|
Title: |
Inscrutabile
|
|
Descr.: |
On The Problems Of The Pontificate
|
|
Pope: |
Pope Pius VI
|
|
Date: |
December 25, 1775
|
|
To
the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops and Bishops of the Entire
Catholic Church.
Venerable
Brothers, We give you Greeting and Our Apostolic Blessing.
1.
The mysterious design of divine wisdom, whose works are always
marvelous, did not despise Our lowliness but willed instead to
make Us the head of the bishops and to honor Us as the guide of
His entire Church. Just as He chose the young David from among a
thousand and raised him from herding sheep to rule His people on a
glorious throne, and make them acceptable to God by means of the
rod of guidance, so He chose Us. Others seemed more worthy of the
papal tiara, especially since We had just been appointed to the
college of cardinals and occupied the last place there.
As
We gratefully reflect on His infinite kindness towards Us, We
cannot refrain from tears at His beneficent mercy and omnipotence
in conferring His graces so generously on one who was not
recommended by his own merits. Despite Our lack of strength and
merit, He established Us as leader of the peoples in order that,
as representative on earth of the Eternal Shepherd, We should feed
Israel, His inheritance, and lead it to the holy mountain of Sion,
the heavenly Jerusalem.
Since
it is most fitting for Us to show Our obedience and devotion as
consecrated Pope by offering praise to the Lord, We cannot stifle
Our exclamations of exultation as We praise Him and cry with the
prophet: "Let Our mouth speak the praise of the Lord and Our
soul, spirit, flesh and tongue bless His holy name."(1)
"But if it is religious conduct to rejoice at a grace, it is
also necessary to be anxious about deserving it. For what is so
fearful as toil to the weak, height to the lowly and rank to one
who does not deserve it?"(2)
2.
Who would not be fearful at the present condition of the Christian
people? The divine love by which we abide in God and God in us
grows very cold as sins and wickedness increase every day. Who
would not be shocked when considering that We have undertaken the
task of guarding and protecting the Church at a time when many
plots are laid against orthodox religion, when the safe guidance
of the sacred canons is rashly despised, and when confusion is
spread wide by men maddened by a monstrous desire of innovation,
who attack the very bases of rational nature and attempt to
overthrow them? Assuredly "with such reason for fear, we
would have no hope of escaping slavery except that the Guardian of
Israel, who does not sleep, says to His disciples: 'Behold I am
with you all days even to the consummation of the world.' He
deigned to be not merely the guardian of the sheep, but the
shepherd of the shepherds as well."(3)
3.
Now since divine graces descend on us most generously when Our
prayer ascends to God, We make this special request of you, Our
helpers and advisers, in this Our first address to you, for the
love by which we are one in the Lord and for the faith by which we
grow into one body. Beseech God every day to strengthen Us by His
power and to pour out on Us the Spirit of counsel and of courage,
in order that We may both decide what measures We should take in
these difficult circumstances and that We may have the strength to
carry through Our decisions. Therefore pray in the Spirit, and let
your prayer be the surest proof of your love for Us and your
brotherly union. Invoke the merits of the most holy Mary, mother
of God, Our special patroness, and of all the heavenly court, that
We may quickly obtain the help We need. Request for Us especially
the protection and defense of St. Peter the Apostle. "We
rejoice more to serve his See than to occupy it, in the hope that
his prayers will make the God of mercies regard the time of Our
ministry with kindness and deign to guard and feed the shepherd of
his sheep."(4)
4.
We urge you to show that you are faithful stewards of the
mysteries of God. As the Lord is your portion, you know well what
you should do and endure for the Church of God in the courageous
fulfillment of your ministry. So We exhort you to rouse up the
grace which is in you through the imposition of hands and to omit
nothing which contributes to the growth of the body "which is
built from Christ and joined together at every point of
subministration"(5) in faith and in love.
