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DIVINI REDEMPTORIS
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI ON ATHEISTIC COMMUNISM
MARCH 19, 1937
To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops,
Bishops, and other Ordinaries in Peace and
Communion with the Apostolic See.
Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic
Benediction. The promise of a Redeemer brightens
the first page of the history of mankind, and the
confident hope aroused by this promise softened
the keen regret for a paradise which had been
lost. It was this hope that accompanied the human
race on its weary journey, until in the fullness
of time the expected Savior came to begin a new
universal civilization, the Christian
civilization, far superior even to that which up
to this time had been laboriously achieved by
certain more privileged nations.
2. Nevertheless, the struggle between good and
evil remained in the world as a sad legacy of the
original fall. Nor has the ancient tempter ever
ceased to deceive mankind with false promises. It
is on this account that one convulsion following
upon another has marked the passage of the
centuries, down to the revolution of our own
days. This modern revolution, it may be said, has
actually broken out or threatens everywhere, and
it exceeds in amplitude and violence anything yet
experienced in the preceding persecutions
launched against the Church. Entire peoples find
themselves in danger of falling back into a
barbarism worse than that which oppressed the
greater part of the world at the coming of the
Redeemer.
3. This all too imminent danger, Venerable
Brethren, as you have already surmised, is
bolshevistic and atheistic Communism, which aims
at upsetting the social order and at undermining
the very foundations of Christian civilization .
4. In the face of such a threat, the Catholic
Church could not and does not remain silent. This
Apostolic See, above all, has not refrained from
raising its voice, for it knows that its proper
and social mission is to defend truth, justice
and all those eternal values which Communism
ignores or attacks. Ever since the days when
groups of "intellectuals" were formed in an
arrogant attempt to free civilization from the
bonds of morality and religion, Our Predecessors
overtly and explicitly drew the attention of the
world to the consequences of the
dechristianization of human society. With
reference to Communism, Our Venerable
Predecessor, Pius IX, of holy memory, as early as
1846 pronounced a solemn condemnation, which he
confirmed in the words of the Syllabus directed
against "that infamous doctrine of so-called
Communism which is absolutely contrary to the
natural law itself, and if once adopted would
utterly destroy the rights, property and
possessions of all men, and even society
itself."[1] Later on, another of Our
predecessors, the immortal Leo XIII, in his
Encyclical Quod Apostolici Muneris, defined
Communism as "the fatal plague which insinuates
itself into the very marrow of human society only
to bring about its ruin."[2] With clear intuition
he pointed out that the atheistic movements
existing among the masses of the Machine Age had
their origin in that school of philosophy which
for centuries had sought to divorce science from
the life of the Faith and of the Church.
5. During Our Pontificate We too have frequently
and with urgent insistence denounced the current
trend to atheism which is alarmingly on the
increase. In 1924 when Our relief-mission
returned from the Soviet Union We condemned
Communism in a special Allocution[3] which We
addressed to the whole world. In our Encyclicals
Miserentissimus Redemptor,[4] Quadragesimo
Anno,[5] Caritate Christi,[6] Acerba Animi,[7]
Dilectissima Nobis,[8] We raised a solemn protest
against the persecutions unleashed in Russia, in
Mexico and now in Spain. Our two Allocutions of
last year, the first on the occasion of the
opening of the International Catholic Press
Exposition, and the second during Our audience to
the Spanish refugees, along with Our message of
last Christmas, have evoked a world-wide echo
which is not yet spent. In fact, the most
persistent enemies of the Church, who from Moscow
are directing the struggle against Christian
civilization, themselves bear witness, by their
unceasing attacks in word and act, that even to
this hour the Papacy has continued faithfully to
protect the sanctuary of the Christian religion,
and that it has called public attention to the
perils of Communism more frequently and more
effectively than any other public authority on
earth.
6. To Our great satisfaction, Venerable Brethren,
you have, by means of individual and even joint
pastoral Letters, accurately transmitted and
explained to the Faithful these admonitions. Yet
despite Our frequent and paternal warning the
peril only grows greater from day to day because
of the pressure exerted by clever agitators.
Therefore We believe it to be Our duty to raise
Our voice once more, in a still more solemn
missive, in accord with the tradition of this
Apostolic See, the Teacher of Truth, and in
accord with the desire of the whole Catholic
world, which makes the appearance of such a
document but natural. We trust that the echo of
Our voice will reach every mind free from
prejudice and every heart sincerely desirous of
the good of mankind. We wish this the more
because Our words are now receiving sorry
confirmation from the spectacle of the bitter
fruits of subversive ideas, which We foresaw and
foretold, and which are in fact multiplying
fearfully in the countries already stricken, or
threatening every other country of the world.
7. Hence We wish to expose once more in a brief
synthesis the principles of atheistic Communism
as they are manifested chiefly in bolshevism. We
wish also to indicate its method of action and to
contrast with its false principles the clear
doctrine of the Church, in order to inculcate
anew and with greater insistence the means by
which the Christian civilization, the true
civitas humana, can be saved from the satanic
scourge, and not merely saved, but better
developed for the well-being of human society.
8. The Communism of today, more emphatically than
similar movements in the past, conceals in itself
a false messianic idea. A pseudo-ideal of
justice, of equality and fraternity in labor
impregnates all its doctrine and activity with a
deceptive mysticism, which communicates a zealous
and contagious enthusiasm to the multitudes
entrapped by delusive promises. This is
especially true in an age like ours, when unusual
misery has resulted from the unequal distribution
of the goods of this world. This pseudo-ideal is
even boastfully advanced as if it were
responsible for a certain economic progress. As a
matter of fact, when such progress is at all
real, its true causes are quite different, as for
instance the intensification of industrialism in
countries which were formerly almost without it,
the exploitation of immense natural resources,
and the use of the most brutal methods to insure
the achievement of gigantic projects with a
minimum of expense.
9. The doctrine of modern Communism, which is
often concealed under the most seductive
trappings, is in substance based on the
principles of dialectical and historical
materialism previously advocated by Marx, of
which the theoricians of bolshevism claim to
possess the only genuine interpretation.
According to this doctrine there is in the world
only one reality, matter, the blind forces of
which evolve into plant, animal and man. Even
human society is nothing but a phenomenon and
form of matter, evolving in the same way. By a
law of inexorable necessity and through a
perpetual conflict of forces, matter moves
towards the final synthesis of a classless
society. In such a doctrine, as is evident, there
is no room for the idea of God; there is no
difference between matter and spirit, between
soul and body; there is neither survival of the
soul after death nor any hope in a future life.
Insisting on the dialectical aspect of their
materialism, the Communists claim that the
conflict which carries the world towards its
final synthesis can be accelerated by man. Hence
they endeavor to sharpen the antagonisms which
arise between the various classes of society.
Thus the class struggle with its consequent
violent hate and destruction takes on the aspects
of a crusade for the progress of humanity. On the
other hand, all other forces whatever, as long as
they resist such systematic violence, must be
annihilated as hostile to the human race.
10. Communism, moreover, strips man of his
liberty, robs human personality of all its
dignity, and removes all the moral restraints
that check the eruptions of blind impulse. There
is no recognition of any right of the individual
in his relations to the collectivity; no natural
right is accorded to human personality, which is
a mere cog-wheel in the Communist system. In
man's relations with other individuals, besides,
Communists hold the principle of absolute
equality, rejecting all hierarchy and
divinely-constituted authority, including the
authority of parents. What men call authority and
subordination is derived from the community as
its first and only font. Nor is the individual
granted any property rights over material goods
or the means of production, for inasmuch as these
are the source of further wealth, their
possession would give one man power over another.
Precisely on this score, all forms of private
property must be eradicated, for they are at the
origin of all economic enslavement .
