The First Encyclical of Pope Pius XI

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 9, 1 March 1923, Page 13

The First Encyclical of Pope Pius XI

A Document of World-Wide Importance The Holy Father has issued an Encyclical "On Seeking the Peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ," dated December 23, of which -the following is a translation: The Pope's Fatherly Desire to Speak. "When by the inscrutable design of God We, who had certainly no merit of Our own to commend Us, were raised to this seat both of truth and' of charity, We intended, Venerable Brethren, at the first opportunity to address you and all our beloved children of whom you have the government and immediate care. The Blessing from St. Peter's Recalled. "This was the desire which inspired the solemn blessing to Rome and the world which, immediately after Our election, We imparted from the Vatican Basilica to an immense multitude of people: a blessing which all of you in every part of the world, uniting yourselves with the Sacred College of Cardinals, received with manifestations of grateful joy; a fact which was for Us, in undertaking the unexpected burden of Our office, the most consoling of comforts.

A Christmas Present.

“Now Our word comes to you as the Day of Our Saviour’s Birth approaches, and at the beginning of the New Year, as a festive gift and augury which the Father sends to all. his children.

Reasons for Delay in the Encyclical. “Manifold reasons prevented Us from earlier satisfying Our desire. There was first the emulation of filial piety in which from all parts the salutations of brethren and children reached Us, welcoming Us and presenting their first devout homage to the new Successor of St. Peter. “There was soon added the first personal experience

of what St. Paul called the ‘ daily burden, the care of the Churches.’ And along with the ordinary, there came extraordinary cares; those of the most weighty affairs, which We found already well advanced, and which We had to continue, regarding the Holy Places and the conditions of Christian communities and of Churches among the most conspicuous in the Catholic world; conventions and negotiations which touched the fate of peoples and nations, where, faithful to the ministry of conciliation and peace confided to Us by God, We sought to make heard the word of charity along with that of justice, and to secure duo consideration for those values and those interests which are not, for being spiritual, less great or less important:in fact, have a greatness and importance above all others: the untold sufferings of distant peoples, cut down by hunger and by every kind of calamity, for whom, while We hasten to send the greatest help possible to Us in Our present straitened condition, We called at the same time for the help of the entire world; and, finally, the competitions and violence which broke out in the breast of the same beloved people from whom We wore born,

and in the midst of whom the hand of God placed the Chair of Peter: competitions of violence which seemed to

imperil the very destinies of the country, and which W© neglected no means to appease.

Consoling Events.

“There were not lacking, however, extraordinary events which brought Us the greatest consolation: the 26th International Eucharistic Congress and the Tercentenary of the Propaganda.” The Holy Father dwells on the consolation he experienced in these solemn events at the commencement of his pontificate, in conversing with the members of the Sacred College and with the hundreds of bishops come from all parts of the world, and in addressing thousands of the Faithful “from every tribe and tongue and people" arid nation.”

He refers to the impressive character of the manifestations during the Eucharistic Congress, when “we saw the Divine Redeemer under the Eucharistic veil take again His place as King of men, cities, and peoples,” and carried' in triumphal procession, amid throngs of worshippers from' every land, along the streets of Rome. ■ He dwells likewise on the solemn celebrations of Pentecost, when the spirit of

prayer and Apostolic zeal was enkindled in the hearts of priests and people.

Mary and Loreto.

The Blessed Virgin, too—who had already smiled on him from the sanctuaries of Czentochowa and Ostrabrama, from the miraculous Grotto of Lourdes, the lofty pinnacle of his own Milan, and the pious sanctuarydesigned to bless the opening year of his pontificate with the acceptance of the new image for Loreto, and with the warm manifestations of devotion which marked its journey from Rome.

The Lack of Real Peace.

In the meantime the thought which claimed his first and most solicitous care was ever becoming clearer in his mind.

Real peace has not yet been reached after the terrible war. “To recognise the reality and the gravity of such an evil and to investigate its causes” is necessary to meet it effectively, and is specially incumbent on him, conscious as he is of the responsibilities of his Apostolic ministry.

