'A Pocket Guide to Rerum Novarum': Accessible and Timelier Than Ever

Taryn DeLong reviews Sophia Institute Press’ new Pocket Guide to Rerum Novarum, the encyclical by Pope Leo XIII.

A Pocket Guide to Rerum Novarum

By Veronica Burchard

Published by Sophia Institute Press

I’ve long said that business journalists could find all the answers to the questions they write about in the Catholic Church. I should know; I used to be one of them. Whether it’s artificial intelligence (AI), inflation, the ongoing pursuit of work/life “balance,” when (or, some say, if) mothers should work outside the home, or the seeming battle between profits and workers’ dignity, Jesus has the solutions we need. 

Transforming the Economy 

It turns out, of course, someone much wiser than I said something similar over a century ago. Pope Leo XIII was concerned with the rise of socialism and cultural and economic problems caused by the Industrial Revolution. He wrote Rerum Novarum: Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor to address these concerns and light a better way for the world. 

This encyclical laid the groundwork for what we now know as Catholic social teaching (CST). It addressed the problems inherent in socialism and the limits of laissez-faire capitalism. It also explains how Christianity — truly and honestly lived — could transform the world (again).  

Our current pope took the name Leo and said that his main reason for doing so was because Rerum Novarum “addressed the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.”  

In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice, and labour. (Vatican News)

Reading Rerum Novarum in the 21st Century 

If you haven’t read Rerum Novarum, now is a good time. Fortunately, Sophia Institute Press has a new “pocket guide” out that contextualizes the encyclical and helps the reader understand it. The foreword is written by Father John J. Lydon, O.S.A., who worked with Pope Leo (“Father Bob”) in Peru in the 1990s. He shares a little about that time, which sheds light on why Pope Leo believes Rerum Novarum is so important. He also introduces the encyclical, outlining its themes and its relationship to Augustinian spirituality (since he and Pope Leo are Augustinians).  

Veronica Burchard, chief operating officer at Sophia Institute and executive director of the Sophia Institute for Teachers, then offers a brief introduction to Rerum Novarum. Most of the remainder of the book is the text of Rerum Novarum, printed one paragraph per page, with a less academic summary on the opposite page.  

The Pocket Guide ends with 12 discussion questions, perfect for a small group or for a homeschool mom or religion teacher to use with high school students, and a brief biography of Pope Leo XIII. 

Approaching Modern Problems Ethically 

In his foreword, Father Lydon quotes Pope Leo XIV (then Bishop Robert Prevost):  

More important than problems or answers to problems is the way in which we approach these problems with true criteria of evaluation and with authentic ethical or moral principles.  

Rerum Novarum provides those evaluation criteria and authentic principles for approaching problems related to economics and the workplace. I pray business leaders — and all interested parties, including voters! — use this new Pocket Guide to, in the words of Pope Leo XIII, “[heal human society] by a return to Christian life and Christian institutions.”  

All of us, whether we work outside the home or not, should take to heart this reminder from Rerum Novarum of how the early Christians evangelized and use it as a guide for our public behavior:  

They showed themselves industrious, hard-working, assiduous, and peaceful, ruled by justice, and, above all, bound together in brotherly love. In presence of such mode of life and such example, prejudice gave way, the tongue of malevolence was silenced, and the lying legends of ancient superstition little by little yielded to Christian truth.  

This is our call to action as Catholics, as mothers, and as citizens. May we respond accordingly! 

Ask for A Pocket Guide to Rerum Novarum at your local Catholic bookseller, or order online from Amazon.com or the publisher, Sophia Institute Press.

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Copyright 2025 Taryn DeLong
Images: (top) detail from cover