Wilhelm Ketteler

Wilhelm Ketteler

In Roman Catholic circles, as early as 1848, a German bishop, Wilhelm Ketteler (1811-1877), addressed the problem of the factory worker in sermons and books. He sketched out a Catholic solution that pointed out the dangers in both the unlimited competition of capitalism and the exaggerated state control of the socialists. He defended the right of state intervention against the capitalists and the right of private property against the totalitarian tendencies of the socialists. Above all, he insisted on the right of workers to form their own associations, and he called for a whole series of reforms, including profit-sharing, reasonable working hours, sufficient rest days, factory inspection, and the regulation of female and child labor.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Wilhelm-Ketteler[/tags]

 

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