Benedict XV.

The same sad conditions still afflict the world as afflicted it during the pontificate of Benedict XV. Pius XI. makes his own the thoughts and intentions of his predecessor, in the hop© that they may become the thoughts and intentions of all.

To our age may be applied the words of the prophets: “We waited for peace and there was no good; the time of healing, and, behold, terror; the time of caring, and, behold, disturbance.” “We have waited for light and, behold, darkness ... We waited for justice, and it is not; salvation, and it has departed away from us,”

However Dissimulated, the Horrors of War Remain. Arms are, indeed, laid aside by the belligerents, but

in the Near East we have “new horrors and new fears of wars,” and in a great part of these regions the agony of famine and all that .follows in its wake. “On the whole theatre, it can be with good reason be said, of the world war the jealousies and struggles continue, even if dissimulated in the manoeuvres of politics and shrounded in the fluctuation of finance, ostentatiously displayed in the press,” and “dissimulated poorly or not at all in the fields, in themselves so naturally serene and peaceful, of studies, science, and art.”

A Cloud of Hatred and Distrust.

Hence the public life of the peoples still involved in a cloud of hatred and distrust. The vanquished suffer most, but the victors do not escape. The smaller complain of being bullied by the greater, the greater of being ambushed by the smaller. Even the neutrals suffer from the effects of the war. The efforts of politicians to remedy matters have done no goodif, indeed, by their very failure they have not done positive harm. “Hence ever more the anguish of the peoples is kept fresh by the threat, ever strong stronger, of new wars, which, alas! cannot but be more awful and desolating than those of the past; hence the living in perpetual anxiety and the continuance in this baneful condition of armed peace, which is almost a footing of war, which bleeds the finances of the peoples, wastes the flower of youth, and poisons and troubles the choicest springs of physical, intellectual, religious, and moral life.”

Social Strife.

Continuing, the Pop© turns to another evil—“the loosening of the social fabric itself, threatened and shaken not ony by the arms of external enemies, but still more from the inside by subversive men and parties.”

In the first place we have class war, “injuring labor, industry, commerce, all the elements of public and private prosperity.” This is aggravated by the greed for and selfish, tenacity of worldly goods giving rise to voluntary or involuntary stoppage of work, revolution, and reaction, universal discontent and loss.

The Strife of Parties.

“To this are added party quarrels, not generally caused by a sincere difference of opinion with regard to the common good, but serving particular interests to the detriment of others. Hence we see the increase of conspiracies, of insidious attacks and robberies' committed against citizens and even public officials, threats, of violence, and even open seditions, and other - eventsl of the ’kind. These things, too, are all the more serious the more the people, as in modern -• representative government, participates - in the

ruling of the State. This order of things, thoughlike other just and reasonable forms of governmentnot essentially contrary to the doctrine of the Church, may, as is clear, easily lie open to the subversive action of factions.

The Family.

“And it is greatly to be deplored that this plague has penetrated deep down to the very roots of human society, to the domestic circle, the ruin of which, already begun, was greatly increased by the calamity of the Great War, scattering afar fathers and sons, and increasing in manifold ways the corruption of morals. Thus neither the father’s power is honored nor the ties of blood esteemed, master and men are enemies one to another, conjugal faith itself is but too frequently neglected, and the sacred duties of husband and wife towards God and civil society are neglected.”

The Effects of the General Evils.

The evils of society are felt likewise in their effect on the individual we sec, for instance, in the increasing immodesty of dress, conversation, and dances, and in the open mocking at the misery of others, especially noticeable in those whom “sudden gains have made richer but not better” —a practice which provokes the victims to swell the ranks of the subverters of public and private order.

Everywhere we find unrest, uncertainty, lack of employment and idleness, impeding commercial, scientific, and artistic progress, and marking a mournful decadence for Christian civilisation and for the human race.

Spiritual Loss.

