Joseph Husslein

(1873-1952) was a key figure in the early twentieth century in the development of American Catholic social thought.

Husslein was one of several figures, such as John A. Ryan, trying to apply the Catholic social teaching of Pope Leo XIII’s watershed encyclical Rerum novarum (1891).

However, at the same time, he attacked the abuses of laisez faire capitalism, which today is often called “free market capitalism.” Husslein spoke against the exploitation of children and young women in factories and described the “champions of a modern gospel of greed” who are: Coining into gold the lifeblood of the children whose innocence and joy were sacrificed to Mammon; tarnishing the purity of the poor girl victims of financial greed, the future mothers of our race; sapping the strength of womanhood amid endless unremunerative toil, and seeking only to secure the greatest service for the least reward.

Pius XI reaffirmed and further developed Catholic Social teaching as first laid out in Rerum novarum.

In the latter, Husslein published the work of leading Catholic authors and included two books by Fulton Sheen.