MORTALIUM ANIMOS
TO OUR VENERABLE BRETHREN, PATRIARCHS,
PRIMATES, ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, AND OTHER LOCAL ORDINARIES ENJOYING PEACE AND COMMUNION
WITH THE HOLY SEE
VENERABLE BRETHREN, GREETINGS AND
APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION!
1. Never
perhaps in the past have the minds of men been so engrossed as they are today with the
desire to strengthen and extend for the common good of mankind that tie of brotherhood
which binds us all so closely together. The
world does not yet fully enjoy the fruits of peace; on the contrary, dissensions old and
new in various lands still issue in rebellions and conflict. Such disputes, affecting the tranquil prosperity
of nations, can never be settled without the combined and active good will of those who
are responsible for their government, and hence it is easy to understand–especially
now that the unity of mankind is no longer called into question–the widespread desire
that all nations, in view of this universal kinship, should daily find closer union with
one another.
2. It
is with a similar motive that efforts are being made by some in connection with the New
Law promulgated by Christ our Lord. Assured
that there exist few men who are entirely devoid of the religious sense, they seem to
ground on this belief a hope that all nations, while differing indeed in religious
matters, may yet without great difficulty be brought to fraternal agreement on certain
points of doctrine which will form a common basis of the spiritual life. With this object congresses, meetings, and
addresses are arranged, attended by a large concourse of hearers, where all without
distinction, unbelievers of every kind as well as Christians, even those who unhappily
have rejected Christ and denied His Divine Nature or mission, are invited to join in the
discussion. Now, such efforts can meet with
no kind of approval among Catholics. They
presuppose the erroneous view that all religions are more or less good and praiseworthy,
inasmuch as all give expression, under various forms, to that innate sense which leads men
to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule.
Those who hold such a view are not only in error; they distort the true idea of
religion, and thus reject it, falling gradually into naturalism and atheism. To favor this opinion, therefore, and to encourage
such undertakings is tantamount to abandoning the religion revealed by God.
3. Nevertheless,
when there is a question of fostering unity among Christians, it is easy for many to be
misled by the apparent excellence of the object to be achieved. Is it not right, they ask, is it not the obvious
duty of all who invoke the name of Christ to refrain from mutual reproaches and at last to
be united in charity? Dare anyone say that he
loves Christ, and yet not strive with all his might to accomplish the desire of Him Who
asked His Father that His disciples might be "one" (John 17:21)? Did not Christ will that mutual charity should be
the distinguishing characteristic of His disciples? "By this shall all men know that you are My
disciples, if you have love one for another." (John 13:35) If only all Christians were "one", it is
contended, then they might do so much more to drive out the pest of irreligion which with
its insidious and far-reaching advance is threatening to sap the strength of the Gospel. These and similar arguments, with amplifications,
are constantly on the lips of the "pan-Christians" who, so far from being a few
isolated individuals, have formed an entire class and grouped themselves into societies of
extensive membership, usually under the direction of non-Catholics, who also disagree in
matters of faith. The energy with which this
scheme is being promoted has won for it many adherents, and even many Catholics are
attracted by it, since it holds out the hope of a union apparently consonant with the
wishes of Holy Mother Church, whose chief desire it is to recall her erring children and
to bring them back to her bosom. In reality,
however, these fair and alluring words cloak a most grave error, subversive of the
foundations of the Catholic Faith.
4. Conscious,
therefore, of Our Apostolic Office, which warns Us not to allow the flock of Christ to be
led astray by harmful fallacies, We invoke your zeal, Venerable Brethren, to avert this
evil. We feel confident that each of you, by
written and spoken word, will explain clearly to the people the principles and arguments
that We are about to set forth, so that Catholics may know what view and what course of
action they should adopt regarding schemes for the promiscuous union into one body of all
who call themselves Christians.
5. God,
the Creator of all things, made us that we might know Him and serve Him; to our service,
therefore, He has a full right. He might
indeed have been contented to prescribe for man's government the natural law alone, that
is, the law which in creation He has written upon man's heart, and have regulated the
progress of that law by His ordinary Providence. He
willed, however, to make positive laws which we should obey, and progressively, from the
beginning of the human race until the coming and preaching of Jesus Christ, He Himself
taught mankind the duties which a rational creature owes to his Creator. "God,
Who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke to us by His Son." (Heb. 1:1, et
seq.) Evidently, therefore, no religion can
be true save that which rests upon the revelation of God, a revelation begun from the very
first, continued under the Old Law, and brought to completion by Jesus Christ Himself
under the New. Now, if God has
spoken–and it is historically certain that He has in fact spoken–then it is
clearly man's duty implicitly to believe His revelation and to obey His commands. That we might rightly do both, for the glory of
God and for our own salvation, the only-begotten Son of God founded His Church on earth. None, we think, of those who claim to be
Christians will deny that a Church, and one sole Church, was founded by Christ.
