Address of Pope Pius XII

Di Gran Cuore Vi Diamo (1956)

Address to the Sixth National Week on New Pastoral Methods
September 14, 1956


WITH all Our heart We welcome you, Venerable Brethren and beloved sons who are taking part in the “Sixth National Week on New Pastoral Methods” here in the eternal city.

We realize that in choosing Rome as the site of your meetings this year, your Central Office wanted to pay filial tribute to Our person, while giving evidence of your development and of your firm resolution to spread your influence as far as possible. And, as a matter of fact, this dear mother of ours — Rome — has a way of anointing with the chrism of universality any kind of activity which shares her spirit, even activities which have sprung up in far-off regions, as she receives in exchange the valuable contribution which they have to offer.… READ MORE

Apostolic Letter of Pope Pius IX

Multiplices Inter (1851)

Apostolic Letter of His Holiness Pope Pius IX, issued on June 10, 1851, condemning certain Errors of Francisco de Paula González Vigil

from which the 1864 Syllabus of Errors draws condemned propositions 15, 21, 23, 30, 51, 54, 68, and 74

(Not to be confused with the Encyclical Inter Multiplices of 1853
nor the Allocution Multiplices Inter Machinationes of 1865)


1. Among the manifold and very heavy cares of Our office, by which We are weighed down on all sides, and among the very great misfortunes of this time, which disturb and violently distress Our mind amid the increasing novelty of all things, there is added the greatly-to-be-lamented fact that the most dangerous books are daily springing forth from the lairs of the Jansenists and other men of that kind, whereby the sons of this age, in order to attract disciples to follow them, speak perverse things in the convincing words of human wisdom.… READ MORE

Motu Proprio of Pope Saint Pius X

Sacrorum Antistitum (1910)

Establishing the Oath against Modernism and other Laws for the Driving Out of the Danger of Modernism


None of the Bishops, we believe, can have failed to observe how that most cunning class of persons, the Modernists, though unmasked by the encyclical letter “Pascendi dominici gregis”, have not abandoned their designs on the peace of the Church. For they continue to enroll new associates and to band them together in a secret alliance, and with these they are now engaged in inoculating into the veins of the Christian people the poison of their opinions by means of books and pamphlets published anonymously or under false names.… READ MORE

Apostolic Letter of Pope Pius IX

Æterni Patris (June 29, 1868)

Apostolic Letter of His Holiness Pope Pius IX convoking the [First] Vatican Council

[not to be confused with the Encyclical Aeterni Patris of Pope Leo XIII,
nor with the Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus of the Vatican Council]


PIUS, BISHOP,
Servant of the Servants of God

In perpetual remembrance

The Only-Begotten Son of the Eternal Father, be cause of the exceeding charity wherewith He hath loved us, and in order that in the fulness of time He might deliver the whole human race from the yoke of sin, from slavery to the devil, and from the darkness of error, by which through the fault of our first parent it had long been miserably oppressed, came down from His heavenly throne, and, without parting from His Father’s glory, was clothed in human nature from the Immaculate and Most Holy Virgin Mary.… READ MORE

Scanning mistake led to truncated translation…

Pope Pius IX’s Encyclical Quartus Supra:
The ‘Missing’ Passages

Recently, a reader of this blog made us aware that the English translation of the encyclical letter Quartus Supra of Pope Pius IX (r. 1846-1878), to which we often link, found at the immensely useful site PapalEncyclicals.Net, is missing a number of paragraphs:

Indeed, the numbered paragraphs jump from 44 to 50, with no explanation. In addition, paragraph 44 contains this very odd sentence: “Our Constitution ensures that safer and more effective measures [***] children, We have decided in the present crisis to write all this to you to arouse your pure mind to the duty We have laid upon you.”… READ MORE

Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office

Condemnation of 12 Propositions pertaining to the Philosophy of Action

December 1, 1924

Students of apologetics will be interested in the following reply of the Holy Office to a series of questions proposed regarding the doctrinal correctness of certain propositions held by some modern teachers in philosophy and theology. The twelve propositions here censured as untenable on Catholic scholastic grounds have in substance been condemned as contrary to right faith and morals by the doctrinal authority of the [First] Vatican Council, but are here separately emphasized to meet definite errors. [underlining added – English translation follows below]

I.

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Allocution of Pope Pius XII

Magnificate Dominum (1954)

Address of His Holiness Pope Pius XII to Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops on the Catholic Church and her Powers of Sanctifying and Ruling, Nov. 2, 1954


“Magnify the Lord with me; together let us extoll His name” (Ps. 33,4), for by a new favor from Heaven has Our desire been fulfilled, and at the same time We rejoice at the sight of you, beloved sons and venerable brothers, gathered before Us in such large numbers. And the consideration of the new liturgical feast of Mary, Mother of God and Queen of Heaven and Earth, which We just recently solemnly proclaimed, swells Our holy joy; for it is only fitting for her children to rejoice when they see an increase of honor accorded their mother.… READ MORE

Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius VI

Super Soliditate (1786)

