From the bulletin of September 6, 2020
Now for the documents themselves. We’ll start with some of the documents of Blessed Pope Pius IX. You may remember that he was the Pope who first used his power of teaching ex cathedra to solemnly define the Immaculate Conception of Mary as a dogma. Well, he is also the first pope to really expand the practice of writing encyclicals to the whole Church, ultimately writing 38 of them over the course of his time as Pope.
Pius IX’s primary concern was to teach the truth of the faith. Most of what he wrote and did focused on this goal. His very first Encyclical, written just a few months after he was elected, was called “Qui Pluribus.” The custom is to name a document after the first words (in Latin) in the document itself. Sometimes it is a striking and memorable phrase, but it’s often rather plain. In this case, this phrase is part of what translates to “For many years” and is followed by a brief introduction of Pius IX’s desire to teach Catholics about the faith. For this reason Pius IX addressed this document specifically to bishops to be careful shepherds and teachers. He also includes a clear exhortation for priests to be well-educated and for them to lead lives of holiness and discipline for the good of the people in their care.
Around this time, there were a few different secret societies springing up, a growing interest in communism, and organizations specifically dedicated to fostering anti-clericalism among the lay people of the Church. Anti-clericalism is a term that describes hatred of priests and bishops. It usually involves accusations of power-mongering, greed, perversion, and hypocrisy and tt always includes attacks on the idea of celibacy. It also specifically attacks the idea that Jesus wanted there to be priests and bishops. Since the Catholic Church has always taught that Jesus established the Apostles as the first bishops and that our current bishops inherit their authority from Jesus through the Apostles, this is obviously and problematic belief.
In the realm of politics and religion, this document is the first time a Pope specifically condemns Communism by name, but it is certainly not the last. It says that “Communism” is “a doctrine most opposed to the very natural law. For if this doctrine were accepted, the complete destruction of everyone’s laws, government, property, and even of human society itself would follow.” The reason for this is that Communism denies the existence of God – an obvious problem for Catholics – and that it denies the right to private property, which is something Catholics must believe in. Over time, the Church will refine her understanding of private property and the common good of society, but her stance against communism remains in place to this day. Recall that encyclicals are not dogmatic documents and not guaranteed to be infallible, but do not forget that they have a real authority and that this authority is stronger the more often it is connected to other teachings and encyclicals.
Secret societies in the western world at this time had varying goals, but a lot of them worked to undermine the authority and influence of the Catholic Church because they saw the Church as an obstacle to progress and freedom. The Carbonari and the Young Italy movements are both examples who aggressively advocated for Italian Nationalism. Since the Church controlled a lot of territory in Italy, they targeted the Church with revolts and by spreading anti-clerical ideas. Freemasonry already had a history of trying to undermine the Church and had already been condemned by previous popes (we’ll delve more into this later on). None of these movements are called out by name, but historians are pretty sure they’re the ones Pius is thinking of in this document. The conflicts of Church and State are complicated, but the essential point here is that Bishops need to be careful that secular and political movements are not confusing Catholics about their faith.
Lastly, Pius IX follows the example of his predecessor Gregory XVI when he specifically targets “crafty Bible Societies.” I am sure people use this to claim that the Church didn’t want people to read the bible and there were probably priests and bishops who acted like that. It is clear, however, that Pius IX didn’t have a problem with Scripture, but with the bad translations and incorrect interpretations in the bibles these societies gave to people. Again, neither pope condemned the bible itself, but the anti-Catholic translations and interpretations that were being offered.
In Christ,
-Fr. Albert