ON CONDITIONS IN ITALY

ETSI NOS

Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII promulgated on February 15, 1882.

To the Archbishops and Bishops and the Other Ordinaries of Italy.

Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction.

Although the authority and extent of Our Apostolic duties cause Us to 
embrace the whole Christian Republic and each of the provinces which 
compose it with all the love and vigilance which is in Our power, it is 
Italy which, at the present moment, more especially attracts Our solicitude 
and Our thoughts. These thoughts and these solicitudes extend far above 
mere temporal concerns, for it is the eternal salvation of souls which 
occupies Us and causes Us anxiety--a business which demands all Our zeal, 
and obliges Us to concentrate it entirely on that object, in proportion as 
We see it exposed to greater and greater perils. If ever these perils were 
menacing in Italy they are surely so now, at a time when the condition of 
the Civil State itself disastrously imperils the freedom of religion. We 
are also still more affected by this since an intimate alliance unites Us 
to Italy, where God has placed the residence of His Vicar, the Chair of 
truth and the center of Catholic Unity. On other occasions We have urged 
the nations to take heed, and Christians individually to realize, what 
duties are incumbent on them in such baleful circumstances. Nevertheless 
the evils continue to increase and We desire, Venerable Brethren, to point 
them out and commend them to your diligent attention, in order that, having 
recognized the tendency of public affairs, you may with greater vigilance 
strengthen the minds of your flocks, and surround them with every help, for 
fear lest that most precious treasure, the Catholic faith, should be torn 
from them.

2. A pernicious sect, of which the founders and chiefs neither hide nor 
even mask their desires, has established itself for some time back in 
Italy; after having declared war against Jesus Christ it is attempting to 
rob the people of their Christian institutions. As to the extent to which 
it has carried its audacity, it is the less necessary for Us to speak, 
Venerable Brethren, since the grave injuries and even ruin which morality 
and religion have to deplore lie patent before your eyes.

In the midst of the populations of Italy, which have always been so 
constant and steadfast in the faith of their fathers, the liberty of the 
Church is wounded on all sides; everyday efforts are redoubled in order to 
efface from the public institutions that Christian stamp and character 
which has always, and with good reason, been the seal of the glories of 
Italy. Religious houses suppressed, the goods of the Church confiscated, 
marriages contracted in despite of the laws and without the rites of the 
Church, the position of the religious authorities as to the education of 
the young utterly ignored--in fine, a cruel and deplorable war without 
limit and without measure declared against the Apostolic See, a war on 
account of which the Church is weighed down by inexpressible suffering, and 
the Roman Pontiff finds himself reduced to extreme anguish. For, despoiled 
of his Civil Princedom, he has of necessity fallen into the hands of 
another Power.

3. More than this; Rome, the most august of Christian cities, is now a 
place laid open to all the enemies of the Church; profane novelties defile 
it; here and there, temples and schools devoted to heresy are to be found. 
It is even reported that this year it is about to receive the deputies and 
leaders of the sect which is most embittered against Catholicism, who have 
appointed this city as the place for their solemn meeting. The reasons 
which have determined their choice of such a meeting place are no secret; 
they desire by this outrageous provocation to glut the hatred which they 
nourish against the Church, and to bring their incendiary torches within 
reach of the Roman Pontificate by attacking it in its very seat.

4. The Church, without doubt, will in the end be triumphant and will baffle 
the impious conspiracies of men; but it is none the less admitted and 
certain that their designs aim at nothing less than the destruction of the 
whole system of the Church with its Head, and the abolition, if it were 
possible, of all religion.

5. For those who pretend to be friends of the honor of Italy to dream of 
such prospects would seem a thing incredible, for the ruin of the Catholic 
faith in Italy would dry up the source of the most precious of goods. If, 
in truth, the Christian religion has created for the nations the best 
guarantees for their prosperity, the sanctity of right and the guardianship 
of justice; if by her influence she has everywhere subdued headlong and 
hasty passions, she, the companion and protectress of all honesty, of all 
nobility, of all greatness; if she has everywhere summoned all classes and 
every member of society to meet in a lasting peace and in perfect harmony, 
Italy has received a richer share of these benefits than any other nation.