11. Refusing to human life any sacred or
spiritual character, such a doctrine logically
makes of marriage and the family a purely
artificial and civil institution, the outcome of
a specific economic system. There exists no
matrimonial bond of a juridico-moral nature that
is not subject to the whim of the individual or
of the collectivity. Naturally, therefore, the
notion of an indissoluble marriage-tie is
scouted. Communism is particularly characterized
by the rejection of any link that binds woman to
the family and the home, and her emancipation is
proclaimed as a basic principle. She is withdrawn
from the family and the care of her children, to
be thrust instead into public life and collective
production under the same conditions as man. The
care of home and children then devolves upon the
collectivity. Finally, the right of education is
denied to parents, for it is conceived as the
exclusive prerogative of the community, in whose
name and by whose mandate alone parents may
exercise this right.
12. What would be the condition of a human
society based on such materialistic tenets? It
would be a collectivity with no other hierarchy
than that of the economic system. It would have
only one mission: the production of material
things by means of collective labor, so that the
goods of this world might be enjoyed in a
paradise where each would "give according to his
powers" and would "receive according to his
needs." Communism recognizes in the collectivity
the right, or rather, unlimited discretion, to
draft individuals for the labor of the
collectivity with no regard for their personal
welfare; so that even violence could be
legitimately exercised to dragoon the
recalcitrant against their wills. In the
Communistic commonwealth morality and law would
be nothing but a derivation of the existing
economic order, purely earthly in origin and
unstable in character. In a word. the Communists
claim to inaugurate a new era and a new
civilization which is the result of blind
evolutionary forces culminating in ahumanity
without God.
13. When all men have finally acquired the
collectivist mentality in this Utopia of a really
classless society, the political State, which is
now conceived by Communists merely as the
instrument by which the proletariat is oppressed
by the capitalists, will have lost all reason for
its existence and will "wither away." However,
until that happy consummation is realized, the
State and the powers of the State furnish
Communism with the most efficacious and most
extensive means for the achievement of its goal.
14. Such, Venerable Brethren, is the new gospel
which bolshevistic and atheistic Communism offers
the world as the glad tidings of deliverance and
salvation! It is a system full of errors and
sophisms. It is in opposition both to reason and
to Divine Revelation. It subverts the social
order, because it means the destruction of its
foundations; because it ignores the true origin
and purpose of the State; because it denies the
rights, dignity and liberty of human personality.
15. How is it possible that such a system, long
since rejected scientifically and now proved
erroneous by experience, how is it, We ask, that
such a system could spread so rapidly in all
parts of the world? The explanation lies in the
fact that too few have been able to grasp the
nature of Communism. The majority instead succumb
to its deception, skillfully concealed by the
most extravagant promises. By pretending to
desire only the betterment of the condition of
the working classes, by urging the removal of the
very real abuses chargeable to the liberalistic
economic order, and by demanding a more equitable
distribution of this world's goods (objectives
entirely and undoubtedly legitimate), the
Communist takes advantage of the present
world-wide economic crisis to draw into the
sphere of his influence even those sections of
the populace which on principle reject all forms
of materialism and terrorism. And as every error
contains its element of truth, the partial truths
to which We have referred are astutely presented
according to the needs of time and place, to
conceal, when convenient, the repulsive crudity
and inhumanity 540 of Communistic principles and
tactics. Thus the Communist ideal wins over many
of the better minded members of the community.
These in turn become the apostles of the movement
among the younger intelligentsia who are still
too immature to recognize the intrinsic errors of
the system. The preachers of Communism are also
proficient in exploiting racial antagonisms and
political divisions and oppositions. They take
advantage of the lack of orientation
characteristic of modern agnostic science in
order to burrow into the universities, where they
bolster up the principles of their doctrine with
pseudo-scientific arguments.
16. If we would explain the blind acceptance of
Communism by so many thousands of workmen, we
must remember that the way had been already
prepared for it by the religious and moral
destitution in which wage-earners had been left
by liberal economics. Even on Sundays and holy
days, labor-shifts were given no time to attend
to their essential religious duties. No one
thought of building churches within convenient
distance of factories, nor of facilitating the
work of the priest. On the contrary, laicism was
actively and persistently promoted, with the
result that we are now reaping the fruits of the
errors so often denounced by Our Predecessors and
by Ourselves. It can surprise no one that the
Communistic fallacy should be spreading in a
world already to a large extent de-Christianized.
17. There is another explanation for the rapid
diffusion of the Communistic ideas now seeping
into every nation, great and small, advanced and
backward, so that no corner of the earth is free
from them. This explanation is to be found in a
propaganda so truly diabolical that the world has
perhaps never witnessed its like before. It is
directed from one common center. It is shrewdly
adapted to the varying conditions of diverse
peoples. It has at its disposal great financial
resources, gigantic organizations, international
congresses, and countless trained workers. It
makes use of pamphlets and reviews, of cinema,
theater and radio, of schools and even
universities. Little by little it penetrates into
all classes of the people and even reaches the
better-minded groups of the community, with the
result that few are aware of the poison which
increasingly pervades their minds and hearts.
18. A third powerful factor in the diffusion of
Communism is the conspiracy of silence on the
part of a large section of the non-Catholic press
of the world. We say conspiracy, because it is
impossible otherwise to explain how a press
usually so eager to exploit even the little daily
incidents of life has been able to remain silent
for so long about the horrors perpetrated in
Russia, in Mexico and even in a great part of
Spain; and that it should have relatively so
little to say concerning a world organization as
vast as Russian Communism. This silence is due in
part to shortsighted political policy, and is
favored by various occult forces which for a long
time have been working for the overthrow of the
Christian Social Order.
19. Meanwhile the sorry effects of this
propaganda are before our eyes. Where Communism
has been able to assert its power -- and here We
are thinking with special affection of the people
of Russia and Mexico -- it has striven by every
possible means, as its champions openly boast, to
destroy Christian civilization and the Christian
religion by banishing every remembrance of them
from the hearts of men, especially of the young.
Bishops and priests were exiled, condemned to
forced labor, shot and done to death in inhuman
fashion; laymen suspected of defending their
religion were vexed, persecuted, dragged off to
trial and thrown into prison.
20. Even where the scourge of Communism has not
yet had time enough to exercise to the full its
logical effects, as witness Our beloved Spain, it
has, alas, found compensation in the fiercer
violence of its attack. Not only this or that
church or isolated monastery was sacked, but as
far as possible every church and every monastery
was destroyed. Every vestige of the Christian
religion was eradicated, even though intimately
linked with the rarest monuments of art and
science. The fury of Communism has not confined
itself to the indiscriminate slaughter of
Bishops, of thousands of priests and religious of
both sexes; it searches out above all those who
have been devoting their lives to the welfare of
the working classes and the poor. But the
majority of its victims have been laymen of all
conditions and classes. Even up to the present
moment, masses of them are slain almost daily for
no other offense than the fact that they are good
Christians or at least opposed to atheistic
Communism. And this fearful destruction has been
carried out with a hatred and a savage barbarity
one would not have believed possible in our age.
No man of good sense, nor any statesman conscious
of his responsibility can fail to shudder at the
thought that what is happening today in Spain may
perhaps be repeated tomorrow in other civilized
countries.
21. Nor can it be said that these atrocities are
a transitory phenomenon, the usual accompaniment
of all great revolutions, the isolated excesses
common to every war. No, they are the natural
fruit of a system which lacks all inner
restraint. Some restraint is necessary for man
considered either as an individual or in society.
Even the barbaric peoples had this inner check in
the natural law written by God in the heart of
every man. And where this natural law was held in
higher esteem, ancient nations rose to a grandeur
that still fascinates -- more than it should --
certain superficial students of human history.
But tear the very idea of God from the hearts of
men, and they are necessarily urged by their
passions to the most atrocious barbarity.
