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Given by His
Holiness Pope Leo XIII
January 22, 1899
To Our Beloved
Son, James Cardinal Gibbons, Cardinal Priest of the Title Sancta Maria, Beyond
the Tiber, Archbishop of Baltimore:
Beloved Son, Health and Apostolic Blessing:
We send to you by this letter a renewed expression of that good will which
we have not failed during the course of our pontificate to manifest frequently
to you and to your colleagues in the episcopate and to the whole American
people, availing ourselves of every opportunity offered us by the progress
of your church or whatever you have done for safeguarding and promoting Catholic
interests. Moreover, we have often considered and admired the noble gifts
of your nation which enable the American people to be alive to every good
work which promotes the good of humanity and the splendor of civilization.
Although this letter is not intended, as preceding ones, to repeat the words
of praise so often spoken, but rather to call attention to some things to
be avoided and corrected; still because it is conceived in that same spirit
of apostolic charity which has inspired all our letters, we shall expect
that you will take it as another proof of our love; the more so because it
is intended to suppress certain contentions which have arisen lately among
you to the detriment of the peace of many souls.
It is known to you, beloved son, that the biography of Isaac Thomas Hecker,
especially through the action of those who under took to translate or interpret
it in a foreign language, has excited not a little controversy, on account
of certain opinions brought forward concerning the way of leading Christian
life.
We, therefore, on account of our apostolic office, having to guard the integrity
of the faith and the security of the faithful, are desirous of writing to
you more at length concerning this whole matter.
The underlying principle of these new opinions is that, in order to more
easily attract those who differ from her, the Church should shape her teachings
more in accord with the spirit of the age and relax some of her ancient severity
and make some concessions to new opinions. Many think that these concessions
should be made not only in regard to ways of living, but even in regard to
doctrines which belong to the deposit of the faith. They contend that it
would be opportune, in order to gain those who differ from us, to omit certain
points of her teaching which are of lesser importance, and to tone down the
meaning which the Church has always attached to them. It does not need many
words, beloved son, to prove the falsity of these ideas if the nature and
origin of the doctrine which the Church proposes are recalled to mind. The
Vatican Council says concerning this point: "For the doctrine of faith which
God has revealed has not been proposed, like a philosophical invention to
be perfected by human ingenuity, but has been delivered as a divine deposit
to the Spouse of Christ to be faithfully kept and infallibly declared. Hence
that meaning of the sacred dogmas is perpetually to be retained which our
Holy Mother, the Church, has once declared, nor is that meaning ever to be
departed from under the pretense or pretext of a deeper comprehension of
them." —Constitutio de Fide Catholica, Chapter iv.
We cannot consider as altogether blameless the silence which purposely leads
to the omission or neglect of some of the principles of Christian doctrine,
for all the principles come from the same Author and Master, "the Only Begotten
Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father."—John i, 18. They are adapted
to all times and all nations, as is clearly seen from the words of our Lord
to His apostles: "Going, therefore, teach all nations; teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all
days, even to the end of the world."—Matt. xxviii, 19. Concerning this
point the Vatican Council says: "All those things are to be believed with
divine and catholic faith which are contained in the Word of God, written
or handed down, and which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by her
ordinary and universal magisterium, proposes for belief as having been divinely
revealed."—Const. de fide, Chapter iii.
Let it be far from anyone's mind to suppress for any reason any doctrine
that has been handed down. Such a policy would tend rather to separate Catholics
from the Church than to bring in those who differ. There is nothing closer
to our heart than to have those who are separated from the fold of Christ
return to it, but in no other way than the way pointed out by Christ.
The rule of life laid down for Catholics is not of such a nature that it
cannot accommodate itself to the exigencies of various times and places.
(VOL. XXIV-13.) The Church has, guided by her Divine Master, a kind and merciful
spirit, for which reason from the very beginning she has been what St. Paul
said of himself: "I became all things to all men that I might save all."
History proves clearly that the Apostolic See, to which has been entrusted
the mission not only of teaching but of governing the whole Church, has continued
"in one and the same doctrine, one and the same sense, and one and the same
judgment,"—Const. de fide, Chapter iv.
But in regard to ways of living she has been accustomed to so yield that,
the divine principle of morals being kept intact, she has never neglected
to accommodate herself to the character and genius of the nations which she
embraces.
Who can doubt that she will act in this same spirit again if the salvation
of souls requires it? In this matter the Church must be the judge, not private
men who are often deceived by the appearance of right. In this, all who wish
to escape the blame of our predecessor, Pius the Sixth, must concur. He condemned
as injurious to the Church and the spirit of God who guides her the doctrine
contained in proposition lxxviii of the Synod of Pistoia, "that the discipline
made and approved by the Church should be submitted to examination, as if
the Church could frame a code of laws useless or heavier than human liberty
can bear."