6. It is, in truth, the shame of too many persons that they dare to 
denounce the Church as dangerous to public safety and prosperity, and to 
regard the Roman Pontificate as the enemy of the greatness of the name of 
Italy. But the records of the past give the lie to such slanders and to 
absurd calumnies of a similar kind. It is to the Church and the Roman 
Pontiffs that Italy especially owes gratitude for having spread her glories 
in all lands, for never having allowed her to succumb under the repeated 
incursions of having for generations preserved in many ways a lawful amount 
of just and proper liberty, and for having enriched her cities with 
numerous and immortal monuments of science and of art. In truth it is not 
the least glory of the Roman Pontiffs that they have maintained united in a 
common faith the various provinces of Italy, so different in customs and in 
genius, and have kept them from most disastrous disagreements. Frequently, 
in times of trouble and calamity, the welfare of the State would have been 
in peril, had not the Roman Pontificate saved it by exercise of its life-
giving power.

7. And its influence will not be less beneficial in the future if the 
malice of men does not interfere and hinder its efficacy or stifle its 
liberty. This beneficial force, which is peculiar to Catholic institutions, 
because it flows from them as a natural consequence, is unchangeable and 
unceasing. Even as, for the salvation of souls, the Catholic religion 
embraces all countries without any limitations of time or space, so does it 
always and everywhere stand forth and present itself as the true friend of 
the civil power.

8. These great advantages are being lost, and are being followed by grave 
evils; for the enemies of Christian wisdom, be their rival pretensions what 
they may, are leading society to its ruin. Nothing can be more efficacious 
than their doctrines in the way of kindling in men's minds the flames of 
violence and of stirring up the most pernicious passions. In the sphere of 
science they are repudiating the heavenly lights of faith; and when once 
this torch is put out, the mind of men is usually carried away by errors, 
no longer sees the truth, and begins quietly to sink into the lowest depths 
of a base and shameful materialism. In the sphere of morals they are 
disdainfully rejecting the eternal and unchangeable reasoning, and are 
despising God--the sovereign Legislator and supreme Avenger and when once 
these foundations are torn away no sufficient authority remains for law, 
and the regulation of life merely depends upon the good pleasure and free 
will of man. In society, the liberty without limit which they preach and 
pursue engenders license, and this license is very soon followed by the 
overthrow of order, the most fatal scourge of the public welfare. Of a 
truth, it is impossible to see society in a more pitiable or miserable 
state than in those places where such men and such doctrines as we have 
been describing have gained the upper hand even for a moment. Unless recent 
examples had furnished evidence it would have been difficult to believe 
that men, in a transport of furious and criminal boldness, could even have 
cast themselves into excesses of such a kind, and while retaining as if in 
mockery the name of liberty, could have given themselves over to 
"satutnalia" of conflagrations and murders. If Italy has not, up to the 
present time, experienced a similar reign of terror, we must attribute it 
first to the especial protection of God; but the fact must be also 
recognized--to explain this preservation--that the people of Italy--the 
immense majority of whom are still faithful to the Catholic religion--have 
never been able to be subdued by the vicious and shameful doctrines We have 
denounced. And it must be confessed that if the ramparts erected by 
religion begin to give way, Italy also will fall into the same abyss, in 
which the greatest and most flourishing nations have in past times lain 
prostrate as victims. Similar doctrines involve similar consequences, and 
since the germs are infected with the same poisons, it cannot be but that 
they should produce the same fruits.

