Modern History Sourcebook:
Pope Pius XI: Mortalium Animos, 1928
A papal encyclical which confirmed the Roman Catholic Church's historic position
regarding other religous groups. Its teaching was somewhat revised by the Second Vatican
Council, which saw holiness in other religions, and by Pope John Paul II, who has been
willing to attend meetings with leaders of other religions [See picture of the Pope with the Dalai Lama] and called for Christian unity in his
encyclica Ut Unum Sint.
MORTALIUM ANIMOS ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI ON RELIGIOUS UNITY JANUARY 6, 1928 To Our Venerable Brethren the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other
Local Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See. Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction. Never perhaps in the past have we seen, as we see in these our own times, the minds of
men so occupied by the desire both of strengthening and of extending to the common welfare
of human society that fraternal relationship which binds and unites us together, and which
is a consequence of our common origin and nature. For since the nations do not yet fully
enjoy the fruits of peace--indeed rather do old and new disagreements in various places
break forth into sedition and civic strife--and since on the other hand many disputes
which concern the tranquillity and prosperity of nations cannot be settled without the
active concurrence and help of those who rule the States and promote their interests, it
is easily understood, and the more so because none now dispute the unity of the human
race, why many desire that the various nations, inspired by this universal kinship, should
daily be more closely united one to another. 2. A similar object is aimed at by some, in those matters which concern the New Law
promulgated by Christ our Lord. For since they hold it for certain that men destitute of
all religious sense are very rarely to be found, they seem to have founded on that belief
a hope that the nations, although they differ among themselves in certain religious
matters, will without much difficulty come to agree as brethren in professing certain
doctrines, which form as it were a common basis of the spiritual life. For which reason
conventions, meetings and addresses are frequently arranged by these persons, at which a
large number of listeners are present, and at which all without distinction are invited to
join in the discussion, both infidels of every kind, and Christians, even those who have
unhappily fallen away from Christ or who with obstinacy and pertinacity deny His divine
nature and mission. Certainly such attempts can nowise be approved by Catholics, founded
as they are on that false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good
and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which
is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of
His rule. Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also in
distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by little. turn aside to
naturalism and atheism, as it is called; from which it clearly follows that one who
supports those who hold these theories and attempt to realize them, is altogether
abandoning the divinely revealed religion. 3. But some are more easily deceived by the outward appearance of good when there is
question of fostering unity among all Christians. 4. Is it not right, it is often repeated, indeed, even consonant with duty, that all
who invoke the name of Christ should abstain from mutual reproaches and at long last be
united in mutual charity? Who would dare to say that he loved Christ, unless he worked
with all his might to carry out the desires of Him, Who asked His Father that His
disciples might be "one."[1] And did not the same Christ will that His disciples
should be marked out and distinguished from others by this characteristic, namely that
they loved one another: "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you
have love one for another"?[2] All Christians, they add, should be as
"one": for then they would be much more powerful in driving out the pest of
irreligion, which like a serpent daily creeps further and becomes more widely spread, and
prepares to rob the Gospel of its strength. These things and others that class of men who
are known as pan-Christians continually repeat and amplify; and these men, so far from
being quite few and scattered, have increased to the dimensions of an entire class, and
have grouped themselves into widely spread societies, most of which are directed by
non-Catholics, although they are imbued with varying doctrines concerning the things of
faith. This undertaking is so actively promoted as in many places to win for itself the
adhesion of a number of citizens, and it even takes possession of the minds of very many
Catholics and allures them with the hope of bringing about such a union as would be
agreeable to the desires of Holy Mother Church, who has indeed nothing more at heart than
to recall her erring sons and to lead them back to her bosom. But in reality beneath these
enticing words and blandishments lies hid a most grave error, by which the foundations of
the Catholic faith are completely destroyed. 5. Admonished, therefore, by the consciousness of Our Apostolic office that We should
not permit the flock of the Lord to be cheated by dangerous fallacies, We invoke,
Venerable Brethren, your zeal in avoiding this evil; for We are confident that by the
writings and words of each one of you the people will more easily get to know and
understand those principles and arguments which We are about to set forth, and from which
Catholics will learn how they are to think and act when there is question of those
undertakings which have for their end the union in one body, whatsoever be the manner, of
all who call themselves Christians. 6. We were created by God, the Creator of the universe, in order that we might know Him
and serve Him; our Author therefore has a perfect right to our service. God might, indeed,
have prescribed for man's government only the natural law, which, in His creation, He
imprinted on his soul, and have regulated the progress of that same law by His ordinary
providence; but He preferred rather to impose precepts, which we were to obey, and in the
course of time, namely from the beginnings of the human race until the coming and
preaching of Jesus Christ, He Himself taught man the duties which a rational creature owes
to its Creator: "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past
to the fathers by the prophets, last of all, in these days, hath spoken to us by his
Son."[3] From which it follows that there can be no true religion other than that