The Encyclical goes on, finally, to refer to the loss caused in the supernatural sphere, loss generally apparent than the foregoing, but infinitely more terrible, and even more difficult to repair. His Holiness refers especially to the loss to the Missions. The loss was indeed partly compensated by the demonstration given during recent years of “how high and pure and generous burned the flame of charity towards Fatherland in the hearts consecrated to God,” and by the good done to souls upon the fields of battle, but for this wo are indebted solely to “the goodness and wisdom of God, Mho even from evil can draw good.”

The Causes.

“All these evils,” in the words of the Gospel, “come from the interior.”

The Brutal Prevalence of Force and Number.

The “fictitious peace, placed on paper,” has brought no peace in men’s heartsin fact, “has made harsher, and almost made legitimate, the contrary spirit of rancor and revenge.” Hence “the sense of personal dignity and the value of the human person itself has been lost sight of in the brutal prevalence of force and number” intended “to exploit others for the sole end of the better and in the greater measure enjoying the goods of this life.” The great evil lies in the inordinate pursuit of material goods, to the neglect of those which are spiritual and eternal, in the “concupiscence of the flesh,” the “concupiscence of the eyes” and the “pride of life.” Herein lies the fount of social and international injustice, presented though it be in the guise of “superior State considerations or regard for the public good.”

Christian patriotism is an incentive to many, and indeed heroic, acts of virtue, but immoderate nationalism may lead peoples to forget the brotherhood of the great human family, and its apparent victories are but fragile triumphs, the sources of continual unrest and fear.

A Deeper-Cause.

There is a deeper cause, the working of which was to be seen even before the Great War. “Those who forsook the Lord will be consumed” ; “without Me you can do nothing”; and, again: “He that gatbereth not with Ale scattereth”hence the evils, and hence the sterility of the efforts to remedy them. When God is set aside the basis of all Authority is gone.

In regard to the family, we see matrimony, raised by Christ to be a “great Sacrament,” looked on as a mere civil contract. From the school likewise Jesus Christ and His doctrine are banished. With the banishment of God from the law. from the family,’and from the school, materialism could not but enter, to poison international, social, domestic, and individual life.

The Remedies.

The gravity and extent of the evils must not make us

despair of finding remedies—remedies already suggested by a consideration of the ills themselves.

The Peace of Christ.

We must find a peace which is not a more, form, and this is to be found only in the peace of Christ, “and the peace of Christ will exult in your hearts,” the peace given by Him Who sees the heart and therein has His kingdom, Whose special precept is that of love, one for another.

The peace of Christ must be a just peace —“peace is the work of justice”—for He is the God Who judges justice itself; but it cannot consist in hard and inflexible justice alone. It must have in it at least an equal share of charity leading to sincere reconciliation. Thus it is that the redeeming work of Christ, which none the less is a work of Divine justice, is seen by the Apostle as a work of reconciliation and charity. The Angel of the Schools has taught that peace, true peace, is a thing of charity more than justice. Justice comes but to remove the impediments to peace. Peace itself is a proper and specific act of charity.

The peace of Christ is nourished, not by material goods, but by those which are spiritual and celestial. “Fear nob those,” Ho said, “who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him Who can cast both body and soul into hell.” Not that the peace of Christ must necessarily give up earthly goods, but that blind cupidity must be dominated by the peace of God: “Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you.”

The Human Person.

Things being thus set in their proper place, on the peace of Christ follows the elevation of the human person, ennobled by the brotherhood of the Saviour, and all the glorious prerogatives following therefrom.

The Reign of Order.

The peace of Christ is the peace of God, which is the reign of order. “There is much peace to those who love Thy law.” “And Jesus Himself more expressly teaches:

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and even in Pilate recognises the social authority which comes from on high,” recognises even the authority of the degenerate' successors of Moses, subjects Himself to the domestic authority of Mary and Joseph, and entrusts the same principles to the preaching of the Apostles.

The Part of the Catholic Church.

All this wealth of sacred teaching was confided by Christ to the care of the Church alone. Hence the part of the Catholic Church in bringing a remedy to the evils which afflict the world. This, indeed, she alone can do to the full, penetrating to the consciences of both citizens and rulers. She can thus not only bring about peace in the present, but secure it likewise for the future.

