The Popes Against Modern Errors

16 Papal Documents: Hard-Hitting Condemnations of Many of Today's Most Notorious Errors

Anthony J. Mioni

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 1999
• Print ISBN: 9780895556431
• eBook ISBN: 9781505107449
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

In 1789, the French Revolution took place and launched a host of religious, political and social errors which the Popes for over 160 years wrote and legislated against. Yet most of these errors have today filtered down to the common man… with the result that most people now take for granted many fundamental assumptions that are positively false! But almost from the beginning of these errors, the Popes spoke out as with one voice, inveighing against them.

Encyclical Letter of Pope Gregory XVI

ON LIBERALISM

(Mirari Vos)

August 15, 1832

To All Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of the Catholic World

Venerable Brethren,
Greetings and Apostolic Benediction

1. We think that you wonder why, from the time of Our assuming the pontificate, We have not yet sent a letter to you as is customary and as Our benevolence for you demanded. We wanted very much to address you by that voice by which We have been commanded, in the person of blessed Peter, to strengthen the brethren. (Luke 22:32). You know what storms of evil and toil, at the beginning of Our pontificate, drove Us suddenly into the depths of the sea. If the right hand of God had not given Us strength, We would have drowned as the result of the terrible conspiracy of impious men. The mind recoils from renewing this grief by enumerating so many dangers; instead We bless the Father of consolation who, having overthrown all enemies, snatched Us from the present danger. When He had calmed this violent storm, He gave Us relief from fear. At once We decided to advise you on healing the wounds of Israel; but the mountain of concerns We needed to address in order to restore public order delayed Us.

Our Duties Are Heavy

2. In the meantime We were again delayed because of the insolent and factious men who endeavored to raise the standard of treason. Eventually, We had to use Our God-given authority to restrain the great obstinacy of these men with the rod. (1 Cor. 4:21). Before We did, their unbridled rage seemed to grow from continued impunity and Our considerable indulgence. For these reasons Our duties have been heavy.

We Hasten to Help

3. But when We had assumed Our pontificate according to the custom and institution of Our Predecessors and when all delays had been laid aside, We hastened to you. So We now present the letter and testimony of Our good will toward you on this happy day, the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin. Since she has been Our patron and saviour amid so many great calamities, We ask her assistance in writing to you and her counsels for the flock of Christ.

Powers of Darkness Dominate

4. We come to you grieving and sorrowful because We know that you are concerned for the Faith in these difficult times. Now is truly the time in which the powers of darkness winnow the elect like wheat. (Luke 22:53). “The earth mourned and faded away . . . And the earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant.” (Is. 24:4-5).

The Sacred Is Despised

5. We speak of the things which you see with your own eyes, which We both bemoan. Depravity exults; science is impudent; liberty, dissolute. The holiness of the sacred is despised; the majesty of divine worship is not only disapproved by evil men, but defiled and held up to ridicule. Hence sound doctrine is perverted and errors of all kinds spread boldly. The laws of the sacred, the rights, institutions and discipline—none are safe from the audacity of those speaking evil. Our Roman See is harassed violently and the bonds of unity are daily loosened and severed. The divine authority of the Church is opposed and her rights shorn off. She is subjected to human reason and with the greatest injustice exposed to the hatred of the people and reduced to vile servitude. The obedience due bishops is denied and their rights are trampled underfoot. Furthermore, academies and schools resound with new, monstrous opinions, which openly attack the Catholic Faith; this horrible and nefarious war is openly and even publicly waged. Thus, by institutions and by the example of teachers, the minds of the youth are corrupted and a tremendous blow is dealt to religion and the perversion of morals is spread. So the restraints of religion are thrown off, by which alone kingdoms stand. We see the destruction of public order, the fall of principalities and the overturning of all legitimate power approaching. Indeed this great mass of calamities had its inception in the heretical societies and sects in which all that is sacrilegious, infamous and blasphemous has gathered as bilge water in a ship’s hold, a congealed mass of all filth.

Shepherds Must Be Watchful

6. These and many other serious things, which at present would take too long to list, but which you know well, cause Our intense grief. It is not enough for Us to deplore these innumerable evils unless We strive to uproot them. We take refuge in your faith and call upon your concern for the salvation of the Catholic flock. Your singular prudence and diligent spirit give Us courage and console Us, afflicted as We are with so many trials. We must raise Our voice and attempt all things lest a wild boar from the woods should destroy the vineyard or wolves kill the flock. It is Our duty to lead the flock only to the food which is healthful. In these evil and dangerous times, the shepherds must never neglect their duty; they must never be so overcome by fear that they abandon the sheep. Let them never neglect the flock and become sluggish from idleness and apathy. Therefore, united in spirit, let us promote our common cause, or more truly the cause of God; let our vigilance be one and our effort united against the common enemies.