9. Moreover Italy would perhaps have to pay yet more dearly for her 
apostasy, because in her case perfidy and impiety would be aggravated by 
ingratitude. It is not by chance or human caprice that Italy has from the 
first been a sharer in the salvation won by JESUS CHRIST, and has contained 
within her bosom the Chair of Peter, and enjoyed throughout a long course 
of ages the incomparable and divine benefits of which the Catholic religion 
is the natural source. She ought then greatly to fear for herself the 
judgment threatened by the Apostle Paul to ungrateful nations: "The earth 
that drinketh in the rain which cometh often upon it, and bringeth forth 
herbs meet for them by whom it is tilled, receiveth blessing from God. But 
that which bringeth forth thorns and briars is reprobate, and very near 
unto a curse, whose end is to be burnt."1

10. May God avert so terrible a misfortune! May all give a serious 
consideration to the evils by which in part we are afflicted, and with 
which in part we are threatened by those who, devoted to the interests of 
political sects, not of the public, have sworn to wage a war to the death 
against the Church. Unhappy men, if they were wise, if they had a true love 
for their country, far from distrusting the Church, and striving, under the 
influence of injurious suspicions, to deprive her of her necessary liberty, 
they would do all in their power to defend and protect her, and would first 
of all make provision for the re-establishment of the Roman Pontiff in the 
possession of his rights. In fact the more injurious the war against the 
Apostolic See is to the Church, the more fatal it is in the cause of Italy. 
We have elsewhere expressed this thought: "Say that the State in Italy can 
never prosper nor become stable and tranquil unless provision be made for 
the dignity of the Roman See and the liberty of the Supreme Pontiff, as 
every consideration of right requires."

11. And, therefore, as We have nothing more at heart than the safety of 
Christian interests, and deeply moved as We are by the peril in which the 
people of Italy now stands, We exhort you, Venerable Brethren, more 
earnestly than ever to unite your care and loving efforts to Ours, that a 
remedy for so many evils may be found.

12. And first endeavor to make your people understand of what value the 
Catholic Faith is to them, and how they ought to defend it at every cost. 
But, since the enemies and assailants of the Catholic name employ a 
thousand devices and a thousand feints to seduce those who are not on their 
guard, it is of the first importance to unmask and drag into the light of 
day their secret machinations, so that Catholics, having their eyes opened 
to the real aims of these men, may feel their own courage redoubled, and 
may resolve openly and intrepidly to defend the Church, the Roman Pontiff, 
and their own salvation.

13. Up to the present time, whether through unfamiliarity with the new 
state of things, or through an imperfect understanding of the extent of the 
danger, the courage of many from whom much might have been expected, does 
not seem to have displayed itself with all the activity and vigor required 
for the defense of so great a cause.

14. But now that We have learned by experience in what times We live, 
nothing could be more fatal than to endure in cowardly inertness the malice 
of the wicked which never tires, and to leave the field open to them to 
persecute the Church to the full satisfaction of their hate.

15. More prudent than the children of light, they have been daring in their 
enterprises; inferior in numbers, but superior in cunning and in riches, 
they have soon succeeded in lighting up amongst us a great conflagration of 
evils. May all the friends of Catholicity now, at least, understand that it 
is time to make some daring effort, and to rouse themselves at any cost 
from a languid carelessness, for one is never more easily overcome than in 
the sleep of cowardly security. Let them behold how the noble courage of 
their ancestors knew no fear and no repose; how by their indefatigable 
labors, and at the price of their blood, the Catholic Faith has grown and 
spread in the world.

16. Do you then, Venerable Brethren, awaken the sleeping, stimulate the 
hesitating; by your example and your authority train them all to fulfill 
with constancy and courage the duties which are the Christian life in 
action. And in order to maintain and develop this revived courage, means 
must be taken to promote the growth, multiplication, harmony, and 
fruitfulness of Associations the principal object of which should be to 
preserve and excite zeal for the Christian faith and other virtues. Such 
are the associations of young men and of workmen; such are the committees 
organized by Catholics, and meeting periodically; such are the institutions 
destined to relieve poverty, to protect the sanctification of festival 
days, to instruct the children of the poor, and several others of the same 
kind. And since it is of supreme importance to Christian interests that the 
Roman Pontiff should be, and should be clearly seen to be, free from all 
danger, from all vexations, and from all hindrance in the government of the 
Church, it is necessary, to attain this end, that action should be taken, 
petitions, and every possible means within the limits of the law should be 
adopted, and that none should rest until We have restored to Us, in reality 
and not in  appearance only, that liberty on which, not only the welfare of 
the Church, but the prosperity of Italy and the peace of Christian nations 
depend by a necessary connection.