But, beloved son, in this present matter of which we are speaking, there
is even a greater danger and a more manifest opposition to Catholic doctrine
and discipline in that opinion of the lovers of novelty, according to which
they hold such liberty should be allowed in the Church, that her supervision
and watchfulness being in some sense lessened, allowance be granted the faithful,
each one to follow out more freely the leading of his own mind and the trend
of his own proper activity. They are of opinion that such liberty has its
counterpart in the newly given civil freedom which is now the right and the
foundation of almost every secular state.
In the apostolic letters concerning the constitution of states, addressed
by us to the bishops of the whole Church, we discussed this point at length;
and there set forth the difference existing between the Church, which is
a divine society, and all other social human organizations which depend simply
on free will and choice of men.
It is well, then, to particularly direct attention to the opinion which serves
as the argument in behalf of this greater liberty sought for and recommended
to Catholics.
It is alleged that now the Vatican decree concerning the infallible teaching
authority of the Roman Pontiff having been proclaimed that nothing further
on that score can give any solicitude, and accordingly, since that has been
safeguarded and put beyond question a wider and freer field both for thought
and action lies open to each one. But such reasoning is evidently faulty,
since, if we are to come to any conclusion from the infallible teaching authority
of the Church, it should rather be that no one should wish to depart from
it, and moreover that the minds of all being leavened and directed thereby,
greater security from private error would be enjoyed by all. And further,
those who avail themselves of such a way of reasoning seem to depart seriously
from the over-ruling wisdom of the Most High—which wisdom, since it
was pleased to set forth by most solemn decision the authority and supreme
teaching rights of this Apostolic See—willed that decision precisely
in order to safeguard the minds of the Church's children from the dangers
of these present times.
These dangers, viz., the confounding of license with liberty, the passion
for discussing and pouring contempt upon any possible subject, the assumed
right to hold whatever opinions one pleases upon any subject and to set them
forth in print to the world, have so wrapped minds in darkness that there
is now a greater need of the Church's teaching office than ever before, lest
people become unmindful both of conscience and of duty.
We, indeed, have no thought of rejecting everything that modern industry
and study has produced; so far from it that we welcome to the patrimony of
truth and to an ever-widening scope of public well-being whatsoever helps
toward the progress of learning and virtue. Yet all this, to be of any solid
benefit, nay, to have a real existence and growth, can only be on the condition
of recognizing the wisdom and authority of the Church.
Coming now to speak of the conclusions which have been deduced from the above
opinions, and for them, we readily believe there was no thought of wrong
or guile, yet the things themselves certainly merit some degree of suspicion.
First, all external guidance is set aside for those souls who are striving
after Christian perfection as being superfluous or indeed, not useful in
any sense—the contention being that the Holy Spirit pours richer and
more abundant graces than formerly upon the souls of the faithful, so that
without human intervention He teaches and guides them by some hidden instinct
of His own. Yet it is the sign of no small over-confidence to desire to measure
and determine the mode of the Divine communication to mankind, since it wholly
depends upon His own good pleasure, and He is a most generous dispenser 'of
his own gifts. "The Spirit breatheth whereso He listeth."—John iii,
8.
"And to each one of us grace is given according to the measure of the giving
of Christ."—Eph. iv, 7.
And shall any one who recalls the history of the apostles, the faith of the
nascent church, the trials and deaths of the martyrs—and, above all,
those olden times, so fruitful in saints—dare to measure our age with
these, or affirm that they received less of the divine outpouring from the
Spirit of Holiness? Not to dwell upon this point, there is no one who calls
in question the truth that the Holy Spirit does work by a secret descent
into the souls of the just and that He stirs them alike by warnings and impulses,
since unless this were the case all outward defense and authority would be
unavailing. "For if any persuades himself that he can give assent to saving,
that is, to gospel truth when proclaimed, without any illumination of the
Holy Spirit, who give's unto all sweetness both to assent and to hold, such
an one is deceived by a heretical spirit."—From the Second Council of
Orange, Canon 7.
Moreover, as experience shows, these monitions and impulses of the Holy Spirit
are for the most part felt through the medium of the aid and light of an
external teaching authority. To quote St. Augustine. "He (the Holy Spirit)
co-operates to the fruit gathered from the good trees, since He externally
waters and cultivates them by the outward ministry of men, and yet of Himself
bestows the inward increase."—De Gratia Christi, Chapter xix. This,
indeed, belongs to the ordinary law of God's loving providence that as He
has decreed that men for the most part shall be saved by the ministry also
of men, so has He wished that those whom He calls to the higher planes of
holiness should be led thereto by men; hence St. Chrysostom declares we are
taught of God through the instrumentality of men.—Homily I in Inscrib.
