This year marks the 125th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum and the beginning of the modern Catholic social encyclical tradition. In this landmark text, Leo courageously set out to examine the “new things” of his time, especially the changes associated with the Industrial Revolution. These included the emergence of an urbanized working class, the breakdown of old social hierarchies, and the rise of capitalism as well as ideologies such as socialism, munism, and corporatism. On April 20,...

New articles from the indefatigable Samuel Gregg, research director of the Acton Insitute: Amoris Laetitia: Another Nail in the “Overpopulation” Coffin, The Catholic World Report Here the pope signals his awareness of the efforts of various organizations—the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, the EU, particular US administrations—to push anti-natalist policies upon developing nations. A Revolutionary Pope for Revolutionary Times, Crisis Magazine Between 1878 and 1903, Leo issued an astonishing 85 encyclicals. Many dealt squarely with the political, social, and...

Video source: The Harry Read Me File. More clips from the hearing here. On Wednesday, the Rev. Robert A. Sirico, co-founder and president of the Acton Institute, testified at a hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public works. The hearing aimed “to examine the role of environmental policies on access to energy and economic opportunity … ” A report at the Energy & Environment news service said the hearing was “full of fireworks.” It was convened by Sen....

After almost three decades of filling out plex tax forms, you’d think I’d be used to it (or at least resigned to the onerous task). But every tax season plain even more than I did the year before. Why do I have to do this? Perhaps the problem, notes Daniel J. Hurst, is that I’m forgetting that it’s part of my responsibility as a Christian.“While we may have grumbled when filing our taxes this year,” says Hurst, “did we pause...

On its website, Trinity Health trumpets its shareholder activism. Based in Livonia, Mich., the Catholic health care provider boasts operations in 21 states, which includes 90 hospitals and 120 long-term care facilities. For this last, Trinity should be lauded. For the first, however, your writer is left shaking his head. Among Trinity’s list of five shareholder advocacy priorities, two stand out: • uphold the dignity of the human person. • enable access to health care. In other words, issues any...

This afternoon, Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico joinedhost Neil Cavuto on Fox Business Network’s Cavuto: Coast to Coast to discuss Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders’ visit to the Vaticanto participate in a conference examining Pope John Paul II’s 1991 encyclicalCentesimus Annus. You can watch the video below. ...

With the New York presidential primary only a few days away, most candidates are canvassing the state to drum up votes. But Bernie Sanders has taken a peculiar detour —to Rome. (Not Rome, NY. The one in Italy.) Sanders is delivering a 10-minute speech this morning at a Vatican conference hosted by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences memorate the 25th anniversary of Saint John Paul II’s encyclical, Centesimus Annus. Sander’s will be speaking oneconomy and social justice. In The...

Andrew Biggs of AEI has a piece up today at Forbes addressing the gender pay gap and provides a neat solution: “forbid women from staying at home with their children.” As Biggs points out, such a policy would address perhaps the greatest root cause of gender pay inequality: varied work experience attributable to choices women make. “Most mothers who stay at home or work only part-time are doing what they wish to do and what they view as best for...

Electric cars are not a new invention, nor are they as popular as they once were. (They debuted in 1890 and by 1900 electric cars accounted for around a third of all vehicles on the road.) But over the past decade, thanks to Elon Musk and Tesla Motors, electric cars have e much more interesting. Tesla rolled out the first fully electric sports car in 2008 and a fully electric luxury sedan in 2012. And earlier this month they unveiled...

ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos Well, it finally happened. The pope felt the Bern. Against expectations, Pope Francis and Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democrat candidate for U.S. president, met privately today in the Vatican hotel where thepontiffresides and where Sanders was staying as a guest. Bernie Sanders was in Romefor the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences meeting to discuss his economic, environmental and moral concerns (as summed up in Sanders’own words during the press scrum that followed). The...