Therefore,
since you know that the Church's chief good derives from admitting
only those who are fully qualified into the clergy, We do not have
to remind you to observe carefully the sanctions established in
this matter by the canons. Prevent from entering the Church's
service all who lack exceptional moral holiness, who are
uninstructed in the law of the Lord, and who give little or no
promise of becoming energetic members of the clergy. For instead
of proving helpers to you in feeding and guiding your flock, they
will increase your toil and troubles. They will hinder you from
ensuring that the Lord receives from his workers the fruits of the
vineyard which Christ in strictest justice will expect from you at
the final judgment. A man who is going to be a priest should excel
in holiness and learning. For God rejects as priests those who
have rejected knowledge, and only the man who unites moral piety
with the pursuit of knowledge can be a suitable worker in the
Lord's harvest. Since this cannot occur without careful education,
it has been decreed accordingly that each diocese should establish
a college for clerics in accordance with its means; if such a
college already exists, it should be carefully preserved. For how
would young men, whose age impels them down the easy path,
persevere in ecclesiastical training or make such progress in
humane and sacred studies unless they were instructed in piety and
religion from their early years and practiced in the
interpretation of literature?
Such
colleges have been established and carefully equipped with
suitable regulations and even greatly expanded in individual
dioceses as Benedict XIV recommended to each of you as an
indispensable part of your office.(6) So just as We must praise
the outstanding labor and concern shown in founding and expanding
these colleges, We must also urge on strongly those in whose
diocese a college has not been established or completed.
5.
For the same reason you should undoubtedly always give special
attention to the beauty of the house of God and the splendor and
dignity of objects dedicated to the divine service. Such beauty
and splendor often greatly inspire the faithful, and draw them to
the veneration of sacred realities. It would be very improper for
the bishop's house to be cleaner and furnished more tastefully
than the abode of holiness, the palace of the living God. It would
make no sense to see holy vestments, adornments for the altar and
all the furniture in the church worn out with age and torn or
dirty, while the bishop's table is well laden, the priest's
clothing very clean and finely coordinated. St. Peter Damian
expressed this well: "It is an accusation which brings great
confusion on us that some men both offer and lay the Lord's Body
on a dirty altar cloth and that they fearlessly place the Body of
the Savior in a vessel which no lord, worm though he is, would put
to his own lips!"(7) But We know that you are far from
committing this sin of negligence of which the holy cardinal
accuses those who spend the goods acquired by the Church "not
in buying books or ornaments and utensils for their churches"
but for their own use as "necessary expenses."
6.
We thought it useful to speak to you lovingly on these matters in
order to strengthen your excellent resolve. But a much more
serious subject demands that We speak of it, or rather mourn over
it. We refer to the pestilent disease which the wickedness of our
times brings forth. We must unite our minds and strength in
treating this plague before it grows rife and becomes incurable in
the Church through Our oversight. For in recent days, the
dangerous times foretold by the Apostle Paul have clearly arrived,
when there will be "men who love themselves, who are lifted
up, proud, blasphemous, traitors, lovers of pleasure instead of
God, men who are always learning but never arriving at the
knowledge of truth, possessing indeed the appearance of piety but
denying its power, corrupt in mind, reprobate about the
faith."(8) These men raise themselves up into
"lying" teachers, as they are called by Peter the prince
of the Apostles, and bring in sects of perdition. They deny the
Lord who bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
They say they are wise and they have become fools, and their
uncomprehending heart is darkened.
You
yourselves, established as scouts in the house of Israel, see
clearly the many victories claimed by a philosophy full of deceit.
You see the ease with which it attracts to itself a great host of
peoples, concealing its impiety with the honorable name of
philosophy. Who could express in words or call to mind the
wickedness of the tenets and evil madness which it imparts? While
such men apparently intend to search out wisdom, "they fail
because they do not search in the proper way...and they fall into
errors which lead them astray from ordinary wisdom."(9) They
have come to such a height of impiety that they make out that God
does not exist, or if He does that He is idle and uncaring, making
no revelation to men. Consequently it is not surprising that they
assert that everything holy and divine is the product of the minds
of inexperienced men smitten with empty fear of the future and
seduced by a vain hope of immortality. But those deceitful sages
soften and conceal the wickedness of their doctrine with seductive
words and statements; in this way, they attract and wretchedly
ensnare many of the weak into rejecting their faith or allowing it
to be greatly shaken. While they pursue a remarkable knowledge,
they open their eyes to behold a false light which is worse than
the very darkness. Naturally our enemy, desirous of harming us and
skilled in doing so, just as he made use of the serpent to deceive
the first human beings, has armed the tongues of those men with
the poison of his deceitfulness in order to lead astray the minds
of the faithful. The prophet prays that his soul may be delivered
from such deceitful tongues.(10) In this way these men by their
speech "enter in lowliness, capture mildly, softly bind and
kill in secret."(11) This results in great moral corruption,
in license of thought and speech, in arrogance and rashness in
every enterprise.
