As some may have already noticed from our special masthead, this is a (Lenten) month of celebration for us, with the 70th anniversary of three encyclicals of one of the greatest pontiffs in living memory, Pius XI: in their order of publication, Mit brennender Sorge (March 14); Divini Redemptoris (March 19); and Nos es muy conocida (March 28). In very different ways, the three encyclicals deal with the same matter: how do the Church and the Catholic faithful deal with a Totalitarian regime, run by National-Socialist pagan nation-worshippers, Communist Atheists, or "Fraternal" Mexican post-Revolutionary lords?
There is no doubt that the most relevant of them is Divini Redemptoris, not because its original text was in Latin, but because, as this linguistic aspect already makes clear, it is a universal encyclical for a universal problem, which endures up to our days: Communism. In the months leading to the release of the encyclical on the Feast of Saint Joseph, 1937, the greatest concern in the mind of the Pontiff as political tensions reached feverish proportions throughout the world was undoubtedly the Spanish situation.
Pius XI is often and unjustly accused of "silence" regarding the unbelievably gruesome persecution of Catholics in the Republican-occupied territory of Spain since the early days of the Republic and particularly since the Nationalist alzamiento of July 18, 1936, which marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (see our ongoing series on "The Passion of Spain"). There was no silence -- but there was caution so that the slaughter of Catholics would not reach even greater proportions; this while the Holy See did all it could to protect the Spanish faithful under persecution (does this "silence libel" sound familiar?):
There is no doubt that the most relevant of them is Divini Redemptoris, not because its original text was in Latin, but because, as this linguistic aspect already makes clear, it is a universal encyclical for a universal problem, which endures up to our days: Communism. In the months leading to the release of the encyclical on the Feast of Saint Joseph, 1937, the greatest concern in the mind of the Pontiff as political tensions reached feverish proportions throughout the world was undoubtedly the Spanish situation.
Pius XI is often and unjustly accused of "silence" regarding the unbelievably gruesome persecution of Catholics in the Republican-occupied territory of Spain since the early days of the Republic and particularly since the Nationalist alzamiento of July 18, 1936, which marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War (see our ongoing series on "The Passion of Spain"). There was no silence -- but there was caution so that the slaughter of Catholics would not reach even greater proportions; this while the Holy See did all it could to protect the Spanish faithful under persecution (does this "silence libel" sound familiar?):
...the most persistent enemies of the Church, who from Moscow are directing the struggle against Christian civilization, themselves bear witness, by their unceasing attacks in word and act, that even to this hour the Papacy has continued faithfully to protect the sanctuary of the Christian religion, and that it has called public attention to the perils of Communism more frequently and more effectively than any other public authority on earth.
Pius was aware, more than any other leader of the age, of the violence perpetrated by Marxists in Spain, as he used it as a warning to all civilized nations, two years before the war and the persecutions were over:
Even where the scourge of Communism has not yet had time enough to exercise to the full its logical effects, as witness Our beloved Spain, it has, alas, found compensation in the fiercer violence of its attack. Not only this or that church or isolated monastery was sacked, but as far as possible every church and every monastery was destroyed. Every vestige of the Christian religion was eradicated, even though intimately linked with the rarest monuments of art and science. The fury of Communism has not confined itself to the indiscriminate slaughter of Bishops, of thousands of priests and religious of both sexes; it searches out above all those who have been devoting their lives to the welfare of the working classes and the poor. But the majority of its victims have been laymen of all conditions and classes. Even up to the present moment, masses of them are slain almost daily for no other offense than the fact that they are good Christians or at least opposed to atheistic Communism. And this fearful destruction has been carried out with a hatred and a savage barbarity one would not have believed possible in our age. No man of good sense, nor any statesman conscious of his responsibility can fail to shudder at the thought that what is happening today in Spain may perhaps be repeated tomorrow in other civilized countries.
From the past, Pius XI seems to warn us even today: "Catholics, never forget what Communism is, what inspires it, what Communists have done, still do, and will always do to Christians, given the opportunity! Catholic faithful, never forget '36! Always forgive, but never forget what Socialists and Communists did to you!"
And the Pian warning resonates in the tablelands of Iberia as "modern" Socialists harass and attempt to silence the Church anew.
And the Pian warning resonates in the tablelands of Iberia as "modern" Socialists harass and attempt to silence the Church anew.