6. On
the further question, however, as to what in the intention of its Founder was to be the
precise nature of that Church, there is not the same agreement. Many of them, for example, deny that the Church of
Christ was intended to be visible and manifest, at any rate in the sense that it was to be
visibly the one body of the faithful, agreeing in one and the same doctrine under one
teaching and governing authority. They
conceive the visible Church as nothing more than a federation of the various
"Christian" communities, even though these may hold different and mutually
exclusive doctrines. The truth is that Christ founded His Church as a perfect society, of
its nature external and perceptible to the senses, which in the future should carry on the
work of the salvation of mankind under one Head, with a living teaching authority,
administering the sacraments which are the sources of heavenly grace (John 3:5, 6:48-59;
20:22 seq.; cf, Matt. 18:l8, etc.). Wherefore,
He compared His Church to a Kingdom (Matt. 1), to a house (cf. Matt. 16:l8), to a
sheepfold (John 10:l6), and to a flock (John 21:l5-l7).
The Church thus wondrously instituted could not cease to exist with the death of
its Founder and of the Apostles, the pioneers of its propagation; for its mission was to
lead all men to salvation, without distinction of time or place. "Go ye
therefore and teach all nations." (Matt. 28:l9)
Nor could the Church ever lack the effective strength necessary for the continued
accomplishment of its task, since Christ Himself is perpetually present with it, according
to His promise: "Behold, I am with you all
days, even to the consummation of the world." (Matt.28:20) Hence not only must the Church still exist today
and continue always to exist, but it must ever be exactly the same as it was in the days
of the Apostles. Otherwise we must
say–which God forbid–that Christ has failed in His purpose, or that He erred
when He asserted of His Church that the gates of Hell should never prevail against it
(Matt. 16:l8).
7. And
here it will be opportune to expound and to reject a certain false opinion which lies at
the root of this question and of that complex movement by which non-Catholics seek to
bring about the union of "Christian" Churches.
Those who favor this view constantly quote the words of Christ, "That they may be one... And there shall be one
fold, and one shepherd" (John 17:21, 10:l6), in the sense that Christ thereby
merely expressed a desire or a prayer which as yet has not been granted. For they hold that the unity of faith and
government which is a note of the one true Church of Christ has up to the present time
hardly ever existed, and does not exist today. They
consider that this unity is indeed to be desired and may even, by cooperation and
goodwill, be actually attained, but that meanwhile it must be regarded as a mere ideal. The Church, they say, is of its nature divided
into sections, composed of several churches or distinct communities which still remain
separate, although holding in common some articles of doctrine, nevertheless differ
concerning the remainder; that all these enjoy the same rights; and that the Church
remained one and undivided at the most only from the Apostolic age until the first
Ecumenical Councils. Hence, they say,
controversies and long-standing differences, which today still keep asunder the members of
the Christian family, must be entirely set aside, and from the residue of doctrines a
common form of faith drawn up and proposed for belief,
in the profession of which all may not only know but also feel themselves to be
brethren. If (they say) the various Churches
or communities were united in some kind of universal federation, they would then be in a
position to oppose resolutely and successfully the progress of irreligion.
8. Such,
Venerable Brethren, is the common contention. There
are indeed some who recognize and affirm that Protestantism has with inconsiderate zeal
rejected certain articles of faith and external ceremonies which are in fact useful and
attractive, and which the Roman Church still retains.
But they immediately go on to say that the Roman Church, too, has erred, and
corrupted the primitive religion by adding to it and proposing for belief doctrines not
only alien to the Gospel but contrary to its spirit.
