1.   Once the passion for revolutionary change was aroused--a passion long disturbing governments--it was bound to follow sooner or later that eaagerness for change would pass from the political sphere over into the related field of economics.  In fact, new developments in industry, new techniques striking out on new paths, changed relations of employer and employee, abounding wealth among a very small number and destitution among the masses, increased self-reliance on the part of workers as well as a closer bond of union with one another, and, in addition to all this, a decline in morals have caused conflict to break forth.
2.   The momentous nature of the questions involved in this conflict is evident from the fact that it keeps men's minds in anxious expectation, occupying the talents of the learned, the discussions of the wise and experienced, the assemblies of the people, the judgment of lawmakers, and the deliberations of rulers, so that now no topic more strongly holds men's interests.
3.   Therefore, Venerable Brethren, with the cause of the Church and the common welfare before Us, We have thought it advisable, following Our custom on other occasions when We issued to you the Encyclicals On Political Power, On Human Liberty, On the Christian Constitution of States, and others of similar nature, which seemed opportune to refute erroneous opinious, that We ought to do the same now, and for the same reasons, On the Condition of Workers.  We have on occasion touched more than once upon this subject.  In this Encyclical, however, consciousness of Our Apostolic Office admonishes Us to treat the entire question thoroughly, in order that the principles may stand out in clear light, and the conflict may thereby be brought to an end as required by Truth and equity.
4.   The problem is difficult to resolve and is not free from dangers.  It is hard indeed to fix the boundaries of the rights and duties within which the rich and the proletariat--those who furnish material things and those who furnish work--ought to be restricted in relation to each other.  The controversy is truly dangerous, for in various places it is being twisted by turbulent and crafty men to pervert judgment as to truth and seditiously to incite the masses.
5.   In any event, We see clearly, and all are agreed that the poor must be speedily and fittingly cared for, since the great majority of them live undeservedly in miserable and wretched conditions.
6.   After the old trade guilds had been destroyed in the last century, and no protection was substituted in their place, and when public institutions and legislation had cast off traditional Religious teaching, it gradually came about that the present age handed over the workers, each alone and defenseless, to the inhumanity of employers and the unbridled greed of competitors.  A devouring unsury, although often condemned by the Church, but practiced nevertheless under another form by avaricious and grasping men, has increased the evil; and in addition the whole process of production as well as trade in every kind of goods has been brought almost entirely under the power of a few, so that a very few rich and exceedingly rich men have laid a yoke almost of slavery on the unnumbered masses of non-owning workers.
7.   To cure this evil, the Socialists, exciting the envy of the poor toward the rich, contend that it is necessary to do away with private possession of goods and in its place to make the goods of individuals common to all, and that the men who preside over a municipality or who direct the entire State should act as administrators of these goods.  They hold that, by such a transfer of private goods from private individuals to the community, they can cure the present evil through dividing wealth and benefits equally among the citizens.
8.   But their program is so unsuited for terminating the conflict that it actually injures the workers themselves.  Moreover, it is highly unjust, because it violates the rights of lawful owners, perverts the functions of the State, and throws governments into utter confusion.
9.   Clearly the essential reason why those who engage in any gainful occupation undertake labor, and at the same time the end to which workers immediately look, is to procure property for themselves and to retain it by individual right as theirs and as their very own.  When the worker places his energy and his labor at the disposal of another, he does so for the purpose of getting the means necessary for livelihood.  He seeks in return for the work done, accordingly, a true and full right not only to demand his wage but to dispose of it as he sees fit.  Therefore, if he saves something by restricting expenditures and invests his savings in a piece of land in order to keep the fruit of his thrift more safe, a holding of this kind is certainly nothing else than his wage  under a different form; and on this account land which the worker thus buys is necessarily under his full control as much as the wage which he earned by his labor.  But, as is obvious, it is clearly in this that the ownership of movable and immovable goods consists.  Therefore, inasmuch as the Socialists seek to transfer the goods of private persons to the community at large, they make the lot of all wage earners worse, because in abolishing the freedom to dispose of wages they take away from them by this very act the hope and the opportunity of increasing their property and of securing advantages for themselves.