Altar. Of this a striking example is given us in the very first days of the
Church.
For though Saul, intent upon blood and slaughter, had heard the voice of
our Lord Himself and had asked, "What dost Thou wish me to do?" yet he was
bidden to enter Damascus and search for Ananias. Acts ix: "Enter the city
and it shall be there told to thee what thou must do."
Nor can we leave out of consideration the truth that those who are striving
after perfection, since by that fact they walk in no beaten or well-known
path, are the most liable to stray, and hence have greater need than others
of a teacher and guide. Such guidance has ever obtained in the Church; it
has been the universal teaching of those who throughout the ages have been
eminent for wisdom and sanctity—and hence to reject it would be to commit
one's self to a belief at once rash and dangerous.
A thorough consideration of this point, in the supposition that no exterior
guide is granted such souls, will make us see the difficulty of locating
or determining the direction and application of that more abundant influx
of the Holy Spirit so greatly extolled by innovators To practice virtue there
is absolute need of the assistance of the Holy Spirit, yet we find those
who are fond of novelty giving an unwarranted importance to the natural virtues,
as though they better responded to the customs and necessities of the times
and that having these as his outfit man becomes more ready to act and more
strenuous in action. It is not easy to understand how persons possessed of
Christian wisdom can either prefer natural to supernatural virtues or attribute
to them a greater efficacy and fruitfulness. Can it be that nature conjoined
with grace is weaker than when left to herself?
Can it be that those men illustrious for sanctity, whom the Church distinguishes
and openly pays homage to, were deficient, came short in the order of nature
and its endowments, because they excelled in Christian strength? And although
it be allowed at times to wonder at acts worthy of admiration which are the
outcome of natural virtue—is there anyone at all endowed simply with
an outfit of natural virtue? Is there any one not tried by mental anxiety,
and this in no light degree? Yet ever to master such, as also to preserve
in its entirety the law of the natural order, requires an assistance from
on high These single notable acts to which we have alluded will frequently
upon a closer investigation be found to exhibit the appearance rather than
the reality of virtue. Grant that it is virtue, unless we would "run in vain"
and be unmindful of that eternal bliss which a good God in his mercy has
destined for us, of what avail are natural virtues unless seconded by the
gift of divine grace? Hence St. Augustine well says: "Wonderful is the strength,
and swift the course, but outside the true path." For as the nature of man,
owing to the primal fault, is inclined to evil and dishonor, yet by the help
of grace is raised up, is borne along with a new greatness and strength,
so, too, virtue, which is not the product of nature alone, but of grace also,
is made fruitful unto everlasting life and takes on a more strong and abiding
character.
This over-esteem of natural virtue finds a method of expression in assuming
to divide all virtues in active and passive, and it is alleged that whereas
passive virtues found better place in past times, our age is to be characterized
by the active. That such a division and distinction cannot be maintained
is patent—for there is not, nor can there be, merely passive virtue.
"Virtue," says St. Thomas Aquinas, "designates the perfection of some faculty,
but end of such faculty is an act, and an act of virtue is naught else than
the good use of free will," acting, that is to say, under the grace of God
if the act be one of supernatural virtue.
He alone could wish that some Christian virtues be adapted to certain times
and different ones for other times who is unmindful of the apostle's words:
"That those whom He foreknew, He predestined to be made conformable to the
image of His Son."— Romans viii, 29. Christ is the teacher and the exemplar
of all sanctity, and to His standard must all those conform who wish for
eternal life. Nor does Christ know any change as the ages pass, "for He is
yesterday and today and the same forever."—Hebrews xiii, 8. To the men
of all ages was the precept given: "Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble
of heart."—Matt. xi, 29.
To every age has He been made manifest to us as obedient even unto death;
in every age the apostle's dictum has its force: "Those who are Christ's
have crucified their flesh with its vices and concupiscences." Would to God
that more nowadays practiced these virtues in the degree of the saints of
past times, who in humility, obedience and self-restraint were powerful "in
word and in deed" —to the great advantage not only of religion, but
of the state and the public welfare.