Chief among these they count that of the primacy of jurisdiction granted to Peter
and to his successors in the See of Rome. There
are actually some, though few, who grant to the Roman Pontiff a primacy of honor and even a certain power or jurisdiction;
this, however, they consider to arise not from the Divine law but merely from the consent
of the faithful. Others, again, even go so
far as to desire the Pontiff himself to preside over their mixed assemblies. For the rest, while you may hear many
non-Catholics loudly preaching brotherly communion in Jesus Christ, yet not one will you
find to whom it ever occurs with devout submission to obey the Vicar of Jesus Christ in
His capacity of teacher or ruler. Meanwhile
they assert their readiness to treat with the Church of Rome, but on equal terms, as
equals with an equal. But even if they could
so treat, there seems little doubt that they would do so only on condition that no pact
into which they might enter should compel them to retract those opinions which still keep
them outside the one Fold of Christ.
9. This
being so, it is clear that the Apostolic See can by no means take part in these
assemblies, nor is it in any way lawful for Catholics to give to such enterprises their
encouragement or support. If they did so,
they would be giving countenance to a false Christianity quite alien to the one Church of
Christ. Shall we commit the iniquity of
suffering the truth, the truth revealed by God, to be made a subject for compromise? For it is indeed a question of defending revealed
truth. Jesus Christ sent His Apostles into
the whole world to declare the faith of the Gospel to every nation, and to save them from
error. He willed that the Holy Ghost should
first teach them all truth. Has this
doctrine, then, disappeared, or at any time been obscured, in the Church of which God
Himself is the Ruler and Guardian? Our
Redeemer plainly said that His Gospel was intended not only for the apostolic age but for
all time. Can the object of faith, then, have
become in the process of time so dim and uncertain that today we must tolerate
contradictory opinions? If this were so, then
we should have to admit that the coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles, the perpetual
indwelling of the same Spirit in the Church, nay, the very preaching of Jesus Christ, have
centuries ago lost their efficacy and value. To
affirm this would be blasphemy. The
only-begotten Son of God not only bade His representatives to teach all nations; He also
obliged all men to give credence to whatever was taught them by "witnesses preordained by God." (Acts
10:4l) Moreover, He enforced His command with
this sanction: "He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be condemned." (Mark 16:l6) These two commands, the one to teach, the other to
believe for salvation, must be obeyed. But
they cannot even be understood unless the Church proposes an inviolate and clear teaching,
and in proposing it is immune from all danger of error.
It is also false to say that, although the deposit of truth does indeed exist, yet
it is to be found only with such laborious effort and after such lengthy study and
discussion, that a man's life is hardly long enough for its discovery and attainment. This would be equivalent to saying that the most
merciful God spoke through the prophets and through His only-begotten Son merely in order
that some few men, and those advanced in years, might learn what He had revealed, and not
in order to inculcate a doctrine of faith and morals by which man should be guided
throughout the whole of his life.
10. These
pan-Christians who strive for the union of the Churches would appear to pursue the noblest
of ideals in promoting charity among all Christians.
But how should charity tend to the detriment of faith? Everyone knows that John himself, the apostle of
love, who seems in his Gospel to have
revealed the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress upon
the memory of his disciples the new commandment "to love one another,"
nevertheless strictly forbade any intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and
corrupt form 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" (2 John 10).
11. Therefore,
since the foundation of charity is faith pure and inviolate, it is chiefly by the bond of
one faith that the disciples of Christ are to be united.
A federation of Christians, then, is inconceivable in which each member retains his
own opinions and private judgment in matters of faith, even though they differ from the
opinions of all the rest. How can men with
opposite convictions belong to one and the same federation of the faithful; those who
accept sacred Tradition as a source of revelation and those who reject it; those who
recognize as Divinely constituted the hierarchy of bishops, priests, and ministers in the
Church, and those who regard it as gradually introduced to suit the conditions of the
time; those who adore Christ really present in the Most Holy Eucharist through that
wonderful conversion of the bread and wine, transubstantiation, and those who assert that
the Body of Christ is there only by faith or by the signification and virtue of the
sacrament; those who in the Eucharist recognize both sacrament and sacrifice, and those
who say that it is nothing more than the memorial of the Lord's supper; those who think it
right and useful to pray to the Saints reigning with Christ, especially to Mary the Mother
of God, and to venerate their images, and those who refuse such veneration as derogatory
to the honor due to Jesus Christ, "the one
mediator of God and men" (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5)?
12. How
so great a variety of opinions can clear the way for the unity of the Church, We know not. That unity can arise only from one teaching
authority, one law of belief, and one faith of Christians.
