Rerum Novarum: the Encyclical of the great Pope Leo IIII

I. Author of Rerum Novarum, “revolutionary change”

Leo the champion of wage earners

And their rights to receive proper payments

Commensurate with the strain of the work

With a suitable amount for savings

And help from the government in hard times

And freedom from having excessive work

And having the right to safe working spaces

And rights of the gentle sex to be free

From menial work away from home

And instead to raise families at home

And reaffirming Sundays for resting

As when God rested on the seventh day

And the rights to join guilds and unions

And to bargain, haggle with employers

To secure a just wage for their members

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II. Leo also listed the rights of capital

To be free from the snares of socialism

And to set just prices based on value,

Scarcity, cost of production, and risk

With freedom from seizure or confiscation

And, by the maxim of local control,

By the authority closest to the issue

With the power to decide the matter

Without hassle from far away rulers

According to the axiom of subsidiarity