which is founded on the revealed word of God: which revelation, begun from the beginning
and continued under the Old Law, Christ Jesus Himself under the New Law perfected. Now, if
God has spoken (and it is historically certain that He has truly spoken), all must see
that it is man's duty to believe absolutely God's revelation and to obey implicitly His
commands; that we might rightly do both, for the glory of God and our own salvation, the
Only-begotten Son of God founded His Church on earth. Further, We believe that those who
call themselves Christians can do no other than believe that a Church, and that Church
one, was established by Christ; but if it is further inquired of what nature according to
the will of its Author it must be, then all do not agree. A good number of them, for
example, deny that the Church of Christ must be visible and apparent, at least to such a
degree that it appears as one body of faithful, agreeing in one and the same doctrine
under one teaching authority and government; but, on the contrary, they understand a
visible Church as nothing else than a Federation, composed of various communities of
Christians, even though they adhere to different doctrines, which may even be incompatible
one with another. Instead, Christ our Lord instituted His Church as a perfect society,
external of its nature and perceptible to the senses, which should carry on in the future
the work of the salvation of the human race, under the leadership of one head,[4] with an
authority teaching by word of mouth,[5] and by the ministry of the sacraments, the founts
of heavenly grace;[6] for which reason He attested by comparison the similarity of the
Church to a kingdom,[7] to a house,[8] to a sheepfold,[9] and to a flock.[10] This Church,
after being so wonderfully instituted, could not, on the removal by death of its Founder
and of the Apostles who were the pioneers in propagating it, be entirely extinguished and
cease to be, for to it was given the commandment to lead all men, without distinction of
time or place, to eternal salvation: "Going therefore, teach ye all
nations."[11] In the continual carrying out of this task, will any element of
strength and efficiency be wanting to the Church, when Christ Himself is perpetually
present to it, according to His solemn promise: "Behold I am with you all days, even
to the consummation of the world?"[12] It follows then that the Church of Christ not
only exists to-day and always, but is also exactly the same as it was in the time of the
Apostles, unless we were to say, which God forbid, either that Christ our Lord could not
effect His purpose, or that He erred when He asserted that the gates of hell should never
prevail against it.[13] 7. And here it seems opportune to expound and to refute a certain false opinion, on
which this whole question, as well as that complex movement by which non-Catholics seek to
bring about the union of the Christian churches depends. For authors who favor this view
are accustomed, times almost without number, to bring forward these words of Christ:
"That they all may be one.... And there shall be one fold and one shepherd,"[14]
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 consider that this unity may indeed be
desired and that it may even be one day attained through the instrumentality of wills
directed to a common end, but that meanwhile it can only be regarded as mere ideal. 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 therefore, they say, and longstanding differences of opinion which
keep asunder till the present day the members of the Christian family, must be entirely
put aside, and from the remaining doctrines a common form of faith drawn up and proposed
for belief, 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. This, Venerable Brethren, is what is commonly said. There are some, indeed,
who recognize and affirm that Protestantism, as they call it, has rejected, with a great
lack of consideration, certain articles of faith and some external ceremonies, which are,
in fact, pleasing and useful, and which the Roman Church still retains. They soon,
however, go on to say that that Church also has erred, and corrupted the original religion
by adding and proposing for belief certain doctrines which are not only alien to the
Gospel, but even repugnant to it. Among the chief of these they number that which concerns
the primacy of jurisdiction, which was granted to Peter and to his successors in the See
of Rome. 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, but this, however, they consider
not to arise from the divine law but from the consent of the faithful. 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. Meanwhile they affirm that they would willingly treat with the Church of Rome,
but on equal terms, that is as equals with an equal: but even if they could so act. it
does not seem open to doubt that any pact into which they might enter would not compel
them to turn from those opinions which are still the reason why they err and stray from
the one fold of Christ. 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? For here there is question of defending revealed truth. Jesus Christ sent His
Apostles into the whole world in order that they might permeate all nations with the
Gospel faith, and, lest they should err, He willed beforehand that they should be taught
by the Holy Ghost:[15] has then this doctrine of the Apostles completely vanished away, or
sometimes been obscured, in the Church, whose ruler and defense is God Himself? 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. But the Only-begotten Son of God, when He commanded His representatives to
teach all nations, obliged all men to give credence to whatever was made known to them by
"witnesses preordained by God,"[16] and also confirmed His command with this
sanction: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth
not shall be condemned."[17] These two commands of Christ, which must be fulfilled,
the one, namely, to teach, and the other to believe, cannot even be understood, unless the
Church proposes a complete and easily understood teaching, and is immune when it thus
teaches from all danger of erring. In this matter, those also turn aside from the right
path, who think that the deposit of truth such laborious trouble, and with such lengthy
study and discussion, that a man's life would hardly suffice to find and take possession
of it; as if the most merciful God had spoken through the prophets and His Only-begotten
Son merely in order that a few, and those stricken in years, should learn what He had
revealed through them, and not that He might inculcate a doctrine of faith and morals, by
