About Rerum Novarum

Pope Leo XIII in 1891 issued Rerum Novarum, the first modern papal encyclical on labor and the dignity of the worker. This tradition has been adapted and reshaped by Pius XI, John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II, and Pope Leo XIV. The fundamentals, however, have remained constant: respect for the dignity of the human being and human labor, the right to organize and the right to a living wage.

Over a century later, the challenge remains. The men and women who comprise the institutions of family, labor, business, government and church must work together to demonstrate a common conviction of the dignity of every human being, the value of all human work, the power of human solidarity in the face of human greed and exploitation, and most of all in the coming of Jesus Christ whose death and resurrection are the vindication of all human goodness, justice and love.

The Church has called upon priests and seminarians to foster these goals, so it is especially fitting that University of Saint Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary should honor the men and women of our day in business, labor, and government who have excelled in their support of these ideals.