When Governments and peoples follow in their collective acts the dictates of conscience, guided by the teaching of Christ, only then can they trust one another and have faith in the peaceful solution of their difficulties.

Some effort has been made in this direction, but with little result —especially as regards the questions which most divide the peoples. “There is no human institution which can provide for the nations an international code, answering modern conditions, such as belonged in the Middle Ages to that real society of nations, Christendom”a code, indeed, only too often violated in practice, but which always stood there, a norm by which actions might be judged.

But there is an institution which can guard the sanctity of the “./us 'jentivm'’ —an institution belonging to all nations, yet exalted above them—the universal Church of Christ. For true peace, therefore, the Church must enjoy the free exercise of her ministry.

The Reign of Christ.

Christ- must reign in the individual life— the mind by His doctrine, in the heart by His charity, in the outward life by the observance of His law and the following of His example. He must reign in the family by respect for the sanctity of matrimony and for parental authority, and in society by the recognition of the supreme authority of God, and of the juridical position of the Church. The true peace of Christ can be bad only in the reign of Christ— “Pax Christ}. in Pry no Christ}.”

Bins X. and Benedict XV.

Pius X., by resolving “to restore all things in Christ,” laid, therefore, the foundations of the work of peacemaking,

which was to be the occupation of Benedict XV. The work of both, by a natural development, is blended into one for his present Holiness, responsible as he is for the flock confided to him through Peter.

The Part of the Bishops.

The bishops are the magnates, the masters, and the fathers, in all lands the true salt of the earth, living in immediate and continual contact with their people, the light of the world lit in every region, the dispensers of the word of reconciliation, the ministers of peace. The work of restoration and peace making must, therefore, depend in great part on them, working assiduously in the charity of God and'of souls and in fraternal union with the Apostolic See.

Of all this his Holiness had personal experience in the Eucharistic Congress and the Propaganda celebrations. And now with the drawing near of the Holy Year he is looking forward to equal help and consolation from another similar gathering of the episcopate.

The Question of Continuing the Vatican Council.

He does not venture to include expressly in his programme the continuance of the General Council of Pius IX. the Pontiff of his youth, but he waits in prayer for a clearer sign of the Divine Will.

Though knowing that the bishops’ zeal calls for praise rather than fresh exhortation, in the consciousness of his Apostolic office he recommends to their special care the priesthood and the Catholic laity.

He praises the various initiatives for extending a more accurate knowledge of religion, and for the sanctification of souls, the works for the benefit of youth, and the solemn Eucharistic celebrations; the spread of the Apostolic spirit in regard to prayer, good literature, good example, and manifold charity, and the sacred battles fought for the family and the school by organised Catholic action.

All these things require new efforts of self-denial, and these efforts will bear fruit for the restoration of the Kingdom of Christ.

There is no need, he says, to say how much he counts for the success of this work on the regular clergy. Their life of sacrifice is praised in all its manifestations, from the quiet of the cloister to the battlefields of the missions.

Lay Co-operation.

He praises likewise the co-operation of the laity with the priesthood, and wishes the bishops to tell their flocks of his feelings in this regard. Catholic Doctrine. However, the social conditions which increased the necessity of lay co-operation placed at the same time new difficulties in the way of its success. Many are those who profess to hold the Catholic doctrine on social authority, capital and labor, the rights of property, the rights of laborers on the land and in factories, Church and State, religion and fatherland, class relations, international relations, the rights of the Holy See and the episcopate, and even the rights in society of Christ Himself, and yet speak and, what is more, act in Mays not reconcilable with that doctrine as expressed especially by Leo XIII., Pius X., and Benedict XV. The doctrines must be recalled, to reawaken in all the spirit of faith and charity. Non-Catholics. Then the masses —numerous, alas!—who know not the Church, must be sought for with loving care, that there may be one fold and one pastor. The Church and Worldly Affairs. He notes as a consoling sign the increased desire of States to have diplomatic relations with the Holy See. "The Church does not wish, and ought not, without just cause, to interfere in the direction of purely human things," but must not, on the other hand, allow the political power to injure with impunity her spiritual rights. In this he adopts the position of Benedict XV. in the Consistory of November 21 of the past year. Italy. "It is hardly necessary to say with what grief and with what special sorrow We see Italy, our own fatherland, absent from the friendly gatherings of so many States—that land where the hand of God, which rules the course of history, placed and fixed the See of His Vicar on earth, in this city of Rome, from the capital of the marvellous, yet