which man should be guided through the whole course of his moral life. 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."[18] 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? And in what manner, We ask, can men
who follow contrary opinions, belong to one and the same Federation of the faithful? For
example, those who affirm, and those who deny that sacred Tradition is a true fount of
divine Revelation; those who hold that an ecclesiastical hierarchy, made up of bishops,
priests and ministers, has been divinely constituted, and those who assert that it has
been brought in little by little in accordance with the conditions of the time; those who
adore Christ really present in the Most Holy Eucharist through that marvelous conversion
of the bread and wine, which is called transubstantiation, and those who affirm that
Christ is present only by faith or by the signification and virtue of the Sacrament; those
who in the Eucharist recognize the nature both of a sacrament and of a sacrifice, and
those who say that it is nothing more than the memorial or commemoration of the Lord's
Supper; those who believe it to be good and useful to invoke by prayer the Saints reigning
with Christ, especially Mary the Mother of God, and to venerate their images, and those
who urge that such a veneration is not to be made use of, for it is contrary to the honor
due to Jesus Christ, "the one mediator of God and men."[19] How so great a
variety of opinions can make the way clear to effect the unity of the Church We know not;
that unity can only arise from one teaching authority, one law of belief and one faith of
Christians. But 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. Those, who are unhappily infected with
these errors, hold that dogmatic truth is not absolute but relative, that is, it agrees
with the varying necessities of time and place and with the varying tendencies of the
mind, since it is not contained in immutable revelation, but is capable of being
accommodated to human life. 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,
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. For
this reason it is that all who are truly Christ's believe, for example, the Conception of
the Mother of God without stain of original sin with the same faith as they believe the
mystery of the August Trinity, and the Incarnation of our Lord just as they do the
infallible teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, according to the sense in which it was
defined by the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. Are these truths not equally certain, or
not equally to be believed, because the Church has solemnly sanctioned and defined them,
some in one age and some in another, even in those times immediately before our own? Has
not God revealed them all? For the teaching authority of the Church, which in the divine
wisdom was constituted on earth in order that revealed doctrines might remain intact for
ever, and that they might be brought with ease and security to the knowledge of men, and
which is daily exercised through the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops who are in communion
with him, has also the office of defining, when it sees fit, any truth with solemn rites
and decrees, whenever this is necessary either to oppose the errors or the attacks of
heretics, or more clearly and in greater detail to stamp the minds of the faithful with
the articles of sacred doctrine which have been explained. But in the use of this
extraordinary teaching authority no newly invented matter is brought in, nor is anything
new added to the number of those truths which are at least implicitly contained in the
deposit of Revelation, divinely handed down to the Church: only those which are made clear
which perhaps may still seem obscure to some, or that which some have previously called
into question is declared to be of faith. 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, as Cyprian bears witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to
her Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she guards the
sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and modestly."[20] The same holy Martyr with
good reason marveled exceedingly that anyone could believe that "this unity in the
Church which arises from a divine foundation, and which is knit together by heavenly
sacraments, could be rent and torn asunder by the force of contrary wills."[21] For
since the mystical body of Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one,[22]
compacted and fitly joined together,[23] 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.[24] 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"?[25] 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: 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, which will be lost and entirely
destroyed, unless their interests are carefully and assiduously kept in mind."[26] 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, We repeat, which is "the root and womb whence the Church of God
springs,"[27] not with the intention and the hope that "the Church of the living
God, the pillar and ground of the truth"[28] 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. Would that God our Savior, "Who will have all men
to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,"[29] would hear us when We
humbly beg that He would deign to recall all who stray to the unity of the Church! In this
most important undertaking We ask and wish that others should ask the prayers of Blessed
Mary the Virgin, Mother of divine grace, victorious over all heresies and Help of
Christians, that She may implore for Us the speedy coming of the much hoped-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."[30] 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. REFERENCES: 1. John xvii, 21. 2. John xiii, 35. 3. Heb. i, I seq. 4. Matt. xvi, 18 seq;
Luke xxii, 32; John xxi, 15-17. 5. Mark xvi, 15. 6. John iii, 5; vi, 48-59; xx, 22 seq;
cf. Matt. xviii, 18, etc. 7. Matt. xiii. 8. cf. Matt. xvi, 18. 9. John x, 16. 10. John
xxi, 15-17. 11. Matt. xxviii, 19. 12. Matt. xxviii, 20. 13. Matt. xvi, 18. 14. John xvii,
21; x, 16. 15. John xvi, 13. 16. Acts x,41. 17. Mark xvi, 16. 18. 11 John 10. 19. Cf. I
Tim. ii, 15. 20. De Cath. Ecclesiae unitate, 6. 21. Ibid. 22. I Cor. xii, 12. 23. Eph. Iv,
16. 24. Cf. Eph. v, 30; 1, 22. 25. Conc. Lateran IV, c. 5. 26. Divin. Instit. Iv, 30.
11-12. 27. S. Cypr. Ep. 48 ad Cornelium, 3. 28. I Tim. iii, 15. 29. I Tim. ii, 4. 30. Eph.
iv, 3.
Source:
This text is part of the Internet
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© Paul Halsall, January 1999
halsall@fordham.edu
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