22. This, unfortunately, is what we now behold.
For the first time in history we are witnessing a
struggle, cold-blooded in purpose and mapped out
to the least detail, between man and "all that is
called God."[9] Communism is by its nature
anti-religious. It considers religion as "the
opiate of the people" because the principles of
religion which speak of a life beyond the grave
dissuade the proletariat from the dream of a
Soviet paradise which is of this world.
23. But the law of nature and its Author cannot
be flouted with impunity. Communism has not been
able, and will not be able, to achieve its
objectives even in the merely economic sphere. It
is true that in Russia it has been a contributing
factor in rousing men and materials from the
inertia of centuries, and in obtaining by all
manner of means, often without scruple, some
measure of material success. Nevertheless We know
from reliable and even very recent testimony that
not even there, in spite of slavery imposed on
millions of men, has Communism reached its
promised goal. After all, even the sphere of
economics needs some morality, some moral sense
of responsibility, which can find no place in a
system so thoroughly materialistic as Communism.
Terrorism is the only possible substitute, and it
is terrorism that reigns today in Russia, where
former comrades in revolution are exterminating
each other. Terrorism, having failed despite all
to stem the tide of moral corruption, cannot even
prevent the dissolution of society itself.
24. In making these observations it is no part of
Our intention to condemn en masse the peoples of
the Soviet Union. For them We cherish the warmest
paternal affection. We are well aware that not a
few of them groan beneath the yoke imposed on
them by men who in very large part are strangers
to the real interests of the country. We
recognize that many others were deceived by
fallacious hopes. We blame only the system, with
its authors and abettors who considered Russia
the best-prepared field for experimenting with a
plan elaborated decades ago, and who from there
continue to spread it from one end of the world
to the other.
25. We have exposed the errors and the violent,
deceptive tactics of bolshevistic and atheistic
Communism. It is now time, Venerable Brethren, to
contrast with it the true notion, already
familiar to you, of the civitas humana or human
society, as taught by reason and Revelation
through the mouth of the Church, Magistra
Gentium.
26. Above all other reality there exists one
supreme Being: God, the omnipotent Creator of all
things, the all-wise and just Judge of all men.
This supreme reality, God, is the absolute
condemnation of the impudent falsehoods of
Communism. In truth, it is not because men
believe in God that He exists; rather because He
exists do all men whose eyes are not deliberately
closed to the truth believe in Him and pray to
Him.
27. In the Encyclical on Christian Education[10]
We explained the fundamental doctrine concerning
man as it may be gathered from reason and Faith.
Man has a spiritual and immortal soul. He is a
person, marvelously endowed by his Creator with
gifts of body and mind. He is a true "microcosm,"
as the ancients said, a world in miniature, with
a value far surpassing that of the vast inanimate
cosmos. God alone is his last end, in this life
and the next. By sanctifying grace he is raised
to the dignity of a son of God, and incorporated
into the Kingdom of God in the Mystical Body of
Christ. In consequence he has been endowed by God
with many and varied prerogatives: the right to
life, to bodily integrity, to the necessary means
of existence; the right to tend toward his
ultimate goal in the path marked out for him by
God; the right of association and the right to
possess and use property.
28. Just as matrimony and the right to its
natural use are of divine origin, so likewise are
the constitution and fundamental prerogatives of
the family fixed and determined by the Creator.
In the Encyclical on Christian Marriage[11] and
in Our other Encyclical on Education, cited
above, we have treated these topics at
considerable length.
29. But God has likewise destined man for civil
society according to the dictates of his very
nature. In the plan of the Creator, society is a
natural means which man can and must use to reach
his destined end. Society is for man and not vice
versa. This must not be understood in the sense
of liberalistic individualism, which subordinates
society to the selfish use of the individual; but
only in the sense that by means of an organic
union with society and by mutual collaboration
the attainment of earthly happiness is placed
within the reach of all. In a further sense, it
is society which affords the opportunities for
the development of all the individual and social
gifts bestowed on human nature. These natural
gifts have a value surpassing the immediate
interests of the moment, for in society they
reflect the divine perfection, which would not be
true were man to live alone. But on final
analysis, even in this latter function, society
is made for man, that he may recognize this
reflection of God's perfection, and refer it in
praise and adoration to the Creator. Only man,
the human person, and not society in any form is
endowed with reason and a morally free will.
30. Man cannot be exempted from his
divinely-imposed obligations toward civil
society, and the representatives of authority
have the right to coerce him when he refuses
without reason to do his duty. Society, on the
other hand, cannot defraud man of his God-granted
rights, the most important of which We have
indicated above. Nor can society systematically
void these rights by making their use impossible.
It is therefore according to the dictates of
reason that ultimately all material things should
be ordained to man as a person, that through his
mediation they may find their way to the Creator.
In this wise we can apply to man, the human
person, the words of the Apostle of the Gentiles,
who writes to the Corinthians on the Christian
economy of salvation: "All things are yours, and
you are Christ's, and Christ is God's."[12] While
Communism impoverishes human personality by
inverting the terms of the relation of man to
society, to what lofty heights is man not
elevated by reason and Revelation! 31. The
directive principles concerning the
social-economic order have been expounded in the
social Encyclical of Leo XIII on the question of
labor.[13] Our own Encyclical on the
Reconstruction of the Social Order[14] adapted
these principles to present needs. Then,
insisting anew on the age-old doctrine of the
Church concerning the individual and social
character of private property, We explained
clearly the right and dignity of labor, the
relations of mutual aid and collaboration which
should exist between those who possess capital
and those who work, the salary due in strict
justice to the worker for himself and for his
family.
32. In this same Encyclical of Ours We have shown
that the means of saving the world of today from
the lamentable ruin into which a moral liberalism
has plunged us, are neither the class-struggle
nor terror, nor yet the autocratic abuse of State
power, but rather the infusion of social justice
and the sentiment of Christian love into the
social-economic order. We have indicated how a
sound prosperity is to be restored according to
the true principles of a sane corporative system
which respects the proper hierarchic structure of
society; and how all the occupational groups
should be fused into a harmonious unity inspired
by the principle of the common good. And the
genuine and chief function of public and civil
authority consists precisely in the efficacious
furthering of this harmony and coordination of
all social forces.
33. In view of this organized common effort
towards peaceful living, Catholic doctrine
vindicates to the State the dignity and authority
of a vigilant and provident defender of those
divine and human rights on which the Sacred
Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church insist
so often. It is not true that all have equal
rights in civil society. It is not true that
there exists no lawful social hierarchy. Let it
suffice to refer to the Encyclicals of Leo XIII
already cited, especially to that on State
powers,[15] and to the other on the Christian
Constitution of States.[16] In these documents
the Catholic will find the principles of reason
and the Faith clearly explained, and these
principles will enable him to defend himself
against the errors and perils of a Communistic
conception of the State. The enslavement of man
despoiled of his rights, the denial of the
transcendental origin of the State and its
authority, the horrible abuse of public power in
the service of a collectivistic terrorism, are
the very contrary of all that corresponds with
natural ethics and the will of the Creator. Both
man and civil society derive their origin from
the Creator, Who has mutually ordained them one
to the other. Hence neither can be exempted from
their correlative obligations, nor deny or
diminish each other's rights. The Creator Himself
has regulated this mutual relationship in its
fundamental lines, and it is by an unjust
usurpation that Communism arrogates to itself the
right to enforce, in place of the divine law
based on the immutable principles of truth and
charity, a partisan political program which
derives from the arbitrary human will and is
replete with hate.