10.   But, what is of more vital concern, they propose a remedy openly in confllct with justice, inasmuch as nature confers on man the right to possess things privately as his own.
11.   In this respect also there is the widest differences between man and other living things.  For brute beasts are not self-ruling, but are ruled and governed by a two-fold innate instinct, which not only keeps their faculty of action alert and develops their powers properly but also impels and determines their individual movements.  By one instinct they are induced to protect themselves and their lives; by the other, to preserve their species.  In truth, they attain both ends readily by using what is before them and within immediate range; and they cannot, of course, go further because they are moved to action by the senses alone and by the separate things perceived by the senses.  Man's nature is quite different.  In man there is likewise the entire and full perfection of animal nature, and consequently on this ground there is given to man, certainly no less than to every kind of living thing, to enjoy the benefits of corporeal goods.  Yet animal nature, however perfectly possessed, is far from embracing human nature, but rather is much lower than human nature, having been created to serve and obey it.  What stands out and excels in us, what makes man man and distinguishes him generically from the brute, is the mind or reason.  And owing to the fact that this animal alone has reason, it is necessary that man have goods not only to be used, which is common to all living things, but also to be possessed by stable and perpetual right; and this applies not merely to those goods which are consumed by use, but to those also which endure after being used.
12.   This is even more clearly evident, if the essential nature of human beings is examined more closely.  Since man by his reason understands innumerable things, linking and combining the future with the present, and since he is master of his own actions, therefore, under the eternal law, and under the power of God most wisely ruling all things, he rules himself by the foresight of his own counsel.  Wherefore it is in his power to choose the things which he considers best adapted to benefit him not only in the present but also in the future.  Whence it follows that dominion not only over the fruits of the earth but also over the earth itself ought to rest in man, since he sees that things necessary for the future are furnished him out of the produce of the earth.  The needs of every man are subject, as it were, to constant recurrences, so that, satisfied today, they make new demands tomorrow.  Therefore, nature necessarily gave man something stable and perpetually lasting on which he can count for continuous support.  But nothing can give continuous support of this kind save the earth with its great abundance.
 13.   There is no reason to interpose provision by the State, for man is older than the State.  Wherefore he had to possess by nature his own right to protect his life and body before any polity had been formed.
14.   The fact that God gave the whole human race the earth to use and enjoy cannot indeed in any manner serve as an objection against private possessions.  For God is said to have given the earth to mankind in common, not because He intended indiscriminate ownership of it by all, but because He assigned no part to anyone in ownership, leaving the limits of private possessions to be fixed by the industry of men and the institutions of peoples.  Yet, however the earth may be apportioned among private owners, it does not cease to serve the common interest of all, inasmuch as no living being is sustained except by what the fields bring forth.  Those who lack resources supply labor, so that it can be truly affirmed that the entire scheme of securing a livelihood consists in the labor which a person expends either on his own land or in some working occupation, the compensation for which is drawn ultimately from no other source than from the varied products of the earth and is exchanged for them.
15.   For this reason it also follows that private possessions are clearly in accord with nature.  The earth indeed produces in great abundance the things to preserve and, especially, to perfect life, but of itself it could not produce them without human cultivation and care.  Moreover, since man expends his mental energy and his bodily strength in procuring the goods of nature, by this very act he appropriates that part of physical nature to himself which he has cultivated.  On it he leaves impressed, as it were, a kind of image of his person, so that it must be altogether just that he should possess that part as his very own and that no one in any way should be permitted to violate his right.
16.   The force of these arguments is so evident that it seems amazing that certain revivers of obsolete theories dissent from them.  These men grant the individual the use of the soil and the varied fruits of the farm, but absolutely deny him the right to hold as owner either the ground on which he has built or the farm he has cultivated.  When they deny this right they fail to see that a man will be defrauded of the things his labor has produced.  The land, surely, that has been worked by the hand and the art of the tiller greatly changes in aspect.  The wilderness is made fruitful; the barren field, fertile.  But those things through which the soil has been improved so inhere in the soil and are so thoroughly intermingled with it, that they are for the most part quite inseparable from it.  And, after all, would justice permit anyone to own and enjoy that upon which another has toiled?  As effects follow the cause producing them, so it is just that the fruit of labor belongs precisely to those who have performed the labor.