7.
When they have spread this darkness abroad and torn religion out
of men's hearts, these accursed philosophers proceed to destroy
the bonds of union among men, both those which unite them to their
rulers, and those which urge them to their duty. They keep
proclaiming that man is born free and subject to no one, that
society accordingly is a crowd of foolish men who stupidly yield
to priests who deceive them and to kings who oppress them, so that
the harmony of priest and ruler is only a monstrous conspiracy
against the innate liberty of man.
Everyone
must understand that such ravings and others like them, concealed
in many deceitful guises, cause greater ruin to public calm the
longer their impious originators are unrestrained. They cause a
serious loss of souls redeemed by Christ's blood wherever their
teaching spreads, like a cancer; it forces its way into public
academies, into the houses of the great, into the palaces of
kings, and even enters the sanctuary, shocking as it is to say so.
8.
Consequently, you who are the salt of the earth, guardians and
shepherds of the Lord's flock, whose business it is to fight the
battles of the Lord, arise and gird on your sword, which is the
word of God, and expel this foul contagion from your lands. How
long are we to ignore the common insult to faith and Church? Let
the words of Bernard arouse us like a lament of the spouse of
Christ: "Of old was it foretold and the time of fulfillment
is now at hand: Behold, in peace is my sorrow most sorrowful. It
was sorrowful first when the martyrs died; afterwards it was more
sorrowful in the fight with the heretics and now it is most
sorrowful in the conduct of the members of the household... The
Church is struck within and so in peace is my sorrow most
sorrowful. But what peace? There is peace and there is no peace.
There is peace from the pagans and peace from the heretics, but no
peace from the children. At that time the voice will lament: Sons
did I rear and exalt, but they despised me. They despised me and
defiled me by a bad life, base gain, evil traffic, and business
conducted in the dark."(12) Who can hear these tearful
complaints of our most holy mother without feeling a strong urge
to devote all his energy and effort to the Church, as he has
promised? Therefore cast out the old leaven, remove the evil from
your midst. Forcefully and carefully banish poisonous books from
the eyes of your flock, and at once courageously set apart those
who have been infected, to prevent them harming the rest. The holy
Pope Leo used to say, "We can rule those entrusted to us only
by pursuing with zeal for the Lord's faith those who destroy and
those who are destroyed and by cutting them off from sound minds
with the utmost severity to prevent the plague
spreading."(13) In doing this We exhort and advise you to be
all of one mind and in harmony as you strive for the same object,
just as the Church has one faith, one baptism, and one spirit. As
you are joined together in the hierarchy, so you should unite
equally with virtue and desire.