34. In teaching this enlightening doctrine the
Church has no other intention than to realize the
glad tidings sung by the Angels above the cave of
Bethlehem at the Redeemer's birth: "Glory to God
. . . and . . . peace to men . . .,"[17] true
peace and true happiness, even here below as far
as is possible, in preparation for the happiness
of heaven -- but to men of good will. This
doctrine is equally removed from all extremes of
error and all exaggerations of parties or systems
which stem from error. It maintains a constant
equilibrium of truth and justice, which it
vindicates in theory and applies and promotes in
practice, bringing into harmony the rights and
duties of all parties. Thus authority is
reconciled with liberty, the dignity of the
individual with that of the State, the human
personality of the subject with the divine
delegation of the superior; and in this way a
balance is struck between the due dependence and
well-ordered love of a man for himself, his
family and country, and his love of other
families and other peoples, founded on the love
of God, the Father of all, their first principle
and last end. The Church does not separate a
proper regard for temporal welfare from
solicitude for the eternal. If she subordinates
the former to the latter according to the words
of her divine Founder, "Seek ye first the Kingdom
of God and His justice, and all these things
shall be added unto you,"[18] she is nevertheless
so far from being unconcerned with human affairs,
so far from hindering civil progress and material
advancement, that she actually fosters and
promotes them in the most sensible and
efficacious manner. Thus even in the sphere of
social-economics, although the Church has never
proposed a definite technical system, since this
is not her field, she has nevertheless clearly
outlined the guiding principles which, while
susceptible of varied concrete applications
according to the diversified conditions of times
and places and peoples, indicate the safe way of
securing the happy progress of society.
35. The wisdom and supreme utility of this
doctrine are admitted by all who really
understand it. With good reason outstanding
statesmen have asserted that, after a study of
various social systems, they have found nothing
sounder than the principles expounded in the
Encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno.
In non-Catholic, even in non-Christian countries,
men recognize the great value to society of the
social doctrine of the Church. Thus, scarcely a
month ago, an eminent political figure of the Far
East, a non-Christian, did not hesitate to affirm
publicly that the Church, with her doctrine of
peace and Christian brotherhood, is rendering a
signal contribution to the difficult task of
establishing and maintaining peace among the
nations. Finally, We know from reliable
information that flows into this Center of
Christendom from all parts of the world, that the
Communists themselves, where they are not utterly
depraved, recognize the superiority of the social
doctrine of the Church, when once explained to
them, over the doctrines of their leaders and
their teachers. Only those blinded by passion and
hatred close their eyes to the light of truth and
obstinately struggle against it.
36. But the enemies of the Church, though forced
to acknowledge the wisdom of her doctrine, accuse
her of having failed to act in conformity with
her principles, and from this conclude to the
necessity of seeking other solutions. The utter
falseness and injustice of this accusation is
shown by the whole history of Christianity. To
refer only to a single typical trait, it was
Christianity that first affirmed the real and
universal brotherhood of all men of whatever race
and condition. This doctrine she proclaimed by a
method, and with an amplitude and conviction,
unknown to preceding centuries; and with it she
potently contributed to the abolition of slavery.
Not bloody revolution, but the inner force of her
teaching made the proud Roman matron see in her
slave a sister in Christ. It is Christianity that
adores the Son of God, made Man for love of man,
and become not only the "Son of a Carpenter" but
Himself a "Carpenter."[19] It was Christianity
that raised manual labor to its true dignity,
whereas it hadhitherto been so despised that even
the moderate Cicero did not hesitate to sum up
the general opinion of his time in words of which
any modern sociologist would be ashamed: "All
artisans are engaged in sordid trades, for there
can be nothing ennobling about a workshop."[20]
37. Faithful to these principles, the Church has
given new life to human society. Under her
influence arose prodigious charitable
organizations, great guilds of artisans and
workingmen of every type. These guilds, ridiculed
as "medieval" by the liberalism of the last
century, are today claiming the admiration of our
contemporaries in many countries who are
endeavoring to revive them in some modern form.
And when other systems hindered her work and
raised obstacles to the salutary influence of the
Church, she was never done warning them of their
error. We need but recall with what constant
firmness and energy Our Predecessor, Leo XIII,
vindicated for the workingman the right to
organize, which the dominant liberalism of the
more powerful States relentlessly denied him.
Even today the authority of this Church doctrine
is greater than it seems; for the influence of
ideas in the realm of facts, though invisible and
not easily measured, is surely of predominant
importance.
38. It may be said in all truth that the Church,
like Christ, goes through the centuries doing
good to all. There would be today neither
Socialism nor Communism if the rulers of the
nations had not scorned the teachings and
maternal warnings of the Church. On the bases of
liberalism and laicism they wished to build other
social edifices which, powerful and imposing as
they seemed at first, all too soon revealed the
weakness of their foundations, and today are
crumbling one after another before our eyes, as
everything must crumble that is not grounded on
the one corner stone which is Christ Jesus.
39. This, Venerable Brethren, is the doctrine of
the Church, which alone in the social as in all
other fields can offer real light and assure
salvation in the face of Communistic ideology.
But this doctrine must be consistently reduced to
practice in every-day life, according to the
admonition of St. .James the Apostle: "Be ye
doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving
your own selves."[21] The most urgent need of the
present day is therefore the energetic and timely
application of remedies which will effectively
ward off the catastrophe that daily grows more
threatening. We cherish the firm hope that the
fanaticism with which the sons of darkness work
day and night at their materialistic and
atheistic propaganda will at least serve the holy
purpose of stimulating the sons of light to a
like and even greater zeal for the honor of the
Divine Majesty.
40. What then must be done, what remedies must be
employed to defend Christ and Christian
civilization from this pernicious enemy? As a
father in the midst of his family, We should like
to speak quite intimately of those duties which
the great struggle of our day imposes on all the
children of the Church; and We would address Our
paternal admonition even to those sons who have
strayed far from her.
41. As in all the stormy periods of the history
of the Church, the fundamental remedy today lies
in a sincere renewal of private and public life
according to the principles of the Gospel by all
those who belong to the Fold of Christ, that they
may be in truth the salt of the earth to preserve
human society from total corruption.
42. With heart deeply grateful to the Father of
Light, from Whom descends "every best gift and
every perfect gift,"[22] We see on all sides
consoling signs of this spiritual renewal. We see
it not only in so many singularly chosen souls
who in these last years have been elevated to the
sublime heights of sanctity, and in so many
others who with generous hearts are making their
way towards the same luminous goal, but also in
the new flowering of a deep and practical piety
in all classes of society even the most cultured,
as We pointed out in Our recent Motu Proprio In
multis solaciis of October 28 last, on the
occasion of the reorganization of the Pontifical
Academy of Sciences.[23]
43. Nevertheless We cannot deny that there is
still much to be done in the way of spiritual
renovation. Even in Catholic countries there are
still too many who are Catholics hardly more than
in name. There are too many who fulfill more or
less faithfully the more essential obligations of
the religion they boast of professing, but have
no desire of knowing it better, of deepening
their inward conviction, and still less of
bringing into conformity with the external gloss
the inner splendor of a right and unsullied
conscience, that recognizes and performs all its
duties under the eye of God. We know how much Our
Divine Savior detested this empty pharisaic show,
He Who wished that all should adore the Father
"in spirit and in truth."[24] The Catholic who
does not live really and sincerely according to
the Faith he professes will not long be master of
himself in these days when the winds of strife
and persecution blow so fiercely, but will be
swept away defenseless in this new deluge which
threatens the world.And thus, while he is
preparing his own ruin, he is exposing to
ridicule the very name of Christian.
