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Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical, Rerum Novarum, was written in 1891 andserved as the intellectual basis for a for social reformation among American Catholics. The Pope’s letter sought to find a ethical path for capitalism, in which, workers could avoid the extreme laissez-faire beliefs. Rerum Novarum affirmed the state’s right to intervene on behalf of citizens and property rights. The Pope had set out due to the Catholic Church’s response to the social conflict that had arisen due to industrialization which had led to poverty. Rerum Novarum is remarkable for its vivid depiction of the nineteenth-century urban poor. The encyclical reaffirmed that private property as a fundamental principle of natural law. Rerum Novarum also recognized that the poor have a special status in consideration of social issues: the notion that God is on the side of the poor were expressed in this document.