Bull of Pope Pius VI, issued on November 28, 1786, condemning the errors of Johann Valentin Eybel (1741-1805), also known as “Febronianism”


That the Church was established by Jesus Christ on the solid foundation of the rock (cf. Mt 16:18); that Peter, above all the others, was chosen by the singular favor of Jesus Christ, so that, having the power of his Vicar on earth, he became the Prince of the Apostolic College and received, in consequence, for himself and for his successors to the end of time, the charge and the supreme authority to feed the flock (cf.… READ MORE

Address of Pope Saint Pius X

Con Vera Soddisfazione (1909)

From Pope Pius X in Audience on May 10, 1909, to Youths attached to Catholic Universities, assembled after the second Convention in Rome


It is with genuine joy that I welcome the sentiments and expressions of devotion and reverence toward this Apostolic See which you have declared to me in your name and that of your companions. And these [sentiments] are all the more dear to me because they are expressed by young people who, dedicated to studying in order to attain the goal of true knowledge, declare themselves to be followers of Catholic doctrine and recognize the necessity of uniting in a holy union these two daughters of the same Father, reason and faith, by which we all live: these two suns, which shine in the sky of our souls; these two forces, which constitute the beginning and the end of our grandeur; these two wings which rise up to the knowledge of all truth: in a single word, reason, which is the eye of man who sees, aided by the eye of God, which is faith.… READ MORE

 Allocution of Pope Saint Pius X

Accogliamo Colla Più Viva Compiacenza (1907)

Allocution which Pope Pius X delivered to newly-created Cardinals on Apr. 17, 1907, against Religious Neo-Reformism


We welcome with the most vivid delight the expressions of devotion and filial love for us and for this Apostolic See, which you have shown to us in your name and in the name of your most beloved brothers for the honor of the purple to which you were called [footnote: Card. Aristide Cavallari, Patriarch of Venice]. In accepting your gratitude, nevertheless, we have also to say that the same preeminent virtues by which you are adorned, the works of zeal which you have performed, and the other distinguished services which in different fields you have rendered to the Church, have made you worthy to be included in the register of Our Sacred Senate. … READ MORE

Allocution of Pope Saint Pius X

Festivitas Dominicae Passionis (1907)

Allocution of His Holiness Pope Pius X
given to Cardinals gathered in Consistory on Apr. 15, 1907,
on the mournful condition of the Church in France


Venerable Brothers,

The liturgical remembrance of the Lord’s Passion, to which we lately attended amid transports of spiritual joys, warned us, with a repeated lesson as it were, that the Church, the Bride of Christ, in pursuing the work of mankind’s regeneration and in the struggle that she has on that account against the world of darkness, is summoned not to comfort on this earth, but to hardships and troubles.… READ MORE

Allocution of Pope Pius IX

Iamdudum Cernimus (1861)

Allocution of His Holiness Pope Pius IX to Cardinals gathered in private Consistory on March 18, 1861

from which the 1864 Syllabus of Errors draws condemned propositions 37, 61, and 80


1. Now after a long time We see, Venerable Brothers, by what a truly lamentable conflict civil society is being continually disturbed, especially in this our most unfortunate age, on account of principles alternatively contending between truth and error, between virtue and vice, between light and darkness. For instance, on the one hand, some uphold certain beliefs of, as they term it, “modern civilization.”… READ MORE

The Catholic Teaching on the Papacy

A Collection of Quotes from Magisterial Documents

In our day there are a lot of people who call themselves, and mean to be, traditional Roman Catholics. Yet a great many of them do not hold to the traditional Catholic understanding of the Papacy, either because they do not know it or because they unhappily accept the “Popes” after Pius XII as valid and legitimate but know that they cannot submit to them without abandoning the traditional Catholic Faith. The tragic irony in the latter case is that by denying the Catholic teaching on the Papacy, they are abandoning the Faith just as much.… READ MORE

Instruction from the Holy Office under Pope Pius XII condemning “Situation Ethics”

Contra Doctrinam (1956)

Instruction on “Situation Ethics” to All Ordinaries and to Teachers in Seminaries, in Athenaeums, or those Teaching in Universities of Studies, and to Lecturers in Houses of Religious Studies
February 2, 1956

Contrary to the moral doctrine and its application that is traditional in the Catholic Church, there has begun to be spread abroad in many regions, even among Catholics, an ethical system that generally goes by the name of a certain “Situation Ethics,” and which, they claim, does not rest upon the principles of objective ethics (which ultimately is rooted in “Being” itself), rather, it is not merely subject to the same limit as objective ethics, but transcends it.

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Address of Pope Pius XII

Nous Vous Souhaitons (1953)

Address to the Participants of the International Congress on Psychotherapy and Clinical Psychology
April 13, 1953


1. We greet you, dear sons and daughters, who have come from all parts and are gathered together in Rome to listen to learned expositions and discuss questions of psychotherapy and clinical psychology. Your Congress has ended, and, in order to guarantee its results and the success of your research and future activities, you have come to receive the blessing of the Vicar of Christ. Very gladly do We respond to your desire and We avail Ourselves of this occasion to address to you a word of encouragement and to give you some advice.

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