44. And here We wish, Venerable Brethren, to
insist more particularly on two teachings of Our
Lord which have a special bearing on the present
condition of the human race: detachment from
earthly goods and the precept of charity.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit" were the first
words that fell from the lips of the Divine
Master in His sermon on the mount.[25] This
lesson is more than ever necessary in these days
of materialism athirst for the goods and
pleasures of this earth. All Christians, rich or
poor, must keep their eye fixed on heaven,
remembering that "we have not here a lasting
city, but we seek one that is to come."[26] The
rich should not place their happiness in things
of earth nor spend their best efforts in the
acquisition of them. Rather, considering
themselves only as stewards of their earthly
goods, let them be mindful of the account they
must render of them to their Lord and Master, and
value them as precious means that God has put
into their hands for doing good; let them not
fail, besides, to distribute of their abundance
to the poor, according to the evangelical
precept.[27] Otherwise there shall be verified of
them and their riches the harsh condemnation of
St. James the Apostle: "Go to now, ye rich men;
weep and howl in your miseries which shall come
upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your
garments are moth-eaten; your gold and silver is
cankered; and the rust of them shall be for a
testimony against you and shall eat your flesh
like fire. You have stored up to yourselves wrath
against the last days. . ."[28]
45. But the poor too, in their turn, while
engaged, according to the laws of charity and
justice, in acquiring the necessities of life and
also in bettering their condition, should always
remain "poor in spirit,"[29] and hold spiritual
goods in higher esteem than earthly property and
pleasures. Let them remember that the world will
never be able to rid itself of misery, sorrow and
tribulation, which are the portion even of those
who seem most prosperous. Patience, therefore, is
the need of all, that Christian patience which
comforts the heart with the divine assurance of
eternal happiness. "Be patient, therefore,
brethren," we repeat with St. .lames, "until the
coming of the Lord. Behold the husbandman waiteth
for the precious fruit of the earth, patiently
bearing until he receive the early and the later
rain. Be you therefore also patient and
strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the
Lord is at hand."[30] Only thus will be fulfilled
the consoling promise of the Lord: "Blessed are
the poor!" These words are no vain consolation, a
promise as empty as those of the Communists. They
are the words of life, pregnant with a sovereign
reality. They are fully verified here on earth,
as well as in eternity. Indeed, how many of the
poor, in anticipation of the Kingdom of Heaven
already proclaimed their own: "for yours is the
Kingdom of Heaven,"[31] find in these words a
happiness which so many of the wealthy, uneasy
with their riches and ever thirsting for more,
look for in vain!
46. Still more important as a remedy for the evil
we are considering, or certainly more directly
calculated to cure it, is the precept of charity.
We have in mind that Christian charity, "patient
and kind,"[32] which avoids all semblance of
demeaning paternalism, and all ostentation; that
charity which from the very beginning of
Christianity won to Christ the poorest of the
poor, the slaves. And We are grateful to all
those members of charitable associations, from
the conferences of St. Vincent de Paul to the
recent great relief organizations, which are
perseveringly practicing the spiritual and
corporal works of mercy. The more the working men
and the poor realize what the spirit of love
animated by the virtue of Christ is doing for
them, the more readily will they abandon the
false persuasion that Christianity has lost its
efficacy and that the Church stands on the side
of the exploiters of their labor.
47. But when on the one hand We see thousands of
the needy, victims of real misery for various
reasons beyond their control, and on the other so
many round about them who spend huge sums of
money on useless things and frivolous amusement,
We cannot fail to remark with sorrow not only
that justice is poorly observed, but that the
precept of charity also is not sufficiently
appreciated, is not a vital thing in daily life.
We desire therefore, Venerable Brethren, that
this divine precept, this precious mark of
identification left by Christ to His true
disciples, be ever more fully explained by pen
and word of mouth; this precept which teaches us
to see in those who suffer Christ Himself, and
would have us love our brothers as Our Divine
Savior has loved us, that is, even at the
sacrifice of ourselves, and, if need be, of our
very life. Let all then frequently meditate on
those words of the final sentence, so consoling
yet so terrifying, which the Supreme Judge will
pronounce on the day of the Last Judgment: "Come,
ye blessed of my Father . . . for I was hungry
and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you
gave me to drink . . . Amen, I say to you, as
long as you did it to one of these my least
brethren you did it to me."[33] And the reverse:
"Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting
fire . . . for I was hungry and you gave me not
to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me not to
drink . . . Amen, I say to you, as long as you
did it not to one of these least. neither did you
do it to me."[34]
48. To be sure of eternal life, therefore, and to
be able to help the poor effectively, it is
imperative to return to a more moderate way of
life, to renounce the joys, often sinful, which
the world today holds out in such abundance; to
forget self for love of the neighbor. There is a
divine regenerating force in this "new precept"
(as Christ called it) of Christian charity.[35]
Its faithful observance will pour into the heart
an inner peace which the world knows not, and
will finally cure the ills which oppress
humanity.
49. But charity will never be true charity unless
it takes justice into constant account. The
Apostle teaches that "he that loveth his neighbor
hath fulfilled the law" and he gives the reason:
"For, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt
not kill, Thou shalt not steal . . . and if there
be any other commandment, it is comprised in this
word: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself."[36] According to the Apostle, then, all
the commandments, including those which are of
strict justice, as those which forbid us to kill
or to steal, may be reduced to the single precept
of true charity. From this it follows that a
"charity" which deprives the workingman of the
salary to which he has a strict title in justice,
is not charity at all, but only its empty name
and hollow semblance. The wage-earner is not to
receive as alms what is his due in justice. And
let no one attempt with trifling charitable
donations to exempt himself from the great duties
imposed by justice. Both justice and charity
often dictate obligations touching on the same
subject-matter, but under different aspects; and
the very dignity of the workingman makes him
justly and acutely sensitive to the duties of
others in his regard. 50. Therefore We turn again
in a special way to you, Christian employers and
industrialists, whose problem is often so
difficult for the reason that you are saddled
with the heavy heritage of an unjust economic
regime whose ruinous influence has been felt
through many generations. We bid you be mindful
of your responsibility. It is unfortunately true
that the manner of acting in certain Catholic
circles has done much to shake the faith of the
working-classes in the religion of Jesus Christ.
These groups have refused to understand that
Christian charity demands the recognition of
certain rights due to the workingman, which the
Church has explicitly acknowledged. What is to be
thought of the action of those Catholic employers
who in one place succeeded in preventing the
reading of Our Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno in
their local churches? Or of those Catholic
industrialists who even to this day have shown
themselves hostile to a labor movement that We
Ourselves recommended? Is it not deplorable that
the right of private property defended by the
Church should so often have been used as a weapon
to defraud the workingman of his just salary and
his social rights?
51. In reality, besides commutative justice,
there is also social justice with its own set
obligations, from which neither employers nor
workingmen can escape. Now it is of the very
essence of social justice to demand for each
individual all that is necessary for the common
good. But just as in the living organism it is
impossible to provide for the good of the whole
unless each single part and each individual
member is given what it needs for the exercise of
its proper functions, so it is impossible to care
for the social organism and the good of society
as a unit unless each single part and each
individual member -- that is to say, each
individual man in the dignity of his human
personality -- is supplied with all that is
necessary for the exercise of his social
functions. If social justice be satisfied, the
result will be an intense activity in economic
life as a whole, pursued in tranquillity and
order. This activity will be proof of the health
of the social body, just as the health of the
human body is recognized in the undisturbed
regularity and perfect efficiency of the whole
organism.
52. But social justice cannot be said to have
been satisfied as long as workingmen are denied a
salary that will enable them to secure proper
sustenance for themselves and for their families;
as long as they are denied the opportunity of
acquiring a modest fortune and forestalling the
plague of universal pauperism; as long as they
cannot make suitable provision through public or
private insurance for old age, for periods of
illness and unemployment. In a word, to repeat
what has been said in Our Encyclical Quadragesimo
Anno: "Then only will the economic and social
order be soundly established and attain its ends,
when it offers, to all and to each, all those
goods which the wealth and resources of nature,
technical science and the corporate organization
of social affairs can give. These goods should be
sufficient to supply all necessities and
reasonable comforts, and to uplift men to that
higher standard of life which, provided it be
used with prudence, is not only not a hindrance
but is of singular help to virtue."[37]
53. It happens all too frequently, however, under
the salary system, that individual employers are
helpless to ensure justice unless, with a view to
its practice, they organize institutions the
object of which is to prevent competition
incompatible with fair treatment for the workers.
