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Title: |
Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae
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Descr.: |
Concerning New Opinions, Virtue, Nature And Grace, With Regard To Americanism
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Pope: |
Pope Leo XIII
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Date: |
January 22, 1899 |
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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
[First] 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 gives unto all sweetness both to assent and to hold, such an one
is deceived by a heretical spirit." (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) cooperates 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 anyone 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.
Nor
should any difference of praise be made between those who follow
the active state of life and those others who, charmed with
solitude, give themselves to prayer and bodily mortification. And
how much, indeed, of good report these have merited, and do merit,
is known surely to all who do not forget that the "continual
prayer of the just man" avails to placate and to bring down
the blessings of heaven when to such prayers bodily mortification
is added.
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.
But
the true Church is one, as by unity of doctrine, so by unity of
government, and she is catholic also. Since God has placed the
center and foundation of unity in the chair of Blessed Peter, she
is rightly called the Roman Church, for "where Peter is,
there is the church." Wherefore, if anybody wishes to be
considered a real Catholic, he ought to be able to say from his
heart the selfsame words which Jerome addressed to Pope Damasus:
"I, acknowledging no other leader than Christ, am bound in
fellowship with Your Holiness; that is, with the chair of Peter. I
know that the church was built upon him as its rock, and that
whosoever gathereth not with you, scattereth."
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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