The
affair is of the greatest importance since it concerns the
Catholic faith, the purity of the Church, the teaching of the
saints, the peace of the empire, and the safety of nations. Since
it concerns the entire body of the Church, it is a special concern
of yours because you are called to share in Our pastoral concern,
and the purity of the faith is particularly entrusted to your
watchfulness. "Now therefore, Brothers, since you are
overseers among God's people and their soul depends on you, raise
their hearts to your utterance,"(14) that they may stand fast
in faith and achieve the rest which is prepared for believers
only. Beseech, accuse, correct, rebuke and fear not: for
ill-judged silence leaves in their error those who could be
taught, and this is most harmful both to them and to you who
should have dispelled the error. The holy Church is powerfully
refreshed in the truth as it struggles zealously for the truth. In
this divine work you should not fear either the force or favor of
your enemies. The bishop should not fear since the anointing of
the Holy Spirit has strengthened him: the shepherd should not be
afraid since the prince of pastors has taught him by his own
example to despise life itself for the safety of his flock: the
cowardice and depression of the hireling should not dwell in a
bishop's heart. Our great predecessor Gregory, in instructing the
heads of the churches, said with his usual excellence: "Often
imprudent guides in their fear of losing human favor are afraid to
speak the right freely. As the word of truth has it, they guard
their flock not with a shepherd's zeal but as hirelings do, since
they flee when the wolf approaches by hiding themselves in
silence... A shepherd fearing to speak the right is simply a man
retreating by keeping silent."(15) But if the wicked enemy of
the human race, the better to frustrate your efforts, ever brings
it about that a plague of epidemic proportions is hidden from the
religious powers of the world, please do not be terrified but walk
in God's house in harmony, with prayer, and in truth, the three
arms of our service. Remember that when the people of Juda were
defiled, the best means of purification was the public reading to
all, from the least to the greatest, of the book of the law lately
found by the priest Helcias in the Lord's temple; at once the
whole people agreed to destroy the abominations and seal a
covenant in the Lord's presence to follow after the Lord and
observe His precepts, testimonies and ceremonies with their whole
heart and soul."(16) For the same reason Josaphat sent
priests and Levites to bring the book of the law throughout the
cities of Juda and to teach the people.(17) The proclamation of
the divine word has been entrusted to your faith by divine, not
human, authority. So assemble your people and preach to them the
gospel of Jesus Christ. From that divine source and heavenly
teaching draw draughts of true philosophy for your flock. Persuade
them that subjects ought to keep faith and show obedience to those
who by God's ordering lead and rule them. To those who are devoted
to the ministry of the Church, give proofs of faith, continence,
sobriety, knowledge, and liberality, that they may please Him to
whom they have proved themselves and boast only of what is
serious, moderate, and religious. But above all kindle in the
minds of everyone that love for one another which Christ the Lord
so often and so specifically praised. For this is the one sign of
Christians and the bond of perfection.
9.
These are the chief matters on which We wanted to address you in
the Lord, Venerable Brothers. We urgently ask that We may
personally experience the pleasure of us all harmoniously
preserving faithfully the deposit entrusted to Our keeping. But
Our sins prevent Us from obtaining this without the prior help of
the Lord's mercies. May He favorably aid Us first with his
blessings. So, may He forgive Us and strengthen Our weakness in
order that Our common prayer may more speedily come into His
presence. At the same time as We send you this letter, We are
sending another letter granting a jubilee to all the faithful,
hoping in God who is merciful and pities us, that as He gave Us
the power of binding and loosing on earth for the building up of
His Body, He may grant to you also and to your flocks for
salvation that you may advance from virtue to virtue, strangers to
every error. This is Our heartfelt prayer as We impart most
lovingly to you, and to the peoples entrusted to your care, the
Apostolic Blessing.
Given
at Rome in St. Peter's, 25 December 1775 in the first year of Our
Pontificate.
Endnotes:
1.
Ps. 144:21 | 2. St. Leo the Great, serm. 1, chap. 2, and serm. 2,
chap. 1 (ed. Ballerin, Venice) | 3. Ibid., serm. 5 (4), chap. 2 |
4. Ibid., chap. 5 | 5. Eph. 4:16 | 6. Encyclical epistle of 1741 |
7. Bk. 4, ep. 14 (Works, vol. 1, Rome, 1606) | 8. 2 Tm. 3 | 9.
Lactant, divin. instit., bk. 3, chap. 28 (Paris 1748) | 10. Ps.
119 | 11. St. Leo the Great, serm. 16 (15), chap. 3 | 12. Serm. 33
on the Canticle, vol. 4, no. 16 (Paris 1691) | 13. Epistles 7-8,
chap. 2, to the bishops throughout Italy | 14. Jdt. 8:21 | 15.
Reg. Pastor. 11, Operum, vol. 2, chap. 4, Paris | 16. 4 Kgs. 22-23
| 17. 2 Paralip. 17:7f
The above is provided for informational purposes only and may not be comprehensive. By using this site you agree to all terms. For terms
information, see "Important Notice" above and click
here.
|
