Differences between Centesimus Annus and Rerum Novarum?

[nanacat]

Okay, I know I’m just being lazy here, but can anyone give me a simple, “For Dummies” version of the major change(s) Blessed John Paul II’s encyclical offered to that of Pope Leo XIII’s of a century earlier? A few of us in my parish have got quite a lively debate going on, and a surprisingly civil one, considering how set in their ways some people can be, politically. I’ve read through Rerum, and I know I should, and (sigh…) probably WILL read the the anniversary letter, but I thought I’d check in here first.

 

[edward_george]

Okay, I know I’m just being lazy here, but can anyone give me a simple, “For Dummies” version of the major change(s) Blessed John Paul II’s encyclical offered to that of Pope Leo XIII’s of a century earlier? A few of us in my parish have got quite a lively debate going on, and a surprisingly civil one, considering how set in their ways some people can be, politically. I’ve read through Rerum, and I know I should, and (sigh…) probably WILL read the the anniversary letter, but I thought I’d check in here first.

It’s been a while since I’ve read either of them, but the long and short of it is that CA is a sort of vindication of Rerum–i.e. JPII is writing it after the fall of Communism, so he’s basically saying “See? This is why Rerum works, and why the other thing doesn’t.”

-ACEGC