17.   Rightly therefore, the human race as a whole, moved in no wise by the dissenting opinions of a few, and observing nature carefully, has found in the law of nature itself the basis of the distribution of goods, and, by the practice of all ages, has consecrated private possession as something best adapted to man's nature and to peaceful and tranquil living together.  Now civil laws, which, when just, derive their power from the natural law itself, confirm and, even by the use of force, protect this right of which we speak--And this same right has been sanctioned by the authority of the Divine Law, which forbids us most strictly even to desire what belongs to another.  "Thou shalt not covet thy neightor's wife, nor his house, nor his field, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his." (Deut. 5, 21.)
18.   Rights of this kind which reside in individuals are seen to have much greater validity when viewed as fitted into and connected with the obligations of human beings in family life.
19.   There is no question that in choosing a state of life it is within the power and discretion of individuals to prefer the one or the other state, either to follow the counsel of Jesus Christ regarding virginity or to bind oneself in marriage.  No law of man can abolish the natural and primeval right of marriage, or in any way set aside the chief purpose of matrimony established in the beginning by the Authority of God: "Increase and multiply." (Gen. 1, 28.)  Behold, therefore, the family, or rather the society of the household, a very small society indeed, but a true one, and older than any polity!  For that reason it must have certain rights and duties of its own entirely independent of the State.  Thus, right of ownership, which we have shown to be bestowed on individual persons by nature, must be assigned to man in his capacity as head of a family.  Nay rather, this right is all the stronger, since the human person in family life embraces much more.
20.   It is a most Sacred Law of nature that the father of a family see that his offspring are provided with all the necessities of life, and nature even prompts him to desire to provide and to furnish his children, who, in fact reflect and in a sense continue his person, with the means of decently protecting thmselves against harsh fortune in the uncertainities of life.  He can do this surely in no other way than by owning fruitful goods to transmmit by inheritance to his children.  As already noted, the family like the State is by the same token a society in the strictest sense of the term, and it is governed by its own proper authority, namely, by that of the father.  Wherefore, assuming, of course, that those limits be observed which are fixed by its immediate purpose, the family assuredly possesses rights, at least equal with those of civil society, in respect to choosing and employing the things necessary for its protection and its just liberty.  We say "at least equal" because, inasmuch as domestic living together is prior both in thought and in fact to uniting into a polity, it follows that its rights and duties are also prior and more in conformity with nature.  But if citizens, if families, after becoming participants in common life and society, were to experience injury in a commonwealth instead of help, impairment of their rights instead of protection, society would be something to be repudiated rather than to be sought for.
21.   To desire, therefore, that the civil power should enter arbitrarily into the privacy of homes is a great and pernicious error.  If a family perchance is in such extreme difficulty and is so completely without plans that it is entirely unable to help itself, it is right that the distress be remedied by public aid, for each individual family is a part of the community.  Similarly, if anywhere there is a grave violation of mutual rights within the family walls, public authority shall restore to each his right: for this is not usurping the rights of citizens, but protecting and confirming them with just and due care.  Those in charge of public affairs, however, must stop here: nature does not permit them to go beyond these limits.  Paternal authority is such that it can be neither abolished nor absorbed by the State, because it has the same origin in common with that of man's own life.  "Children are a part of their father," and, as it were, a kind of extenson of the father's person; and, strictly speaking, not through themselves, but through the medium of the family society in which they are begotten, they enter into and participate in civil society.  And for the very reason that chhildren "are by nature part of their father.... before they have the use of free will, they are kept under the care of their parents." (St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, II-II, Q. 10, art. 12.)  Inasmuch as the Socialists, therefore, disregard care by parents and in its place introduce care by the State, they act against natural justice and dissolve the structure of the home.
22.   And apart from the injustice involved, it is also only too evident what turmoil and disorder would obtain among all classes; and what a harsh and odious enslavement of citizens would result!  The door would be open to mutual envy, detraction, and dissension.  If incentives to ingenuity and skill in individual persons were to be abolished, the very fountains of wealth would necessarily dry up; and the equality conjured up by the Socialist imagination would, in reality, be nothing but uniform wretchedness and meaness for one and all, without distinction.
23.   From all these conversations, it is perceived that the fundamental principle of Socialism which would make all possessions public property is to be utterly rejected because it injures the very ones whom it seeks to help, contravenes the natural rights of individual persons, and throws the functions of the State and public peace into confusion.  Let it be regarded, therefore, as established that in seeking help for the masses this principle before all is to be considered as basic, namely, that private ownership must be preserved inviolate.  With this understood, we shall explain whence the desired remedy is to sought.
24.   We approach the subject with confidence and surely by Our right for the question under consideration is certainly one for which no satisfactory solution will be found unless Religion and the Church have been called upon to aid.  Moreover, since the safeguarding of Religion and of all things within the jurisdiction of the Church is primarily Our Stewardship, silence on Our part might be regarded as failure in Our duty.
25.   Assuredly, a question as formidable as this requires the attention and effort of others as well, namely, the heads of the State, employers and the rich, and, finally, those in whose behalf efforts are being made, the workers themselves.  Yet without hesitation We affirm that if the Church is disregarded, human striving will be in vain.  Manifestly, it is the Church which draws from the Gospel the teachings through which the struggle can be composed entirely or, after its bitterness is removed, can certainly become more tempered.  It is the Church, again, that strives not only to instruct the mind but to regulate by her Precepts the life of the workers through her numerous and beneficent institutions, and that wishes and aims to have the thought and energy of all classes of society united to this end, that the interests of the workers be protected as fully as possible.  And to accomplish this purpose she holds that the laws and the authority of the State, within reasonable limits, ought to be employed.
26.   Therefore, let it be laid down in the first place that a condition of human existence must be borne with, namely, that in civil society the lowest cannot be made equal with the highest.  Socialists, of course, agitate the contrary, but all struggling against nature is vain.  There are truly very great and very many natural differences among men.  Neither the talents, nor the skill, nor the health, nor the capacities of all are the same, and unequal fortune follows of itself upon necessary inequality in respect to these endowments.  And clearly this condition of things is adapted to beneift both individuals and the community; for to carry on its affairs community life requires varied aptitudes and diverse services, and to perform these diverse services men are impelled most by differences in individual property holdings.
27.   So far as bodily labor is concerned, man even before the Fall was not destined to be wholly idle; but certainly what his will at that time would have freely embraced to his soul's delight, necessity afterwards forced him to accept, with a feeling of irksomeness, for the expiation of his guilt, "Cursed be the earth in thy work: in thy labor thou shalt eat of it all the days of thy life." (Gen. 3, 17.)  Likewise there is to be no end on earth of other hardships, for the evil consequences of sin are hard, trying, and bitter to bear, and will necessarily accompany men even to the end of life.  Therefore, to suffer and endure is human, and although men may strive in all possible ways, they will never be able by any power or art wholly to banish such tribulations from human life.  If any claim they can do this, if they promies the poor in their misery a life free from all sorrow and vexation and filled with repose and perpetual pleasures, they actually impose upon these people and perpetuate a fraud which will ultimately lead to evils greater than the present.  The best course is to view human affairs as they are and, as We have stated, at the same time to seek appropriate relief for these troubles elsewhere.
28.   It is a capital evil with respect to the question We are discussing to take for granted that the one class of society is of itself hostile to the other, as if nature had set rich and poor against each other to fight fiercely in implacable war.  This is so abhorrent to reason and truth that the exact opposite is true; for just as in the human body the different members harmonize with one another, whence arises that disposition of parts and proportion in the human figure rightly called symmetry, so likewise nature had commanded in the case of the State that the two classes mentioned should agree harmoniously and should properly form equally balanced counterparts to each other.  Each needs the other completely: neither capital can do without labor, nor labor without capital.  Concord begets beauty and order in things.  Conversely, from perpetual strife there must arise disorder accompanied by bestial cruelty.  But for putting an end to conflict and for cutting away its very roots, there is wondrous and multiple power in Christian institutions.
