Overview
- The five-page message was read at the opening of the UIA’s 31st Industrial Conference in Buenos Aires on November 13.
- León XIV stressed rights such as a just wage, freedom to form associations and a life of dignity, saying production and profit must serve people.
- He anchored the appeal in Catholic social teaching, explicitly citing Rerum Novarum as the starting point for defending workers’ rights.
- The Pope held up Argentine businessman Enrique Shaw—now advanced on the path to beatification—as a model of fair pay, training, and support for workers’ families.
- The call to an innovative, competitive and humane industry has drawn extra attention because Congress is set to take up the Milei government’s labor bill in the coming weeks.