A Light in the Heavens

Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 1995
• ISBN:
  9781505107005
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Denominaciones cristianas

Prophesied as "A light in the heavens." 30 of his greatest encyclicals: Freemasonry, Christian Marriage, etc. Reads like chapters of one mighty book! Sheds the light of Faith on virtually all major problems we face today. Belongs in every Catholic home. Impr. 580 pgs,

REVIEW OF HIS PONTIFICATE.

Apostolical Letter, March 19, 1902.

HAVING come to the twenty-fifth year of Our Apostolic Ministry, and being astonished Ourselves at the length of the way which We have travelled amidst painful and continual cares, We are naturally inspired to lift Our thoughts to the ever-blessed God, who, with so many other favors, has deigned to accord Us a Pontificate the length of which has scarcely been surpassed in history. To the Father of all mankind, therefore; to Him who holds in His hands the mysterious secret of life, ascends, as an imperious need of the heart, the canticle of Our thanksgiving. Assuredly the eye of man cannot pierce all the depths of the designs of God in thus prolonging Our old age beyond the limits of hope: here We can only be silent and adore. But there is one thing which We do well understand; namely, that as it has pleased Him, and still pleases Him, to preserve Our existence, a great duty is incumbent on Us—to live for the good and the development of His immaculate spouse, the holy Church; and far from losing courage in the midst of cares and pains, to consecrate to Him the remainder of Our strength unto Our last sigh.

After paying a just tribute of gratitude to Our heavenly Father, to whom be honor and glory for all eternity, it is most agreeable to Us to turn Our thoughts and address Our words to you, Venerable Brothers, who, called by the Holy Ghost to govern the appointed portions of the flock of Jesus Christ, share thereby with Us in the struggle and triumph, the sorrows and joys, of the ministry of pastors. No, they shall never fade from Our memory, those frequent and striking testimonials of religious veneration which you have lavished upon Us during the course of Our Pontificate, and which you still multiply with emulation full of tenderness in the present circumstances. Intimately united with you already by Our duty and Our paternal love, We are more closely drawn by those proofs of your devotedness, so dear to Our hearts, less for what was personal in them in Our regard than for the inviolable attachment which they denote to this Apostolic See, centre and mainstay of all the Sees of Catholicity. If it has always been necessary that, according to the different grades of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, all the children of the Church should be sedulously united by the bonds of mutual charity and by the pursuit of the same objects, so as to form but one heart and one soul, this union is become in our day more indispensable than ever. For who can ignore the vast conspiracy of hostile forces which aims to-day at destroying and making disappear the great work of Jesus Christ, by endeavoring, with a fury which knows no limits, to rob man, in the intellectual order, of the treasure of heavenly truths, and, in the social order, to obliterate the most holy, the most salutary Christian institutions. But by all this you yourselves are impressed every day. You who, more than once, have poured out to Us your anxieties and anguish, deploring the multitude of prejudices, the false systems and errors which are disseminated with impunity amongst the masses of the people. What snares are set on every side for the souls of those who believe! What obstacles are multiplied to weaken, and if possible to destroy the beneficent action of the Church! And, meanwhile, as if to add derision to injustice, the Church herself is charged with having lost her pristine vigor, and with being powerless to stem the tide of overflowing passions which threaten to carry everything away.

We would wish, Venerable Brothers, to entertain you with subjects less sad and more in harmony with the great and auspicious occasion which induces Us to address you. But nothing suggests such tenor of discourse— neither the grievous trials of the Church which call with instance for prompt remedies; nor the conditions of contemporary society which, already undermined from a moral and material point of view, tend toward a yet more gloomy future by the abandonment of the great Christian traditions; a law of Providence, confirmed by history, proving that the great religious principles cannot be renounced without shaking at the same time the foundations of order and social prosperity. In those circumstances, in order to allow souls to recover, to furnish them with a new provision of faith and courage, it appears to Us opportune and useful to weigh attentively, in its origin, causes, and various forms, the implacable war that is waged against the Church; and in denouncing its pernicious cons...