29.   And first and foremost, the entire body of Religious teaching and practice, of which the Church is interpreter and guardian, can pre-eminently bring together and unite the rich and the poor by recalling the two classes of society to their mutual duties, and in particular to those duties which derive from justice.
30.   Among these duties the following concern the poor and the workers: To perform entirely and conscientiously whatever work has been voluntarily and equitably agreed upon; not in any way to injure the property or to harm the person of employers; in protecting their own interestss, to refrain from violence and never to engage in rioting; not to associate with vicious men who craftily hold out exaggerated hopes and make huge promises, a course usually ending in vain regrets and in the destruction of wealth.
31.   The following duties, on the other hand, concern rich men and employers: Workers are not to be treated as slaves; justice demands that the dignity of human personality be respected in them, ennobled as it has been through what we call the Christian character.  If we hearken to natural reason and to Chritian philosophy, gainful occupations are not a mark of shame to man, but rather of respect, as they provide him with an honorable means of supporting life.  It is shameful and inhuman, however, to use men as things for gain and to put no more value on them than what they are worth in muscle and energy.  Likewise it is enjoined that the Religious interests and the spiritual well-being of the workers receive proper consideration.  Wherefore, it is the duty of employers to see that the worker is free for adequate periods to attend to his Religious obligations; not to expose anyone to corrupting influences or the enticements of sin, and in no way to alienate him from the care for his family and the practice of thrift.  Likewise, more work is not to be imposed than strength can endure, nor that kind of work which is unsuited to a worker's age or sex.
32.   Among the most important duties of employers the principal one is to give every worker what is justly due him. Assuredly, to establish a rule of pay in accord with justice, many factors must be taken into account.  But, in general, the rich and employers should rememer that no laws, either human or Divine, permit them for their own profit to oppress the needy and the wretched or to seek gain from another's want.  To defraud anyone of the wage due him is a great crime that calls down avenging wrath from Heaven.  "Behold, the wages of the laborers...  which have been kept back by you unjustly, cry out: and their cry has entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts." (St. James 5, 4.)  Finally, the rich must Religiously avoid harming in any way the savings of the workers either by coercion, or by fraud, or by the arts of usury; and the more for this reason, that the workers are not sufficiently protected against injustices and violence, and their property, being so meager, ought to be regarded as all the more ssacred.  Could not the observance alone of the foregoing laws remove the bitterness and the causes of conflict?
33.   But the Church, with Jesus Christ as her teacher and leader, seeks greater things than this; namely, by commanding something more perfect, she aims at joining the two social classes to each other in closest neighborliness and friendship.  We cannot understand and evaluate mortal things rightly unless the mind reflects upon the other life, the life which is immortal.  If this other life indeed were taken away, the form and true notion of the right would immediately perish; nay, this entire world would become an enigma insoluble to man.  Therefore, what we learn from nature itself as our teacher is also a Christian Dogma and on it the whole system and structure of Religion rests, as it were, on its main foundation; namely, that, when we have left this life, only then shall we truly begin to live.  God has not created man for the fragile and transitory things of this world, but for Heaven and eternity, and He has ordained the earth as a place of exile, not as our permanent home.  Whether you abound in, or whether you lack, riches, and all the other things which are called good, is of no importance in relation to eternal happiness.  But how you use them, that is truly of utmost importance.  Jesus Christ by His "plentiful redemption" has by no means taken away the various tribulations with which mortal life is interwoven, but has so clearly transformed them into incentives to virtue and sources of merit that no mortal can attain eternal reward unless he follows the blood-stained footsteps of Jesus Chirst.  "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him." (2 Tim. 2, 12.)  By the labors and suffering which He voluntarily accepted, He has wondrously lightened the burden of suffering and labor, and not only by His example but also by His grace and by holding before us the hope of eternal reward.  He has made endurance of sorrows easier: "for our present light affliction, which is for the moment, prepares for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure." (2 Cor. 4, 17.)
