took its place with Rerum Novarum among the Church's great
social encyclicals. It developed the teaching on the common good of society and on
the obligation of the state to champion the temporal well-being of every sector of
society. This principle of state intervention was balanced by another
fundamental principle, that of "subsidiarity". Subsidiarity was to regulate the
rights and duties of governments to intervene in social and economic affairs, and
the extent to which they should intervene. Here the pope was arguing especially
against communist and socialist states which assumed to themselves all
responsibilities within society, leaving nothing for individuals or smaller groups to
handle. Subsidiarity would become an important doctrine in Catholic social
thought; it emphasized people's rights to care for each other in an
atmosphere protected by just laws and just governments acting for the
common good. Another area of concern in this encyclical was to lessen
disputes between workers and employers. To maintain and strengthen
harmony between classes, he proposed structural as well as moral changes
in society along vertical rather than horizontal lines. The encyclical also introduced
two new concepts, those of "social charity" and "social justice", although the
enlargement of "social justice" would have to wait for several decades until Paul VI.
- Gavin, J. (1997, February 1). CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING: 1891-1975.