17. Then it is of very great importance that writings of a healthy 
character should be published and circulated far and wide. Those who, with 
a deadly hatred, dissent from the Church, are wont to contend by means of 
publications, and to make use of these as the arms best adapted for 
inflicting injury. Hence a most evil deluge of books, hence the turbulent 
and wicked journals whose malevolent attacks neither the laws avail to 
bridle, nor modesty to restrain. Whatsoever in these latter years has been 
wrought by sedition and mobs, that they maintain to have been lawfully 
done; they dissimulate or corrupt the truth; they pursue the Church and the 
Supreme Pontiff with daily maledictions and false accusations; nor are 
there any opinions so absurd and pestiferous that they are not eager every 
where to disseminate them. The violence of this so great evil, which is 
daily spreading wider, must be diligently arrested; you must severely and 
gravely lead the people to be carefully on their guard, and to be willing 
most religiously to exercise a prudent choice in their reading. Moreover, 
writings must be opposed by writings, so that the same art which can effect 
most for the destruction, may in turn be applied to the salvation and 
benefit of mankind, and remedies be supplied from that source whence evil 
poisons are now obtained. And to this end it is to be wished that, at any 
rate in every province, there should be established some method of publicly 
demonstrating what and how great are the duties of all Christians towards 
the Church, by frequent, and, as far as possible, daily publications with 
this object. But in the first place, let there be kept in sight the 
conspicuous deserts of the Catholic religion in regard to all nations; let 
it be verbally explained how its influence, both in private and public 
affairs, is most benign and salutary; let it be shown of how great 
importance it is that the Church should promptly be established in that 
place of dignity in the State, which both its Divine grandeur and the 
public advantage of the nations absolutely required. For these reasons it 
is necessary that those who have devoted themselves to writing should 
observe further that they all keep the same end in view, that they should 
clearly ascertain what is most expedient and carry it out; they omit none 
of those things the knowledge of which seems useful and desirable; that, 
with gravity and moderation of speech, they reprove errors and vices; in 
such a way, however, that their reproof may be without bitterness, and with 
respect for the individuals; lastly that they use a plain and clear manner 
of speech, which the multitude can easily understand. But let all other 
persons, who truly and "ex animo" desire that religion and society, 
defended by human intellect and literature, should flourish, let them study 
by their liberality to guard and protect these productions of literature 
and intellect; and let everyone, in proportion to his income, support them 
by his money and influence. For to those who devote themselves to writing 
we ought by all means to bring helps of this kind; without which their 
industry will either have no results, or uncertain and miserable ones.--And 
in all these things if any inconvenience falls upon our friends, if there 
is any conflict to be sustained, let them still dare to be brave, since to 
the Christian there can be no cause for endurance or labor more just than 
that of not suffering religion to be attacked by the wicked. For the Church 
has not brought forth or educated her sons with this idea, that, when time 
and necessity compel, she should expect no assistance from them, but rather 
that they should all prefer the salvation of souls and the well-being of 
religion to their own ease and their own private interests.