But We do know that from such a state of affairs it is but an easy step to the
neglect of religion or "Indifferentism," and to the error of the modernists, who
hold that dogmatic truth is not absolute but relative, that is, that it changes according
to the varying necessities of time and place and the varying tendencies of the mind; that
it is not contained in an immutable tradition, but can be altered to suit the needs of
human life.
13. Furthermore,
it is never lawful to employ in connection with articles of faith the distinction invented
by some between "fundamental" and "non-fundamental" articles, the
former to be accepted by all, the latter being left to the free acceptance of the
faithful. The supernatural virtue of faith
has as its formal motive the authority of God revealing, and this allows of no such
distinction. All true followers of Christ,
therefore, will believe the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God with
the same faith as they believe the mystery of the august Trinity, the infallibility of the
Roman Pontiff in the sense defined by the Ecumenical Vatican Council with the same faith
as they believe the Incarnation of Our Lord. That
these truths have been solemnly sanctioned and defined by the Church at various times,
some of them even quite recently, makes no difference to their certainty, nor to our
obligation of believing them. Has not God revealed them all?
14. Thus,
Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to
take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics. There
is but one way in which the unity of Christians may be fostered, and that is by furthering
the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it; for far
from that one true Church they have in the past fallen away. The one Church of Christ is visible to all, and
will remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. The Mystical Spouse of Christ has never in the
course of centuries been contaminated, nor in the future can she ever be, as Cyprian bears
witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot become
false to her Spouse; she is inviolate and pure. She
knows but one dwelling, and chastely and modestly she guards the sanctity of the nuptial
chamber." (De Cath. Ecclesiae Unitate, 6) The
same holy martyr marveled that anyone could believe that "this unity of the Church built upon a Divine
foundation, knit together by heavenly sacraments, could ever be rent asunder by the
conflict of wills." (ibid) For since
the Mystical Body of Christ, like His physical body, is one (1 Cor. 12:l2), compactly and
fitly joined together (Eph. 4:l5), it were foolish to say that the Mystical Body is
composed of disjointed and scattered members. Whosoever,
therefore, is not united with the body is no member thereof, neither is he in communion
with Christ its Head.
16. 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 of the "Reformers" obey the Bishop of
Rome, the chief shepherd of souls? Their
children, alas! have left the home of their fathers; but that house did not therefore fall
to the ground and perish forever, for it was supported by God. Let them, then, return to their Father, Who,
forgetting the insults in the past heaped upon the Apostolic See, will accord them a most
loving welcome. If, as they constantly say,
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"? (Conc. Lateran, 4. c.5) Let them heed the words of Lactantius: "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; if any
man enter not here, or if any man go forth from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life
and salvation. Let none delude himself with
obstinate wrangling. For life and salvation
are here concerned, and these will be lost forever unless their interests be carefully and
assiduously kept in mind." (Divin. Inst. iv. 30, ll-12)
l7. Let
our separated children, therefore, draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City
which Peter and Paul, Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their blood; to the See
which is "the root and womb whence issues the
Church of God" (Cypr. Ep. 48 ad Cornelium, 3); and let them come, not with any
intention nor hope that "the Church of the
living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:l5) will cast aside the
integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but to submit themselves to its teaching
and government. Would that the happy lot,
denied to so many of Our Predecessors, might at last be Ours, to embrace with fatherly
affection those children whose unhappy separation from Us We now deplore. Would that God our Savior, "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to
the knowledge of the truth" (I Tim. 2:4), might hear our humble prayer and
vouchsafe to recall to the unity of the Church all that are gone astray. To this all-important end We implore, and We
desire that others should implore, the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of
Divine Grace, Help of Christians, victorious over all heresies, that she may entreat for
Us the speedy coming of that longed-for day, when all men shall hear the voice of Her
Divine Son, and shall be "careful to keep the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace." (Eph. 4:3)
18. You,
Venerable Brethren, know how dear to Our heart is this desire, and We wish that Our
children also should know, not only those belonging to the Catholic fold, but also those
separated from Us. If these will humbly beg
light from Heaven, there is no doubt but that they will recognize the one true Church of
Jesus Christ, and entering therein, will at last be united with Us in perfect charity. In the hope of this fulfillment, and as a pledge
of Our fatherly goodwill, We impart most lovingly to you, Venerable Brethren, and to your
clergy and people, the Apostolic Benediction.
Given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the 6th day
of January, the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the year 1928, the
sixth of Our Pontificate.
–Pius XI, Pope