Where this is true, it is the duty of contractors
and employers to support and promote such
necessary organizations as normal instruments
enabling them to fulfill their obligations of
justice. But the laborers too must be mindful of
their duty to love and deal fairly with their
employers, and persuade themselves that there is
no better means of safeguarding their own
interests.
54. If, therefore, We consider the whole
structure of economic life, as We have already
pointed out in Our Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno,
the reign of mutual collaboration between justice
and charity in social-economic relations can only
be achieved by a body of professional and inter
professional organizations, built on solidly
Christian foundations, working together to
effect, under forms adapted to different places
and circumstances, what has been called the
Corporation .
55. To give to this social activity a greater
efficacy, it is necessary to promote a wider
study of social problems in the light of the
doctrine of the Church and under the aegis of her
constituted authority. If the manner of acting of
some Catholics in the social-economic field has
left much to be desired, this has often come
about because they have not known and pondered
sufficiently the teachings of the Sovereign
Pontiffs on these questions. Therefore, it is of
the utmost importance to foster in all classes of
society an intensive program of social education
adapted to the varying degrees of intellectual
culture. It is necessary with all care and
diligence to procure the widest possible
diffusion of the teachings of the Church, even
among the working-classes. The minds of men must
be illuminated with the sure light of Catholic
teaching, and their wills must be drawn to follow
and apply it as the norm of right living in the
conscientious fulfillment of their manifold
social duties. Thus they will opposethat
incoherence and discontinuity in Christian life
which We have many times lamented. For there are
some who, while exteriorly faithful to the
practice of their religion, yet in the field of
labor and industry, in the professions, trade and
business, permit a deplorable cleavage in their
conscience, and live a life too little in
conformity with the clear principles of justice
and Christian charity. Such lives are a scandal
to the weak, and to the malicious a pretext to
discredit the Church.
56. In this renewal the Catholic Press can play a
prominent part. Its foremost duty is to foster in
various attractive ways an ever better
understanding of social doctrine. It should, too,
supply accurate and complete information on the
activity of the enemy and the means of resistance
which have been found most effective in various
quarters. It should offer useful suggestions and
warn against the insidious deceits with which
Communists endeavor, all too successfully, to
attract even men of good faith.
57. On this point We have already insisted in Our
Allocution of May 12th of last year, but We
believe it to be a duty of special urgency,
Venerable Brethren, to call your attention to it
once again. In the beginning Communism showed
itself for what it was in all its perversity; but
very soon it realized that it was thus alienating
the people. It has therefore changed its tactics,
and strives to entice the multitudes by trickery
of various forms, hiding its real designs behind
ideas that in themselves are good and attractive.
Thus, aware of the universal desire for peace,
the leaders of Communism pretend to be the most
zealous promoters and propagandists in the
movement for world amity. Yet at the same time
they stir up a class-warfare which causes rivers
of blood to flow, and, realizing that their
system offers no internal guarantee of peace,
they have recourse to unlimited armaments. Under
various names which do not suggest Communism,
they establish organizations and periodicals with
the sole purpose of carrying their ideas into
quarters otherwise inaccessible. They try
perfidiously to worm their way even into
professedly Catholic and religious organizations.
Again, without receding an inch from their
subversive principles, they invite Catholics to
collaborate with them in the realm of so-called
humanitarianism and charity; and at times even
make proposals that are in perfect harmony with
the Christian spirit and the doctrine of the
Church. Elsewhere they carry their hypocrisy so
far as to encourage the belief that Communism, in
countries where faith and culture are more
strongly entrenched, will assume another and much
milder form. It will not interfere with the
practice of religion. It will respect liberty of
conscience. There are some even who refer to
certain changes recently introduced into soviet
legislation as a proof that Communism is about to
abandon its program of war against God.
58. See to it, Venerable Brethren, that the
Faithful do not allow themselves to be deceived!
Communism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who
would save Christian civilization may collaborate
with it in any undertaking whatsoever. Those who
permit themselves to be deceived into lending
their aid towards the triumph of Communism in
their own country, will be the first to fall
victims of their error. And the greater the
antiquity and grandeur of the Christian
civilization in the regions where Communism
successfully penetrates, so much more devastating
will be the hatred displayed by the godless.
59. But "unless the Lord keep the city, he
watcheth in vain that keepeth it."[38] And so, as
a final and most efficacious remedy, We
recommend, Venerable Brethren, that in your
dioceses you use the most practical means to
foster and intensify the spirit of prayer joined
with Christian penance. When the Apostles asked
the Savior why they had been unable to drive the
evil spirit from a demoniac, Our Lord answered:
"This kind is not cast out but by prayer and
fasting."[39] So, too, the evil which today
torments humanity can be conquered only by a
world-wide crusade of prayer and penance. We ask
especially the Contemplative Orders, men and
women, to redouble their prayers and sacrifices
to obtain from heaven efficacious aid for the
Church in the present struggle. Let them implore
also the powerful intercession of the Immaculate
Virgin who, having crushed the head of the
serpent of old, remains the sure protectress and
invincible "Help of Christians."
60. To apply the remedies thus briefly indicated
to the task of saving the world as We have traced
it above, Jesus Christ, our Divine King, has
chosen priests as the first-line ministers and
messengers of His gospel. Theirs is the duty,
assigned to them by a special vocation, under the
direction of their Bishops and in filial
obedience to the Vicar of Christ on earth, of
keeping alight in the world the torch of Faith,
and of filling the hearts of the Faithful with
that supernatural trust which has aided the
Church to fight and win so many other battles in
the name of Christ: "This is the victory which
overcometh the world, our Faith."[40]
61. To priests in a special way We recommend anew
the oft-repeated counsel of Our Predecessor, Leo
XIII, to go to the workingman. We make this
advice Our own, and faithful to the teachings of
Jesus Christ and His Church, We thus complete it:
"Go to the workingman, especially where he is
poor; and in general, go to the poor." The poor
are obviously more exposed than others to the
wiles of agitators who, taking advantage of their
extreme need, kindle their hearts to envy of the
rich and urge them to seize by force what fortune
seems to have denied them unjustly. If the priest
will not go to the workingman and to the poor, to
warn them or to disabuse them of prejudice and
false theory, they will become an easy prey for
the apostles of Communism .
62. Indisputably much has been done in this
direction, especially after the publication of
the Encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo
Anno. We are happy to voice Our paternal approval
of the zealous pastoral activity manifested by so
many Bishops and priests who have with due
prudence and caution been planning and applying
new methods of apostolate more adapted to modern
needs. But for the solution of our present
problem, all this effort is still inadequate.
When our country is in danger, everything not
strictly necessary, everything not bearing
directly on the urgent matter of unified defense,
takes second place. So we must act in today's
crisis. Every other enterprise, however
attractive and helpful, must yield before the
vital need of protecting the very foundation of
the Faith and of Christian civilization. Let our
parish priest, therefore, while providing of
course for the normal needs of the Faithful,
dedicate the better part of their endeavors and
their zeal to winning back the laboring masses to
Christ and to His Church. Let them work to infuse
the Christian spirit into quarters where it is
least at home. The willing response of the
masses, and results far exceeding their
expectations, will not fail to reward them for
their strenuous pioneer labor. This has been and
continues to be our experience in Rome and in
other capitals, where zealous parish communities
are being formed as new churches are built in the
suburban districts, and real miracles are being
worked in the conversion of people whose
hostility to religion has been due solely to the
fact that they did not know it.