Preserve Unity with the Holy See

7. Indeed you will accomplish this perfectly if, as the duty of your office demands, you attend to yourselves and to doctrine and meditate on these words: “the universal Church is affected by any and every novelty”¹ and the admonition of Pope Agatho: “Nothing of the things appointed ought to be diminished; nothing changed; nothing added; but they must be preserved both as regards expression and meaning.”² Therefore may the unity which is built upon the See of Peter as on a sure foundation stand firm. May it be for all a wall and a security, a safe port and a treasury of countless blessings.³ To check the audacity of those who attempt to infringe upon the rights of this Holy See or to sever the union of the churches with the See of Peter, instill in your people a zealous confidence in the papacy and sincere veneration for it. As St. Cyprian wrote: “He who abandons the See of Peter on which the Church was founded, falsely believes himself to be a part of the Church.”⁴

Bishops Must Guard the Faith

8. In this you must labor and diligently take care that the Faith may be preserved amidst this great conspiracy of impious men who attempt to tear it down and destroy it. May all remember the judgment concerning sound doctrine with which the people are to be instructed. Remember also that the government and administration of the whole Church rests with the Roman Pontiff to whom, in the words of the Fathers of the Council of Florence, “the full power of nourishing, ruling and governing the universal Church was given by Christ the Lord.”⁵ It is the duty of individual bishops to cling to the See of Peter faithfully, to guard the Faith piously and religiously and to feed their flock. It behooves priests to be subject to the bishops, whom “they are to look upon as the parents of their souls,” as Jerome admonishes.⁶ Nor may the priests ever forget that they are forbidden by ancient canons to undertake ministry and to assume the tasks of teaching and preaching “without the permission of their bishop to whom the people have been entrusted; an accounting for the souls of the people will be demanded from the bishop.”⁷ Finally, let them understand that all those who struggle against this established order disturb the position of the Church.

Discipline of the Church Must Be Respected

9. Furthermore, the discipline sanctioned by the Church must never be rejected or be branded as contrary to certain principles of natural law. It must never be called crippled, or imperfect or subject to civil authority. In this discipline the administration of sacred rites, standards of morality and the reckoning of the rights of the Church and her ministers are embraced.

Papal Authority over Canonical Decrees

10. To use the words of the Fathers of Trent, it is certain that the Church “was instructed by Jesus Christ and His Apostles and that all truth was daily taught it by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”⁸Therefore, it is obviously absurd and injurious to propose a certain “restoration and regeneration” for her as though necessary for her safety and growth, as if she could be considered subject to defect or obscuration or other misfortune. Indeed these authors of novelties consider that a “foundation may be laid of a new human institution,” and what Cyprian detested may come to pass, that what was a divine thing “may become a human church.”⁹ Let those who devise such plans be aware that, according to the testimony of St. Leo, “the right to grant dispensation from the canons is given” only to the Roman Pontiff. He alone, and no private person, can decide anything “about the rules of the Church Fathers.” As St. Gelasius writes: “It is the papal responsibility to keep the canonical decrees in their place and to evaluate the precepts of previous popes so that when the times demand relaxation in order to rejuvenate the churches, they may be adjusted after diligent consideration.”¹⁰

Celibacy Must Be Defended

11. Now, however, We want you to rally to combat the abominable conspiracy against clerical celibacy. This conspiracy spreads daily and is promoted by profligate philosophers, some even from the clerical order. They have forgotten their person and office, and have been carried away by the enticements of pleasure. They have even dared to make repeated public demands to the princes for the abolition of that most holy discipline. But it is disgusting to dwell on these evil attempts at length. Rather, We ask that you strive with all your might to justify and to defend the law of clerical celibacy as prescribed by the sacred canons, against which the arrows of the lascivious are directed from every side.

Marriage Cannot Be Dissolved

12. Now the honorable marriage of Christians, which Paul calls “a great sacrament . . . in Christ and the Church” (Eph. 5:32; cf. Heb. 13:4), demands our shared concern lest anything contrary to its sanctity and indissolubility is proposed. Our Predecessor Pius VIII would recommend to you his own letters on the subject. However, troublesome efforts against this Sacrament still continue to be made. The people therefore must be zealously taught that a marriage rightly entered upon cannot be dissolved; for those joined in Matrimony God has ordained a perpetual companionship for life and a knot of necessity ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• Acknowledgments
• 1. ON LIBERALISM (Mirari Vos, Pope Gregory XVI)
• 2. ON CURRENT ERRORS (Quanta Cura, Pope Pius IX)
• 3. SYLLABUS OF ERRORS (Pope Pius IX)
• 4. ON GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY (Diuturnum Illud, Pope Leo XIII)
• 5. ON FREEMASONRY AND NATURALISM (Humanum Genus, Pope Leo XIII)
• 6. ON THE NATURE OF TRUE LIBERTY (Libertas Praestantissimum, Pope Leo XIII)
• 7. ON THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES (Rerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIII)
• 8. ON CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY (Graves de Communi Re, Pope Leo XIII)
• 9. SYLLABUS CONDEMNING THE ERRORS OF THE MODERNISTS (Lamentabili Sane, Pope St. Pius X)
• 10. ON MODERNISM (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Pope St. Pius X)
• 11. OUR APOSTOLIC MANDATE (On the “Sillon,” Pope St. Pius X)
• 12. THE OATH AGAINST MODERNISM (Pope St. Pius X)
• 13. ON THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING (Quas Primas, Pope Pius XI)
• 14. ON FOSTERING TRUE RELIGIOUS UNITY (Mortalium Animos, Pope Pius XI)
• 15. ON ATHEISTIC COMMUNISM (Divini Redemptoris, Pope Pius XI)
• 16. ON CERTAIN FALSE OPINIONS WHICH THREATEN TO UNDERMINE THE FOUNDATIONS OF CATHOLIC DOCTRINE (Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII)