Abstract

Rerum Novarum is a unique case of an encyclical, for we know in great detail how it was drafted and written. If we connect this knowledge to the fact that Matteo Liberatore - the main thinker who collaborated to its writing - wrote a treatise on the Principles of Political Economy, we can analyse how economic thought and moral theology are intertwined in the work of Liberatore. Similarly, the study of the economic thought of Liberatore can help us understand two important questions of Rerum Novarum, namely, private property and the question of a just wage