From this disregard of the angelical virtues, erroneously styled passive,
the step was a short one to a contempt of the religious life which has in
some degree taken hold of minds. That such a value is generally held by the
upholders of new views, we infer from certain statements concerning the vows
which religious orders take. They say vows are alien to the spirit of our
times, in that they limit the bounds of human liberty; that they are more
suitable to weak than to strong minds; that so far from making for human
perfection and the good of human organization, they are hurtful to both;
but that this is as false as possible from the practice and the doctrine
of the Church is clear, since she has always given the very highest approval
to the religious method of life; nor without good cause, for those who under
the divine call have freely embraced that state of life did not content
themselves with the observance of precepts, but, going forward to the evangelical
counsels, showed themselves ready and valiant soldiers of Christ. Shall we
judge this to be a characteristic of weak minds, or shall we say that it
is useless or hurtful to a more perfect state of life?
Those who so bind themselves by the vows of religion, far from having suffered
a loss of liberty, enjoy that fuller and freer kind, that liberty, namely,
by which Christ hath made us free. And this further view of theirs, namely,
that the religious life is either entirely useless or of little service to
the Church, besides being injurious to the religious orders cannot be the
opinion of anyone who has read the annals of the Church. Did not your country,
the United States, derive the beginnings both of faith and of culture from
the children of these religious families? to one of whom but very lately,
a thing greatly to your praise, you have decreed that a statue be publicly
erected. And even at the present time wherever the religious families are
found, how speedy and yet how fruitful a harvest of good works do they not
bring forth! How very many leave home and seek strange lands to impart the
truth of the gospel and to widen the bounds of civilization; and this they
do with the greatest cheerfulness amid manifold dangers! Out of their number
not less, indeed, than from the rest of the clergy, the Christian world finds
the preachers of God's word, the directors of conscience, the teachers of
youth and the Church itself the examples of all sanctity.
But if there be those who prefer to form one body without the obligation
of the vows let them pursue such a course. It is not new in the Church, nor
in any wise censurable. Let them be careful, however, not to set forth such
a state above that of religious orders. But rather, since mankind are more
disposed at the present time to indulge themselves in pleasures, let those
be held in greater esteem "who having left all things have followed Christ."
Finally, not to delay too long, it is stated that the way and method hitherto
in use among Catholics for bringing back those who have fallen away from
the Church should be left aside and another one chosen, in which matter it
will suffice to note that it is not the part of prudence to neglect that
which antiquity in its long experience has approved and which is also taught
by apostolic authority. The scriptures teach us that it is the duty of all
to be solicitous for the salvation of one's neighbor, according to the power
and position of each. The faithful do this by religiously discharging the
duties of their state of life, by the uprightness of their conduct, by their
works of Christian charity and by earnest and continuous prayer to God. On
the other hand, those who belong to the clergy should do this by an enlightened
fulfillment of their preaching ministry, by the pomp and splendor of ceremonies
especially by setting forth that sound form of doctrine which Saint Paul
inculcated upon Titus and Timothy. But if, among the different ways of preaching
the word of God that one sometimes seems to be preferable, which directed
to non-Catholics, not in churches, but in some suitable place, in such wise
that controversy is not sought, but friendly conference, such a method is
certainly without fault. But let those who undertake such ministry be set
apart by the authority of the bishops and let them be men whose science and
virtue has been previously ascertained. For we think that there are many
in your country who are separated from Catholic truth more by ignorance than
by ill-will, who might perchance more easily be drawn to the one fold of
Christ if this truth be set forth to them in a friendly and familiar way.
From the foregoing it is manifest, beloved son, that we are not able to give
approval to those views which, in their collective sense, are called by some
"Americanism." But if by this name are to be understood certain endowments
of mind which belong to the American people, just as other characteristics
belong to various other nations, and if, moreover, by it is designated your
political condition and the laws and customs by which you are governed, there
is no reason to take exception to the name. But if this is to be so understood
that the doctrines which have been adverted to above are not only indicated,
but exalted, there can be no manner of doubt that our venerable brethren,
the bishops of America, would be the first to repudiate and condemn it as
being most injurious to themselves and to their country. For it would give
rise to the suspicion that there are among you some who conceive and would
have the Church in America to be different from what it is in the rest of
the world.
We having thought it fitting, beloved son, in view of your high office, that
this letter should be addressed specially to you. It will also be our care
to see that copies are sent to the bishops of the United States, testifying
again that love by which we embrace your whole country, a country which in
past times has done so much for the cause of religion, and which will by
the Divine assistance continue to do still greater things. To you, and to
all the faithful of America, we grant most lovingly, as a pledge of Divine
assistance, our apostolic benediction.
Given at Rome, from St. Peter's, the 22nd day of January, 1899, and the
thirty-first of our pontificate. |
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