Lord Maurice Glasman, The TimesOne of the unique features of the Labour tradition is the role of the churches in its formation, Catholic and non-conformist. It is also true to say Labour was more Catholic than Methodist, particularly in Scotland, the northeast and northwest. Catholic Labour proved to be a durable tradition as it was built on a particular body of thought initiated by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 through his encyclical, Rerum Novarum. The dignity of Labour, local associations and solidarity were the foundations of this. It had become a legalistic procedural liberal party without a notion of nation, class, place or the common good.