The Roman Catholic Church in the 20th century entered into a period of renewal, responding to the challenge of increasing secularization of Western society and persecution resulting from great social unrest and revolutions in several countries. A major event in the period was the Second Vatican Council, which took place between 1962 and 1965. The church instituted reforms, especially in the 1970s after the conclusion of the Council, to modernize practices and positions. On taking office part way through the Council, Pope Paul VI referred to "an impatient struggle for renewal".Pope Paul VI, Ecclesiam Suam, paragraph 11, published on 6 August 1964, accessed on 10 July 2024
Catholic social teaching, rooted in the 1891 encyclical letter Rerum novarum by Pope Leo XIII, evolved during this period. Rerum novarum addressed the dignity and rights of workers against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution. It advocates for fair labor conditions, living wages, and the right to form trade unions, establishing a framework that balances the rejection of socialism with a critique of unchecked capitalism. Subsequent teachings, like Quadragesimo anno and the works of Pius XII, expand these principles, emphasizing solidarity, subsidiarity, and the moral dimensions of economic life. This body of teaching continues to evolve, addressing modern social, economic, and technological issues while advocating for justice and the dignity of all individuals.
In this period, Catholic missionaries in the Far East worked to improve education and health care, while evangelizing peoples and attracting followers in China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.
Leadership Popes Leo XIII, Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II led the church during these years.
Pope Pius X (1903–1914) renewed the independence of papal office by abolishing the veto of Catholic powers in papal elections, and his successors Benedict XV (1914–1922) and Pius XI (1922–1939) concluded the modern independence of the Vatican State within Italy.Lives of the Popes; Michael J Walsh, Universal International; 1998; pp. 239, 241 Benedict XV was elected at the outbreak of the First World War. He attempted to mediate between the powers and established a Vatican relief office, to assist victims of the war and reunite families.Lives of the Popes; Michael J Walsh, Universal International; 1998; p. 240 The interwar Pope Pius XI modernized the papacy, appointing 40 indigenous bishops and concluding fifteen concordats, including the Lateran Treaty with Italy, which founded the Vatican City State.Lives of the Popes; Michael J Walsh, Universal International; 1998; pp. 241–42
Catholic social teaching
Rerum novarum The Industrial Revolution brought many concerns about the deteriorating working and living conditions of urban workers. Influenced by the German Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel Freiherr von Ketteler, in 1891 Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical Rerum novarum, titled "On Capital and Labor". This encyclical set in context Catholic social teaching in terms that rejected socialism but advocated the regulation of working conditions. Rerum novarum argued for the establishment of a living wage and the right of workers to form trade unions.Duffy, Saints and Sinners (1997), p. 240
In Rerum novarum, Leo set out the Catholic Church's response to the social instability and labor conflict that had arisen in the wake of industrialization and had led to the rise of socialism. The Pope taught that the role of the State is to promote social justice through the protection of rights, while the Church must speak out on social issues in order to teach correct social principles and ensure class harmony. He restated the Church's long-standing teaching regarding the crucial importance of private property rights, but recognised, in one of the best-known passages of the encyclical, that the free operation of market forces must be tempered by moral considerations:
Rerum novarum is remarkable for its vivid depiction of the plight of the late 19th-century urban poor and for its condemnation of unrestricted capitalism. Among the remedies it prescribed were the formation of trade unions and the introduction of collective bargaining, particularly as an alternative to state intervention. Rerum novarum also recognized that the poor have a special status in consideration of social issues: the modern Catholic principle of the "preferential option for the poor" and the notion that God is on the side of the poor found their first expression in this document.The Busy Christian's Guide to Social Teaching .Catholic Encyclopedia (1911): Rerum Novarum.
Quadragesimo anno
Forty years after Rerum novarum, and more than a year into the Great Depression, Pope Pius XI issued Quadragesimo anno, subtitled "On Reconstruction of the Social Order". Released on 15 May 1931, this encyclical expanded on Rerum novarum, noting the positive effect of the earlier document but pointing out that the world had changed significantly since Pope Leo's time.
Unlike Leo, who addressed mainly the condition of workers, Pius XI concentrated on the ethical implications of the social and economic order. He called for the reconstruction of the social order based on the principle of solidarity and subsidiarity.Duffy 260 He also noted major dangers for human freedom and dignity, arising from both unrestrained capitalism and totalitarian communism.
Pius XI reiterated Leo's defence of private property rights and collective bargaining, and repeated his contention that blind economic forces cannot create a just society on their own:
Quadragesimo Anno also supported state intervention to mediate labor-management conflicts (a reference to the economic system which Mussolini was attempting to establish in Italy at the time), and introduced the concept of subsidiarity into Catholic thought.
