May 13 attack prevented John Paul II from giving his catechesis about the rerum novarum of Leo XIII

A day like today, on May 13, 1981, Pope San Juan Paul II suffered a serious attack that was saved from dying thanks to the Virgin of Fatima. That day, Karol Wojtyla was going to pronounce a catechesis on the Of the revolutionarythe historical encyclical of Pope Leo XIII that laid the foundations of the social doctrine of the Church, an issue that Pope Leo XIV, chosen successor of St. Peter just five days ago, has put back in the mat.

In five more days, on Sunday, May 18, Pope Leo XIV will preside, in the Basilica of San Pedro, the opening mass of his pontificate, for which he has already given some keys with the choice of his name.

In his speech to the cardinals on May 10, Leo XIV, he explained that he chose his name for several reasons, being the main one that “Pope Leo XIII, with the encyclical historical Of the revolutionary“Of May 15, 1891,” the social issue faced in the context of the first major industrial revolution. “

“Today the Church,” he added, “offers all its equity of social doctrine to respond to another industrial revolution and the developments of artificial intelligence, which entail new challenges in the defense of human dignity, justice and work.”

John Paul II could never pronounce Your catechesis on Of the revolutionarythe day in which 90 years of publication were completed, however the Vatican offered the full text and explained that it is part of the “‘Pontifical teachings’ with a special character for the circumstances in which they were not pronounced.”

“Carta Magna” of Christian social activity

Pope Peregrine stood out in his catechesis that “the Of the revolutionary It constitutes and is ‘the Magna Carta of the Christian social activity’, as Pius XII defined it; And Paul VI added that his ‘message continues to inspire the action in favor of justice’ in the Church and in the contemporary world; She is also irrefutable demonstration of the living and solicitous attention of the Church in favor of the world of work. ”

With the pontifical document, he continued, “The voice of Leo XIII rose brave in defense of the oppressed, of the poor, of the humble, of the exploited, and was nothing but the echo of the voice of the one who had proclaimed blessed to the poor and the hungry of justice.”

In that sense, John Paul II explained that “what justifies the intervention of the Church and its supreme shepherd in social issues, is always the mission received from Christ to save man in his integral dignity.”

“Following the traces of the fundamental Leonian document, my predecessor venerated have not stopped affirming, in numerous circumstances, this right and this duty of the Church to give moral guidelines in a field, such as the economic-social, which has direct links with the religious and supernatural purpose of its same mission.”

With his encyclical, John Paul II wrote, Leo XIII remembered the duty of the universal church of “making local churches more and more aware of priests, religious and religious, to the laity of his right-right to be prowned for the good of each of the men, and if the defenders and architects of authentic justice in the world are at all times.”

Pope Wojtyla also stressed that with the Of the revolutionaryLeo XIII “infused the feeling and awareness of his human, civil and Christian dignity in the workers ‘soul; he favored the appearance of workers’ union associations in the various countries; he warned the rulers and the nations their duties towards the weak and poor, inviting the states to create a social, human and intelligent policy that achieved recognition, formulation and respect for the right the citizens ”.

The social doctrine of the Church

John II also highlighted, in his catechesis never pronounced, that “during the centuries, from its origins until today, the Church has always been found and always confronted with the world and its problems, illuminating them in the light of the faith and moral of Christ. This has favored the formation and resurgence, throughout the arch of history, of a body of principles of Christian social morality, known today as a social doctrine of the Church.”

“It is the merit of Pope Leo XIII having tried, before anyone else, to give him an organic and synthetic character,” he said.

“Yes, the encyclical Of the revolutionary It also has vitality and stimulating and operating validity for the people of God, even when it appeared in the distant 1891, ”said Pope Wojtyla.

“Time,” he concluded, “has not exhausted her, but corroborated; so much, that Christians feel so fruitful that they can get courage and action for the new developments of the social order in which the world of work is interested.”

10 years after the attack he suffered and of the catechesis that that fateful May 13, 1981, Juan Pablo II published his social encyclical Hundredth of the yearat the age of 100 years of the Of the revolutionaryand he did it on May 1, 1991, when in many parts of the world Labor Day was celebrated.