63. But the most efficacious means of apostolate
among the poor and lowly is the priest's example,
the practice of all those sacerdotal virtues
which We have described in Our Encyclical Ad
Catholici Sacerdotii.[41] Especially needful,
however, for the present situation is the shining
example of a life which is humble, poor and
disinterested, in imitation of a Divine Master
Who could say to the world with divine
simplicity: "The foxes have holes and the birds
of the air nests, but the Son of Man hath not
where to lay His head."[42] A priest who is
really poor and disinterested in the Gospel sense
may work among his flock marvels recalling a
Saint Vincent de Paul, a Cure of Ars, a
Cottolengo, a Don Bosco and so many others; while
an avaricious and selfish priest, as We have
noted in the above mentioned Encyclical, even
though he should not plunge with Judas to the
abyss of treason, will never be more than empty
"sounding brass" and useless "tinkling
cymbal."[43] Too often, indeed, he will be a
hindrance rather than an instrument of grace in
the midst of his people. Furthermore, where a
secular priest or religious is obliged by his
office to administer temporal property, let him
remember that he is not only to observe
scrupulously all that charity and justice
prescribe, but that he has a special obligation
to conduct himself in very truth as a father of
the poor.
64. After this appeal to the clergy, We extend
Our paternal invitation to Our beloved sons among
the laity who are doing battle in the ranks of
Catholic Action. On another occasion[44] We have
called this movement so dear to Our heart "a
particularly providential assistance" in the work
of the Church during these troublous times.
Catholic Action is in effect a social apostolate
also, inasmuch as its object is to spread the
Kingdom of Jesus Christ not only among
individuals, but also in families and in society.
It must, therefore, make it a chief aim to train
its members with special care and to prepare them
to fight the battles of the Lord. This task of
formation, now more urgent and indispensable than
ever, which must always precede direct action in
the field, will assuredly be served by
study-circles, conferences, lecture-courses and
the various other activities undertaken with a
view to making known the Christian solution of
the social problem.
65. The militant leaders of Catholic Action thus
properly prepared and armed, will be the first
and immediate apostles of their fellow workmen.
They will be an invaluable aid to the priest in
carrying the torch of truth, and in relieving
grave spiritual and material suffering, in many
sectors where inveterate anti-clerical prejudice
or deplorable religious indifference has proved a
constant obstacle to the pastoral activity of
God's ministers. In this way they will
collaborate, under the direction of especially
qualified priests, in that work of spiritual aid
to the laboring classes on which We set so much
store, because it is the means best calculated to
save these, Our beloved children, from the snares
of Communism.
66. In addition to this individual apostolate
which, however useful and efficacious, often goes
unheralded, Catholic Action must organize
propaganda on a large scale to disseminate
knowledge of the fundamental principles on which,
according to the Pontifical documents, a
Christian .Social Order must build.
67. Ranged with Catholic Action are the groups
which We have been happy to call its auxiliary
forces. With paternal affection We exhort these
valuable organizations also tO dedicate
themselves to the great mission of which We have
been treating, a cause which today transcends all
others in vital importance.
68. We are thinking likewise of those
associations of workmen, farmers, technicians,
doctors, employers, students and others of like
character, groups of men and women who live in
the same cultural atmosphere and share the same
way of life. Precisely these groups and
organizations are destined to introduce into
society that order which We have envisaged in Our
Encyclical Ouadragesimo Anno, and thus to spread
in the vast and various fields of culture and
labor the recognition of the Kingdom of Christ.
69. Even where the State, because of changed
social and economic conditions, has felt obliged
to intervene directly in order to aid and
regulate such organizations by special
legislative enactments, supposing always the
necessary respect for liberty and private
initiative, Catholic Action may not urge the
circumstance as an excuse for abandoning the
field. Its members should contribute prudently
and intelligently to the study of the problems of
the hour in the light of Catholic doctrine. They
should loyally and generously participate in the
formation of the new institutions, bringing to
them the Christian spirit which is the basic
principle of order wherever men work together in
fraternal harmony.
70. Here We should like to address a particularly
affectionate word to Our Catholic workingmen,
young and old. They have been given, perhaps as a
reward for their often heroic fidelity in these
trying days, a noble and an arduous mission.
Under the guidance of their Bishops and priests,
they are to bring back to the Church and to God
those immense multitudes of their brother-workmen
who, because they were not understood or treated
with the respect to which they were entitled, in
bitterness have strayed far from God. Let
Catholic workingmen show these their wandering
brethren by word and example that the Church is a
tender Mother to all those who labor and suffer,
and that she has never failed, and never will
fail, in her sacred maternal duty of protecting
her children. If this mission, which must be
fulfilled in mines, in factories, in shops,
wherever they may be laboring, should at times
require great sacrifices, Our workmen will
remember that the Savior of the world has given
them an example not only oftoil but of self
immolation.
71. To all Our children, finally, of every social
rank and every nation, to every religious and lay
organization in the Church, We make another and
more urgent appeal for union. Many times Our
paternal heart has been saddened by the
divergencies -- often idle in their causes,
always tragic in their consequences -- which
array in opposing camps the sons of the same
Mother Church. Thus it is that the radicals, who
are not so very numerous, profiting by this
discord are able to make it more acute, and end
by pitting Catholics one against the other. In
view of the events of the past few months, Our
warning must seem superfluous. We repeat it
nevertheless once more, for those who have not
understood, or perhaps do not desire to
understand. Those who make a practice of
spreading dissension among Catholics assume a
terrible responsibility before God and the
Church.
72. But in this battle joined by the powers of
darkness against the very idea of Divinity, it is
Our fond hope that, besides the host which
glories in the name of Christ, all those -- and
they comprise the overwhelming majority of
mankind -- who still believe in God and pay Him
homage may take a decisive part. We therefore
renew the invitation extended to them five years
ago in Our Encyclical Caritate Christi, invoking
their loyal and hearty collaboration "in order to
ward off from mankind the great danger that
threatens all alike." Since, as We then said,
"belief in God is the unshakable foundation of
all social order and of all responsibility on
earth, it follows that all those who do not want
anarchy and terrorism ought to take energetic
steps to prevent the enemies of religion from
attaining the goal they have so brazenly
proclaimed to the world."[45]
73. Such is the positive task, embracing at once
theory and practice, which the Church undertakes
in virtue of the mission, confided to her by
Christ, of constructing a Christian society, and,
in our own times, of resisting unto victory the
attacks of Communism. It is the duty of the
Christian State to concur actively in this
spiritual enterprise of the Church, aiding her
with the means at its command, which although
they be external devices, have nonetheless for
their prime object the good of souls.
74. This means that all diligence should be
exercised by States to prevent within their
territories the ravages of an anti-God campaign
which shakes society to its very foundations. For
there can be no authority on earth unless the
authority of the Divine Majesty be recognized; no
oath will bind which is not sworn in the Name of
the Living God. We repeat what We have said with
frequent insistence in the past, especially in
Our Encyclical Caritate Christi: "How can any
contract be maintained, and what value can any
treaty have, in which every guarantee of
conscience is lacking? And how can there be talk
of guarantees of conscience when all faith in God
and all fear of God have vanished? Take away this
basis, and with it all moral law falls, and there
is no remedy left to stop the gradual but
inevitable destruction of peoples, families, the
State, civilization itself."[46]
75. It must likewise be the special care of the
State to create those material conditions of life
without which an orderly society cannot exist.
The State must take every measure necessary to
supply employment, particularly for the heads of
families and for the young. To achieve this end
demanded by the pressing needs of the common
welfare, the wealthy classes must be induced to
assume those burdens without which human society
cannot be saved nor they themselves remain
secure. However, measures taken by the State with
this end in view ought to be of such a nature
that they will really affect those who actually
possess more than their share of capital
resources, and who continue to accumulate them to
the grievous detriment of others.