34.   Therefore, the well-to-do are admonished that wealth does not give surcease of sorrow, and that wealth is of no avail unto the happiess of eternal life but is rather a hindrance; (St. Matt. 19, 23, 24.)  that the threats (St. Luke 6, 24, 25.) pronounced by Jesus Christ, so unusual coming from Him, ought to cause the rich to fear; and that on one day the strictest account for the use of wealth must be rendered to God as Judge.
35.   On the use of wealth we have the excellent and extremely weighty teaching, which, although found in a rudimentary stage in pagan philosopy, the Church has handed down in a completely developed form and causes to be observed not only in theory but in every-day life.  The foundation of this teaching rests on this, that the just owership of money is distinct from the just use of money.
36.   To own goods privately, as We saw above, is a right natural to man, and to exercise this right, especially in life in society, is not only lawful, but clearly necessary.  "It is lawful for man to own his own things.  It is even necessary for human life." (St. Thomas, Summa Theologica, II-II, Q. 66, Art. 2.)  But if the question be asked: How ought man use his possessions?  the Church replies without hesitation: "As to this point, man ought not regard external goods as his own, but as common so that, in fact, a person should readily share them when he sees others in need.  Wherefore the Apostle says: 'Charge the rich of this world... to give readily, to share with others'. " (Ibid., Q. 65, Art. 2.)  No one, certainly, is obliged to assist others out of what is required for his own necessary use or for that of his family, or even to give to others what he himself needs to maintain his station in life becomingly and decently: "No one is obliged to live unbecomingly." (St. Thoma, Summa Theologica, q. 32, Art. 6.)  But when the demands of necessity and propriety have been sufficiently met, it is a duty to give to the poor out of that which remains.  "Give that which remains as alms. " (St. Luke 11, 41.)  These are duties not of justice, except in cases of extreme need, but of Christian Charity, which obviously cannot be enforced by legal action.  But the laws and judgments of men yield precedence to the law and judgment of Christ the Lord, Who in many ways urges the practice of alms-giving: "It is more blessed to give than to receive," (Acts 20, 35.)  and Who will judge a kindness done or denied to the poor as done or denied to Himself.  "As long as you did it for one of these, the least of My brethren you did it for Me." (St. Matt. 25, 40.)  The substance of all this is the following:  whoever has received from the bounty of God a greater share of goods, whether corporeal and external, or of the soul, has received them for this purpose, namely, that he employ them for his own perfection and, likewise, as a servant of Divine Providence, for the benefit of others. "Therefore, he that hath talent, let him constantly see to it that he be not silent; he that hath an abundance of goods, let him be on the watch that he grow not slothful in the generosity of mercy; he that hath a trade whereby he supports himself, let him be especially eager to share with his neighbor the use and benefit thereof." (St. Gregory the Great, In Evang. Hom. 9, 7.)
37.   Those who lack fortune's goods are taught by the Church that, before God as Judge, poverty is no disgrace, and that no one should be ashamed because he makes his living by toil.  And Jesus Christ has confirmed this by fact and by deed, Who for the salvation of men, "being rich, became poor;" (2 Cor. 8, 9.)  and although He was the Son of God and God Himself, yet He willed to seem and to be thought the son of a carpenter; nay, He even did not disdain to spend a great part of his life at the work of a carpenter.  "Is not this the carpenter, the Son of Mary?" (St. Mark 6, 3.)  Those who contemplate this Divine example will more easily understand these truths: True dignity and excellence in men resides in moral living, that is, in virtue, virtue is the common inheritance of man, attainable equally by the humblest and the mightiest, by the rich and the poor; and the reward of eternal happiness will follow upon virtue and merit alone, regardless of the person in whom they may be found.  Nay, rather the favor of God Himself seems to incline more toward the unfortunate as a class; for Jesus Christ calls the poor (St. Mark. 5,, 3.)  blessed, and He invites most lovingly all who are in labor or sorrow (Matth. 11, 28.)  to come to Him for solace, embracing with special love the lowly and those harassed by injustice.  At the realization of these things the proud spirit of the rich is easily brought down, and the downcast heart of the afflicted is lifted up; the former are moved toward kindness, the latter, toward reasonableness in their demands.  Thus the distance between the classes which pride seeks is reduced, and it will easily be brought to pass that the two classess, with hands clasped in friendship, will be united in heart.
