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Google AI: While Pope Leo XIII still emphasized virtue as the "chief good" in Rerum Novarum, the rise of subjective rights language in that period is argued by some to have initiated a shift that, over time, began to eclipse the older tradition of focus on personal virtue and charity

AI Overview
Based on the work of John M. Rist and related scholarly critiques of Catholic Social Teaching (CST), the argument is that Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (1891) marked a significant shift towards "subjective rights" language, which some critics argue began to displace the traditional emphasis on virtue, charity, and objective natural law. [1, 2]
Here is a breakdown of this view:
  • The Shift in Emphasis: Rist argues that modern, Western society has largely replaced an objective morality based on virtues with a rights-based framework. In this view, Catholic Social Teaching (often traced back to Leo XIII) has sometimes adopted this framework, favoring a "subjective" right to claim something over the traditional, Aristotelian-Thomistic, or patristic focus on virtues and duties.
  • The Problem with "Subjective Rights": Critics often distinguish between objective rights (what is owed to another in justice, according to virtue) and subjective rights (a power to claim something, which can become self-centered). Rist notes that this shift, starting in the late 19th century, risks reducing morality to the power to enforce desires, moving away from a truly Christian, or even Aristotelian, virtue ethics.
  • The Role of Leo XIII: Pope Leo XIII is widely recognized as the father of modern Catholic social doctrine, and Rerum Novarum introduced the idea of workers having fundamental rights (e.g., to a just wage, to own private property). However, the critique mentioned in the query suggests that in doing so, Leo XIII and his successors may have inadvertently moved from a "virtue and charity" model to a "rights" model.
  • Rist's Perspective: Rist's broader critique often involves questioning the reliance of modern Church teaching on modern, rather than antique or medieval, philosophical foundations, such as the idea of "subjective rights" developed by late medieval thinkers and popularized during the Enlightenment. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Summary: While Pope Leo XIII still emphasized virtue as the "chief good" in Rerum Novarum, the rise of subjective rights language in that period is argued by some to have initiated a shift that, over time, began to eclipse the older tradition of focus on personal virtue and charity. [1, 2]


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