76. The State itself, mindful of its
responsibility before God and society, should be
a model of prudence and sobriety in the
administration of the commonwealth. Today more
than ever the acute world crisis demands that
those who dispose of immense funds, built up on
the sweat and toil of millions, keep constantly
and singly in mind the common good. State
functionaries and all employees are obliged in
conscience to perform their duties faithfully and
unselfishly, imitating the brilliant example of
distinguished men of the past and of our own day,
who with unremitting labor sacrificed their all
for the good of their country. In international
trade-relations let all means be sedulously
employed for the removal of those artificial
barriers to economic life which are the effects
of distrust and hatred. All must remember that
the peoples of the earth form but one family in
God.
77. At the same time the State must allow the
Church full liberty to fulfill her divine and
spiritual mission, and this in itself will be an
effectual contribution to the rescue of nations
from the dread torment of the present hour.
Everywhere today there is an anxious appeal to
moral and spiritual forces; and rightly so, for
the evil we must combat is at its origin
primarily an evil of the spiritual order. From
this polluted source the monstrous emanations of
the communistic system flow with satanic logic.
Now, the Catholic Church is undoubtedly
preeminent among the moral and religious forces
of today. Therefore the very good of humanity
demands that her work be allowed to proceed
unhindered.
78. Those who act otherwise, and at the same time
fondly pretend to attain their objective with
purely political or economic means, are in the
grip of a dangerous error. When religion is
banished from the school, from education and from
public life, when the representatives of
Christianity and its sacred rites are held up to
ridicule, are we not really fostering the
materialism which is the fertile soil of
Communism.? Neither force, however well organized
it be, nor earthly ideals however lofty or noble,
can control a movement whose roots lie in the
excessive esteem for the goods of this world.
79. We trust that those rulers of nations, who
are at all aware of the extreme danger
threatening every people today, may be more and
more convinced of their supreme duty not to
hinder the Church in the fulfillment of her
mission. This is the more imperative since, while
this mission has in view man's happiness in
heaven, it cannot but promote his true felicity
in time.
80. We cannot conclude this Encyclical Letter
without addressing some words to those of Our
children who are more or less tainted with the
Communist plague. We earnestly exhort them to
hear the voice of their loving Father. We pray
the Lord to enlighten them that they may abandon
the slippery path which will precipitate one and
all to ruin and catastrophe, and that they
recognize that Jesus Christ, Our Lord, is their
only Savior: "For there is no other name under
heaven given to man, whereby we must be
saved."[47]
81. To hasten the advent of that "peace of Christ
in the kingdom of Christ"[48] so ardently desired
by all, We place the vast campaign of the Church
against world Communism under the standard of St.
Joseph, her mighty Protector. He belongs to the
working-class, and he bore the burdens of poverty
for himself and the Holy Family, whose tender and
vigilant head he was. To him was entrusted the
Divine Child when Herod loosed his assassins
against Him. In a life of faithful performance of
everyday duties, he left an example for all those
who must gain their bread by the toil of their
hands. He won for himself the title of "The
Just," serving thus as a living model of that
Christian justice which should reign in social
life.
82. With eyes lifted on high, our Faith sees the
new heavens and the new earth described by Our
first Predecessor, St. Peter.[49] While the
promises of the false prophets of this earth melt
away in blood and tears, the great apocalyptic
prophecy of the Redeemer shines forth in heavenly
splendor: "Behold, I make all things new."[50]
Venerable Brethren, nothing remains but to raise
Our paternal hands to call down upon you, upon
your clergy and people, upon the whole Catholic
family, the Apostolic Benediction. Given at Rome,
at St. Peter's, on the feast of St. Joseph,
patron of the universal Church, on the 19th of
March, 1937, the 16th year of our Pontificate.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
REFERENCES:
1. Encycl. Qui Pluribus, Nov. 9, 1864 (Acta Pii
IX, Vol 1, p. 13). Cf. Syllabus, IV, (A.S.S.,
vol. III, p. 170).
2. Encycl. Quod Apostolici Muneris, Dec. 28,
1928 (Acta Leonis XII, Vol. 1, p. 46).
3. Dec. 18, 1924: A.A.S., Vol. XVI (1924), pp.
494-495.
4. May 8, 1928: A.A.S., Vol. XX (1928), pp.
165-178.
5. May 15, 1931: A.A.S., Vol. XXIII (1931), pp.
177-228.
6. May 3, 1932: A.A.S., Vol. XXIV (1932), pp.
177-194.
7. Sept. 29, 1932: A.A.S., Vol. XXIV (1932),
pp. 321-332.
8. June 3, 1933: A.A.S., Vol. XXV (1933), pp.
261-274.
9. Cf. Thessalonians, II, 4.
10. Encycl. Divini Illius Magistri, Dec. 31,
1929 (A.A.S., Vol. XXII, 1930 pp. 47-86).
11. Encycl. Casti Connubii, Dec. 31, 1930
(A.A.S., Vol. XX- II, 1930, pp. 539-592).
12. I Corinthians, III, 23.
13. Encycl. Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891 (Acta
Leonis Xlll Vol. IV, pp. 177-209).
14. Encycl. Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931
(A.A.S., Vol. XXIII, 1931, pp. 177-228).
15. Encycl. Diuturnum Illud, June 20, 1881
(Acta Leonis Xlll, Vol. l, . 210-22).
16. Encycl. Immortale Dei, Nov. 1, 1885 (Acta
Leonis Xlll, Vol. II, pp. 146-168).
17. St. Luke, 11, 14.
18. St. Matthew, Vl, 33.
19. Cf. St. Matthew, Xlll, 55: St. Mark,
Vl, 3.
20. Cicero, De Officiis, Bk. 1, c. 42.
21. St. James, 1, 22.
22. St. James, 1, 17.
23. A.A.S., vol. XXVIII (1936); pp. 421424.
24. St. John, IV, 23.
25. St. Matthew, V, 3.
26. Hebrews, Xlll, 14.
27. St. Luke, Xl, 41.
28. St. James, V, 1-3.
29. St. Matthew, V, 3.
30. St. James, V, 7, 8.
31. St. Luke, Vl, 20.
32. I Corinthians, Xlll, 4.
33. St. Matthew, XXV, 34-40.
34. St. Matthew, XXV, 41-45.
35. St. John, Xlll, 34.
36. Romans, Xlll, 8, 9.
37. Encycl. Quadragesimo Anno, May 15, 1931
(A.A.S., Vol. XXIII, 1931, p. 202).
38. Psalms, CXXVI, 1.
39. St. Matthew, XVII, 20
40. I Epist. St. John, V, 4.
41 Dec. 20, 1935, A.A.S., vol. XXVIII (1936),
pp. 5-53.
42. St. Matthew, Vlll, 20.
43. I Corinthians, Xlll, 1.
44. May 12, 1936.
45. Encycl. Caritate Christi, May 3, 1932
(A.A.S., vol. XXIV, p. 184).
46. Encycl. Caritate Christi, May 3, 1932
(A.A.S., vol. XX-IV, 1932, p. 190).
47. Acts, IV, 12.
48. Encycl. Ubi Arcano, Dec. 23, 1922 (A.A.S.,
Vol. XIV, 1922,p.691).
49. II Epist. St. Peter, III, 13; cf. Isaias,
LXV, 17 and LXVI, 22; Apoc., XXI, 1.
50. Apoc. XXI, 5.
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"Join me in battle, little children,
against the black beast, Masonry..."
Mother Mary [source: Father Gobbi,
Evolution & Freemasonry]
"THEIR GOD IS THE DEVIL.
THEIR LAW IS UNTRUTH.
THEIR CULT IS TURPITUDE."
Pope Pius IX, speaking of
Freemasonry
"Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of
Moloch,
and the star of your god
Remphan,
figures which ye make to worship
them; and I will carry you away
beyond Babylon." Acts 7:43 KJV
Wherefore come out from among
them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not
the unclean thing.." (II
Corinthians 6:18 KJV)
Joan of Arc on
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