Prior to Quadragesimo anno, some Catholics had wondered whether Leo XIII's condemnation of radical left-wing politics in Rerum novarum extended only to outright communism or whether it included milder forms of socialism as well. Pius made it clear that non-communistic Socialism was included in the condemnation. The Catholic Church defined a distinctive position for itself between free-market capitalism on the right and statist socialism on the left.
Pius XII The social teachings of Pope Pius XII repeat these teachings, and apply them in greater detail not only to workers and owners of capital, but also to other professions, such as politicians, educators, housewives, farmers bookkeepers, international organizations, and all aspects of life including the military. Going beyond Pius XI, he also defined social teachings in the areas of medicine, psychology, sport, TV, science, law and education. There is virtually no social issue, which Pius XII did not address and relate to the Christian faith.Franzen, 368 He was called "the Pope of Technology", for his willingness and ability to examine the social implications of technological advances. The dominant concern was the continued rights and dignity of the individual. With the beginning of the space age at the end of his pontificate, Pius XII explored the social implications of space exploration and satellites on the social fabric of humanity, asking for a new sense of community and solidarity in light of existing papal teachings on subsidiarity.Felictity O'Brien, Pope Pius XII: Architect for Peace, London: 2000, p.13
The Catholic Church exercised a prominent role in shaping America's labor movement. In 1933, two American Catholics, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, founded a new Catholic peace group, the Catholic Worker that would embody their ideals of pacifism, commitment to the poor, and to fundamental change in American society. They published a newspaper of the same name for years.
Anti-clericalism In Latin America, a succession of anti-clerical regimes came to power beginning in the 1830s.Stacy, p. 139. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Catholic Church was subjected to unprecedented persecution in Mexico, as well as in Europe in Spain and the Soviet Union. Pope Pius XI called this the "terrible triangle".Fontenelle, 164
The "harsh persecution short of total annihilation of the clergy, monks, and nuns and other people associated with the Church",Riasanovsky 617 began in 1918 and continued well into the 1930s. The Civil War in Spain started in 1936, during which thousands of churches were destroyed, thirteen bishops and some 6,832 clergy and religious Spaniards were assassinated.Franzen 397
After the widespread Church persecutions in Mexico, Spain and the Soviet Union, Pius XI defined communism as the main adversary of the Catholic Church in his encyclical Divini Redemptoris issued on 19 March 1937.Franzen 365 He blamed Western powers and media for a "conspiracy of silence" with respect to the persecutions carried out by Communist, Socialist and Fascist forces.
Mexico In Mexico, the Calles Law eventually led to the "worst guerilla war in Latin American History", the Cristero War.Chadwick, Owen, pp. 264–265. Between 1926 and 1934, over 3,000 priests were exiled or assassinated.Scheina, p. 33. In an effort to prove that "God would not defend the Church", Calles ordered Church desecrations in which services were mocked, nuns were raped, and captured priests were shot.
Calles was eventually deposed. Despite the persecution, the Church in Mexico continued to grow. A 2000 census reported that 88 percent of Mexicans identify as Catholic.
Spain During the Spanish Civil War, Spanish republicans and anarchists targeted priests and nuns as symbols of conservatism, murdering large numbers of them.Chadwick, Owen p. 240. Confiscation of Church properties and restrictions on people's religious freedoms have generally accompanied secularist and Marxist-leaning governmental reforms.Norman, pp. 167–172.
Soviet Union Worried by the persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union, Pius XI mandated Berlin nuncio Eugenio Pacelli to work secretly on diplomatic arrangements between the Vatican and the Soviet Union. Pacelli negotiated food shipments for Russia, and met with Soviet representatives including Foreign Minister Georgi Chicherin, who rejected any kind of religious education, or the ordination of priests and bishops, but offered agreements without the points vital to the Vatican.(Hansjakob Stehle, Die Ostpolitik des Vatikans, Piper, München, 1975, pp. 139–141 Despite Vatican pessimism and a lack of visible progress, Pacelli continued the secret negotiations. Pius XI ordered them to be discontinued in 1927, because they generated no results and he believed they would be dangerous to the Church's standing, if made public.
The harsh persecution continued well into the 1930s. The Soviet government executed and exiled many clerics, monks and laymen, confiscating Church implements "for victims of famine", and closing many churches.Riasanovsky 634 Yet according to an official report based on the census of 1936, some 55% of Soviet citizens identified themselves openly as religious, while others possibly concealed their belief.
In other countries
Eastern Europe Following the Soviet doctrine regarding the exercise of religion, postwar Communist governments in Eastern Europe severely restricted religious freedoms. Even though some clerics collaborated with the Communist regimes during their decades of power, from the late 1980s the Church's resistance and the leadership of Pope John Paul II have been credited with hastening the downfall in 1991 of communist governments across Europe.
China