restricted, Roman Empire, made by Him capital of the entire world, because the seat of a sovereignty which, exceeding all bounds of nationalities and of States, takes in all peoples, like the sovereignty of Christ, which it represents and the place of which it takes.”

Such a sovereignty must be independent of all human law and authority, even of a law announcing guarantees. The guarantees provided by God —to the great benefit of Italy herselfare at present violated —a condition of things which is a permanent source of sorrow and trouble to theCatholics of Italy and of the entire world. Pius XI. protests, like his predecessors, against such a condition of things, mindful of his duty, and not for vain and worldly ambition. Italy has nothing to fear from the Holy Sec, whose thoughts are those of peace, of true peace, not separated from justice. Praying fervently for this peace, the Pope invokes the Apostolic Blessing on the bishops and their flocks. Presentation to Mr. and Mrs W. o'Boyle, Doyleston Our good deeds often live after us, but in the majority of cases full recognition of public service and generous giving is not forthcoming until the Reaper has passed, and we go beyond the vale (says the Ellesmere Guardian). Happily, however, in some instances, favorable opportunities are taken of showing in some practical way that unselfishness, devotion to duty and well-cloaked generosity do not always escape, notice, even in this frantic moneygrabbing and pleasure-seeking era. At any rate, so thought the parishioners of Leeston Catholic Church when they arranged a social function in honor of Mr. and Mrs. W. o'Boyle (Doyleston), who have but lately entered into the bonds of matrimony. The social was held in the Parish Hall, and despite the fact that harvesting operations are keeping farmers and others busy for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four, a very good assemblage, there was, and a most enjoyable time was spent. Songs which Mere greatly appreciated were sung by Miss Kilbride, Messrs Eccleton and H. D. Jones; and a duet by Messrs. Mercer and Tones. The accompaniments were played by Mrs. R. Marshall, Miss Kilbride and Mrs. Winter. Mr. C. Mercer and Mrs. Marshall supplied the music for the social. Mr. P. J. Eccleton, in a happy speech, referred to the good qualities of Mr. Boyle. Probably there Mas not a more popular young man in the Leeston parish. They knew of very many instances M-here the sterling qualities of their guest were apparent, but there were also many acts of kindness which were performed surreptitiously—kindnesses which conferred lasting benefits upon those concerned. In wishing Mr. and Mrs. O'Boyle long life, wealth and prosperity, he was surely voicing the sentiments not only of the Catholic congregation, but of the residents of the whole county. The wish of the people was that they would have their guests of that evening with them for many years to come, and he Mas certain they M-ould always be a credit and asset to the parish and district. Rev. Father Finnerty, who presided over the function, heartily endorsed the good opinions already expressed, and in wishing the guests every happiness, presented Mrs. O'Boyle with a beautiful silver sake stand, and Mr. O'Boyle with a handsome eight-day clock. Mr. O'Boyle suitably replied on behalf of his wife and himself. A dainty supper was provided by the ladies, and the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" brought to a close one of the most enjovable socials held in the Parish Hall.

Levin # An esteemed correspondent writes under date February 19: —The Sacrament of Confirmation was administered by his Grace Archbishop O'Shea on Sunday, the 11th hist.*, after the 10.30 Mass at St. Andrew's Church; 45 candidates being confirmed, including adults and children. At the evening devotions his Grace delivered a most interesting discourse on the Eucharistic Congress, at which he had the privilege of being present, also his visit to Lourdes.

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