Yesterday, we looked at the beginning of Pope Pius XI's encyclical
Mortalium animos in which the Holy Father took stock of the ecumenical movement that was gathering a head of steam in the early twentieth century. We saw how we must distinguish between a true ecumenism, which is a great good, and a false ecumenism, which leads to indifferentism and atheism and saw some of the errors and dangers of the early ecumenical movement.
Today, we'll finish looking at this great encyclical, one which has as much resonance for us in the early twenty-first century as it did for Pope Pius' contemporaries.
7. And here it seems opportune to expound and to refute a certain false
opinion, on which this whole question... depends.
For authors who favor this view are accustomed...to
bring forward these words of Christ: "That they all may be one.... And
there shall be one fold and one shepherd," with this signification
however: that Christ Jesus merely expressed a desire and prayer, which still
lacks its fulfillment. For they are of the opinion that the unity of faith and
government, which is a note of the one true Church of Christ, has hardly up to
the present time existed, and does not to-day exist... They add that the Church in itself, or of its
nature, is divided into sections; that is to say, that it is made up of several
churches or distinct communities, which still remain separate, and although
having certain articles of doctrine in common, nevertheless disagree concerning
the remainder; that these all enjoy the same rights; and that the Church was one
and unique from, at the most, the apostolic age until the first Ecumenical
Councils. Controversies... and longstanding differences of
opinion (on articles of the faith)... must be entirely put aside, and from the remaining doctrines a common
form of faith drawn up and proposed for belief (a "mere Christianity),
and in the profession of which
all may not only know but feel that they are brothers. The manifold
churches or
communities, if united in some kind of universal federation, would then
be in a
position to oppose strongly and with success the progress of
irreligion...Among them there indeed are some, though few, who grant to
the Roman
Pontiff a primacy of honor or even a certain jurisdiction or power...
Others again, even go so far as to wish the Pontiff Himself to
preside over their motley, so to say, assemblies. But, all the same,
although
many non-Catholics may be found who loudly preach fraternal communion in
Christ
Jesus, yet you will find none at all to whom it ever occurs to submit to and
obey the Vicar of Jesus Christ either in His capacity as a teacher or as a
governor (which is the goal of true ecumenism)...
8. This being so, it is clear that the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take
part in their assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to
support or to work for such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving
countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ.
Shall We suffer, what would indeed be iniquitous, the truth, and a truth
divinely revealed, to be made a subject for compromise? (how many today would answer 'yes') For here there is
question of defending revealed truth. ...If our Redeemer plainly said that His Gospel was to continue not only
during the times of the Apostles, but also till future ages, is it possible that
the object of faith should in the process of time become so obscure and
uncertain, that it would be necessary to-day to tolerate opinions which are even
incompatible one with another? If this were true, we should have to confess that
the coming of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, and the perpetual indwelling of
the same Spirit in the Church, and the very preaching of Jesus Christ, have
several centuries ago, lost all their efficacy and use, to affirm which would be
blasphemy. ...
9. These pan-Christians who turn their minds to uniting the churches seem,
indeed, to pursue the noblest of ideas in promoting charity among all
Christians: nevertheless how does it happen that this charity tends to injure
faith? Everyone knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to
reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never
ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new commandment
"Love one another," altogether forbade any intercourse with those who
professed a mutilated and corrupt version of Christ's teaching: "If any man
come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say
to him: God speed you." For which reason, since charity is based on a
complete and sincere faith, the disciples of Christ must be united principally
by the bond of one faith. Who then can conceive a Christian Federation, the
members of which retain each his own opinions and private judgment, even in
matters which concern the object of faith, even though they be repugnant to the
opinions of the rest? ...We do know that from this it is an easy step to the neglect of religion or
indifferentism and to modernism, as they call it (or religious relativism as we call it, this of course is what has happened since Pius wrote this)... Besides this, in
connection with things which must be believed, it is nowise licit to use that
distinction which some have seen fit to introduce between those articles of
faith which are fundamental and those which are not fundamental (these are the forefathers of today's 'fundementalists'), as they
say, as if the former are to be accepted by all, while the latter may be left to
the free assent of the faithful: for the supernatural virtue of faith has a
formal cause, namely the authority of God revealing, and this is patient of no
such distinction...
10. So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never
allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the
union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true
Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have
unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to
all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the
same as He instituted it. During the lapse of centuries, the mystical Spouse of
Christ has never been contaminated, nor can she ever in the future be
contaminated... For since the mystical
body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one... it were foolish and out of place to say that the
mystical body is made up of members which are disunited and scattered abroad:
whosoever therefore is not united with the body is no member of it, neither is
he in communion with Christ its head.
11. Furthermore, in this one Church of Christ no man can be or remain who
does not accept, recognize and obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his
legitimate successors. Did not the ancestors of those who are now entangled in
the errors of Photius and the reformers, obey the Bishop of Rome, the chief
shepherd of souls? Alas their children left the home of their fathers, but it
did not fall to the ground and perish for ever, for it was supported by God. Let
them therefore return to their common Father, who, forgetting the insults
previously heaped on the Apostolic See, will receive them in the most loving
fashion. For if, as they continually state, they long to be united with Us and
ours, why do they not hasten to enter the Church, "the Mother and mistress
of all Christ's faithful"? Let them hear Lactantius crying out:
"The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true worship. This is the
fount of truth, this the house of Faith, this the temple of God...
12. Let, therefore, the separated children draw nigh to the Apostolic See,
set up in the City which Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles,
consecrated by their blood; to that See... not with the intention and the
hope that "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the
truth" will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their
errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and
government. Would that it were Our happy lot to do that which so many of Our
predecessors could not, to embrace with fatherly affection those children, whose
unhappy separation from Us We now bewail...
13. You, Venerable Brethren, understand how much this question is in Our
mind, and We desire that Our children should also know, not only those who
belong to the Catholic community, but also those who are separated from Us: if
these latter humbly beg light from heaven, there is no doubt but that they will
recognize the one true Church of Jesus Christ and will, at last, enter it, being
united with us in perfect charity. While awaiting this event, and as a pledge of
Our paternal good will, We impart most lovingly to you, Venerable Brethren, and
to your clergy and people, the apostolic benediction.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, on the 6th day of January, on the Feast of
the Epiphany of Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the year 1928, and the sixth year of
Our Pontificate.
