When Pope Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum he faced the absolutism of state socialism to his left, and the absolutism of laissez-faire capitalism to his right. He saw both strands of industrial age absolutism as existential threats to human dignity, to families, to the common good of nations, and as a threat to the Church.
In several important articles and speeches, including one this week at Catholic University, Senator Marco Rubio has been developing a new “Leonine” diagnosis facing America today - seeking a new conversation about how we can chart a path for the nation through the charybdis and scylla of socialism and global market absolutism that once again threaten to tear us apart.