38.   Yet, if they obey Christian teachings, not merely friendship but brotherly love also will bind them to each other.  They will feel and understand that all men indeed have been created by God, their common Father; that all strive for the same object of good, which is God Himself, Who alone can communicate to both men and angels perfect and absolute happiness; that all equally have been redeemed by the grace of Jesus Christ and restored to the dignity of the sons of God, so that they are clearly united by the bonds of brotherhood not only with one another but also with Christ the Lord, "the firstborn among many brethren," (Rom. 8, 29.)  and further, that the goods of nature and the gifts of Divine Grace belong in common and without distinction to all human kind, and that no one, unless he is unworthy, will be deprived of the inheritance of Heaven.  "But if we are sons, we are also heirs: heirs indeed of God and joint heirs with Christ." (Rom. 8, 17.)
39.   Such is the economy of duties and rights according to Christian philosophy.  Would it not seem that all conflict would soon cease wherever this economy were to prevail in civil society?
40.   Finally, the Church does not consider it enough to point out the way of finding the cure, but she administers the remedy herself.  For she occupies herself fully in training and forming men according to discipline and Doctrine; and through the agency of Bishops and Clergy, she causes the health-giving streams of this Doctrine to be diffused as widely as possible.  Furthermore, she strives to enter into men's minds and to bend their wills so that they may suffer themselves to be ruled and governed by the discipline of the divine Precepts.  And in this field, which is of first and greatest importance because in it the whole substance and matter of benefits consists, the Church indeed has a power that is especially unique.  For the instruments which she uses to move souls were given her for this very purpose by Jesus Christ, and they have an efficacy implanted in them by God.  Such instruments alone can properly penetrate the inner recesses of the heart and lead man to obedience to duty, to govern the activities of his self-seeking mind, to love God and his neighbors with a special and sovereign love, and to overcome courageously all things that impede the path of virtue.
41.   In this connection it is sufficient briefly to recall to mind examples from history.  We shall mention events and facts that admit of no doubt, namely, that human society in its civil aspects was renewed fundamentally by Christian institutions; that, by virtue of this renewal, mankind was raised to a higher level, nay, was called back from death to life, and enriched with such a degree of perfection as has never existed before and was not destined to be greater in any succeeding age; and that, finally, the same Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end of these benefits; for as all things have proceeded from Him, so they must be referred back to Him.  When, with the acceptance of the light of the Gospel, the world had learned the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Word and the redemption of man, the life of Jesus Christ, God and man, spread through the nations and imbued them wholly with His Doctrine, with His Precepts, and with His Laws.  Wherefore, if human society is to be healed, only a return to Christian life and institutions will heal it.  In the case of decaying societies it is most correctly prescribed that, if they wish to be regenerated, they must be recalled to their origins.  For the perfection of all associations is this, namely, to work for and to attain the purpose for which they were formed, so that all social actions should be inspiried by the same  principle which brought the society itself into being.  Wherefore, turning away from the original purpose is corruption, while going back to this purpose is recovery.  And just as we affirm this as unquestionably true of the entire body of the commonwealth, in like manner we affirm it of that order of citizens who sustain life by labor and who constitute the vast majority of society.
42.   But it must not be supposed that the Church so concentrates her energies on caring for souls as to overlook things which pertain to mortal and earthly life.  As regards the non-owing workers specifically, she desires and strives that they rise from their most wretched state and enjoy better conditions.  And to achieve this result she makes no small contribution by the very fact that she calls men to and trains them in virtue.  For when Chritian morals are completely observed, they yield of themselves a certain measure of prosperity to material existence, because they win the favor of God, the source and fountain of all goods; because they restrain the twin plagues of life-excessive desire for wealth and thirst (1 Tim. 6, 10.)  for pleasure--which too often make man wretched amidst the very abundance of riches; and because finally, Christian morals make men content with a moderate livelihood and make them supplement income by thrift, removing them far from the vices which swallow up both modest sums and huge fortunes, and dissipate splendid inheritances.

    (This is quite a long Encyclical for just one file so consequently I am putting it in two files.  To continue reading click on CONTINUE below.)