The Catholic Teaching on the Papacy

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.

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Pope Pius XII, Holy Office Instruction “Contra Doctrinam” (1956)

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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Pope Pius XII, Address “Nous Vous Souhaitons” (1953)

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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Pope Pius XII, Address “Soyez Les Bienvenues” (1952)

Address of Pope Pius XII

Soyez les Bienvenues (1952)

Address to the Participants in the Congress of the World Federation of Catholic Young Women
April 18, 1952

The Theme of the Congress

1. We welcome you, beloved daughters of the World Federation of Catholic Young Women. We greet you with the same pleasure, the same joy, and the same affection with which, given years ago, We received you at Castel Gandolfo, on the occasion of the great international meeting of Catholic Women.

The impetus and the wise counsels given you by this Congress, as well as the words which We addressed to you on that occasion have not remained without fruit.

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Pope Pius XII, Radio Message “La Famiglia” (1952)

Radio Message of Pope Pius XII

La Famiglia (1952)

Radio Message on the Occasion of “Family Day”
March 23, 1952

1. The family is the cradle of the birth and development of a new life, which needs to be cared for and nurtured, lest it perish,: this right and fundamental duty given and imposed immediately by God upon parents.

The content and end of education in the natural order is the development of the child to become a complete man: the content and end of Christian education is the formation of the new human being, reborn in baptism, as a perfect Christian.

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Pope Pius XII, Address “Vegliare con Sollecitudine” (1951)

Address of Pope Pius XII

Vegliare con Sollecitudine (1951)

Address to the Italian Association of Catholic Midwives
October 29, 1951

INTRODUCTION.

The midwife’s Christian duty.

BELOVED DAUGHTERS, the object of your profession, the secret of its grandeur and its beauty lies in this, that you guard with care the silent, humble cradle wherein Almighty God has infused an immortal soul into the seed provided by the parents, and this you do in order to give your professional assistance to the mother and to prepare a successful birth for the child she carried in her womb.

When you reflect on the wonderful collaboration of the parents, of nature and of God, as a result of which a new human being is born to the image and likeness of the Creator (see Genesis 1:26-27), you cannot help valuing at its proper worth the precious co-operation you contribute to an event of such importance.

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Pope Pius XII, Allocution “Quamvis Inquieti” (1946)

Allocution of Pope Pius XII

Quamvis Inquieti (1946)

Allocution of His Holiness Pope Pius XII to to the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, Delegates in General Congregation XXIX, Sep. 17, 1946

Now there is nothing that calls us more urgently and pressingly than to restore the authority of religion and Christian moral discipline with due honor and vigor. Alas, into what times we have fallen because of the negligence of those immortal goods given to us by God! Wherever one looks one sees those who are totally ignorant of the Catholic faith, even the rudiments of religion itself. We see those who see nothing impious in crimes and license, those who disregard even the most elementary norms of morality and justice.

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Pope Pius IX, Holy Office Letter to English Bishops on Christian Unity (1864)

Letter from the Holy Office under Pope Pius IX condemning false attempts to procure Christian Unity

“Apostolicae Sedi Nuntiatum”

September 16, 1864

A Letter of the Supreme Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition to all the English Bishops

It has been notified to the Apostolic See that some Catholics and even ecclesiastics have given their names to a Society established in London in the year 1857, ‘for promoting’ (as it is called) ‘the unity of Christendom;’ and that several articles have been published in the daily papers signed with the names of Catholics, in approval of this Society, or supposed to have been written by ecclesiastics in its favour.

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Pope Pius IX, Allocution “Multiplices Inter Machinationes” (1865)

 Allocution of Pope Pius IX

Multiplices Inter Machinationes (1865)

Allocution of His Holiness Pope Pius IX condemning Freemasonry,
given to Cardinals gathered in Consistory on Sep. 25, 1865

(Not to be confused with the encyclical Inter Multiplices of 1853)

Venerable Brethren: Amongst the numerous machinations and means by which the enemies of the Christian name have dared to attack the Church of God and have tried, though in vain, to beat it down and to destroy it, it is certainly necessary to include that perverse society of men, commonly called “Masonic,” which, first contained in darkness and obscurity, has since come to light for the common ruin of religion and human society.

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Pope Pius IX, Holy Office Letter to Certain Puseyite Anglicans (1865)

Slam Dunk against Vatican II…

Letter from the Holy Office under Pope Pius IX condemning Ecumenism and affirming True Christian Unity

“Ad Quosdam Puseistas Anglicos”
“To Certain Puseyite Anglicans”

November 8, 1865

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD (PDF)

The binding force of this instruction from the Holy Office, eminently relevant in our difficult times, was reaffirmed by the same Holy Office in 1919, under Pope Benedict XV, and in 1927, under Pope Pius XI.

Highlights:

  • “take care lest, while seeking unity, you turn yourselves aside from the way”
  • “sorry that you happened to think those Christian groups that boast of having the inheritance of the priesthood and the catholic name belong to the true Church of Jesus Christ, even though they are divided and separated from Peter”
  • “what sane person will persuade himself that error can underlie the Church’s public and solemn magisterium”
  • “no one is in the Catholic Church who does not cling to that Rock, on which the foundation of Catholic unity has been set”
  • “all groups entirely separated from external and visible communion with and obedience to the Roman Pontiff cannot be the Church of Christ, nor in any way whatsoever can they belong to the Church of Christ”

Image source: Wikimedia Commons
License: public domain

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Pope Pius IX, Allocution “Singulari Quadam” (1854)

Allocution of Pope Pius IX

Singulari Quadam (1854)

Allocution of His Holiness Pope Pius IX to Cardinals gathered in Consistory on the day after the Definition of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Dec. 9, 1854

(Not to be confused with the encyclical Singulari Quidem of 1856 or with Pope St. Pius X’s encyclical Singulari Quadam of 1912)

Filled with a singular joy, We exult in the Lord, Venerable Brothers, when we behold, standing in great numbers around us this day, you whom we can call with truth our joy and crown. You are indeed a portion of those who partake of our labors and our cares, in feeding that universal flock which the Lord has confided to our weakness, in protecting and defending the rights of the Catholic religion, in adding to it new followers who serve and adore, in sincerity of faith, the God of justice and of truth.

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Pope Leo XIII, Apostolic Letter to Cardinal Respighi condemning the Proselytism of Protestants

His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII
Apostolic Letter to Cardinal Pietro Respighi, Vicar General of Rome

On Protestant Proselytism in Rome (1900)

Apostolic Letter of His Holiness Pope Leo XIII, in which he laments and condemns the preaching and proselytism of Protestants in the city of Rome, Italy.

To M. Pietro Cardinal Respighi, our Vicar General,

Lord Cardinal,

Already, from the first moments of Our Pontificate, We had to indicate, as one of the most deplorable harm that is the change in the order of things in this capital of the Catholic world, the ardent proselytism of heresy and, consequently, the peril which the Faith of Our people was exposed to.

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Pope Pius XI, Decree “Cum Supremae” on the Abolition of the “Friends of Israel”

His Holiness Pope Pius XI
Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office

Cum Supremae (1928)

Decree on the Abolishment of the Association commonly called “Amici Israel”

When this Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office formally considered the nature and aim of the association known as “Amici Israel” [“Friends of Israel”] as well as the booklet titled Pax super Israel [Peace upon Israel], which had been published and distributed far and wide so that the association’s mission and mode of proceeding might become known to the general public, the Most Eminent Fathers, who are charged with safeguarding faith and morals, acknowledged before all else its praiseworthy intention of urging the faithful to pray to God and to toil on behalf of the Israelites’ conversion to the Kingdom of Christ.

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Pope Pius XII, Canonical Warning “Cum Compertum” on Ecumenism

His Holiness Pope Pius XII
Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office

Cum Compertum (1948)

Canonical Warning on Catholics attending Ecumenical Gatherings

Editorial Comment: Novus Ordo Watch is pleased to provide the first English translation of this rare, hard-to-find document issued by the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office of the Roman Catholic Church, dated June 5, 1948, entitled Cum Compertum. It is a canonical warning, a so-called Monitum, issued by the Church’s highest authority against Catholic involved in ecumenical gatherings with non-Catholics, very much the kind now fully endorsed and promoted by the Novus Ordo Church and its bogus “Second Vatican Council”.

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Pope Pius IX, Apostolic Letter “Iam Vos Omnes” (1868)

Apostolic Letter of Pope Pius IX

Iam Vos Omnes (1868)

Apostolic Letter of His Holiness Pope Pius IX to all Protestants and other Non-Catholics at the convocation of the [First] Vatican Council, Sept. 13, 1868, that they might return to the Catholic Church

TO ALL PROTESTANTS AND OTHER NON-CATHOLICS

Pius IX, Pope

You all know already that We, having been raised, notwithstanding Our unworthiness, to this Chair of Peter, and therefore invested with the supreme government and guardianship of the whole Catholic Church, divinely entrusted to Us by Christ our Lord, have judged it seasonable to call to Us Our Venerable Brethren, the Bishops of the whole earth, and to unite them together, to celebrate, next year, an Ecumenical Council; so that, in concert with these Our Venerable Brethren who are called to share in Our cares, We may take those steps which may be most opportune and necessary, both to disperse the darkness of the many noxious errors which everywhere increasingly prevail, to the great loss of souls ; and also to establish and confirm daily more and more among the Christian people entrusted to Our watchfulness the Kingdom of true Faith, Justice, and the Peace of God.

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