18. But your chief cares and thoughts, Venerable Brethren, must have for 
their object the due appointment of fitting ministers of God. For if it be 
the office of Bishops to use very much labor and zeal in properly training 
the whole of their youth, they ought to spend themselves far more on the 
clerics who are growing up as the hope of the Church, and are to be some 
day sharers in the most sacred duties. Indeed, grave reasons, common to all 
times, demand in priests many and great graces; but this time in which we 
live demands that they should be even more and greater. In truth the 
defense of the Catholic Faith, in which the industry of priests ought 
specially to be employed, and which is in these days so very necessary, 
demands no common nor ordinary learning, but that which is recondite and 
varies; which embraces not only sacred, but even philosophical studies, and 
is rich in the treatment of physical and historical discoveries. For the 
error which has to be eradicated is multiform, and saps all the foundations 
of Christian wisdom; and very often a battle has to be waged with 
adversaries well prepared, pertinacious in disputing, who astutely draw 
confirmation from every kind of science. Similarly, since in these days 
there is great and far extended corruption of morals, there is need in 
priests of singular excellence of virtue and constancy. They can by no 
means avoid associating with men; by the very duties of their office, 
indeed, they are compelled to have intimate relations with the people; and 
that in the midst of cities where there is hardly any lust that has not 
permitted and unbridled license. From which it follows that virtue in the 
clergy ought at this time to be strong enough peacefully to guard itself, 
and both conquer all the blandishments of desire and securely overcome 
dangerous examples. Besides a paucity of clerics has everywhere followed 
the laws which have been enacted to the injury of the Church, so plainly, 
that it is necessary for those who by the grace of God are being trained to 
Holy Orders, to give double attention, and by increased diligence, zeal, 
and devotion to compensate for the sparse supply. And, indeed, they cannot 
do this advantageously unless they possess a soul resolute of purpose, 
mortified, incorrupt, ardent with charity, ever prompt and quick in 
undertaking labors for the salvation of men. But for such tasks a long and 
diligent preparation must be made; for one is not accustomed to such great 
things easily and quickly. And they indeed will pass their time in the 
priesthood holily and purely, who have exercised themselves in this way 
from their youth, and have so advanced in discipline that they seem not so 
much to have been instructed to those virtues, of which We have spoken, as 
to have been born to them.

19. For these reasons, Venerable Brethren, the Seminaries of clerics demand 
a very great portion of your zeal, care, and vigilance.

20. As to virtue and morals, it does not escape your wisdom with what 
precepts and instruction the youth of clerics must be surrounded. In graver 
studies Our Encyclical Letters, "Aeterni Patris," have pointed out the best 
way and course. But since in such a condition of mental activity many 
things have been wisely and usefully discovered, which it is not fitting to 
ignore especially when wicked men are accustomed to turn, as new weapons, 
against divinely revealed truths, every addition of this kind which the day 
brings--take care, Venerable Brethren, as far as lies in your power, that 
the young clerics be not only better instructed in natural sciences, but 
also properly educated in those arts which have connection with the 
interpretation or authority of the Sacred Scriptures. Of this surely we are 
not ignorant, that many things are needful for perfection in the highest 
studies, the means for which in the religious seminaries of Italy hostile 
laws are taking away or diminishing. But in this also the time demands that 
by their bounty and munificence Our children should strive to merit well of 
the Catholic religion. The pious and beneficent goodwill of our ancestors 
had admirably provided for necessities of this kind; and this the Church 
had been able by prudence and economy to accomplish, so that she had no 
necessity whatever to recommend to the charity of her children the care and 
preservation of sacred property. But her legitimate and sacred patrimony, 
which the attacks of former ages had spared, the tempest of our times has 
dissipated; so that there is again a reason why those who love the Catholic 
name should be induced to renew the liberality of their ancestors. 
Illustrious indeed are the proofs of munificence on the part of Frenchmen, 
Belgians, and others in a cause not very dissimilar from this munificence 
most worthy the admiration not only of contemporaries, but also of 
posterity. Nor do We doubt but that the Italian people, moved by the 
consideration of their common circumstances, will, in proportion to their 
means, act so as to show themselves worthy of their father, and will 
imitate the example of their brethren.

21. In these things, of which We have spoken, We have the greatest hope of 
consolation and security. But since in all designs, and especially in those 
which are undertaken for the sake of public safety, it is necessary to add 
always to human instruments the aid of Almighty God, in Whose power are the 
wills of individual men no less than the course and fortunes of Empires, 
therefore we must invoke God by instant prayers, and beseech Him to look 
upon Italy, which has been enriched and increased by so many of His 
benefits, and, having taken away every suspicion of peril, ever to preserve 
in her the Catholic Faith, which is the chief good. For this self-same 
reason let us devoutly implore the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the great Mother 
of God, the prompter and helper of good counsels, together with her most 
holy spouse Joseph, the guardian and patron of Christian nations. And with 
like care we must beseech the great Apostles, Peter and Paul, to guard 
safely in the Italian people the fruit of their labor, and to keep holy and 
inviolate amongst their latest posterity the Catholic name which they begot 
for our fathers with their own blood.

22. Confiding in the celestial patronage of all these, as a pledge of 
divine favors, and a proof of Our particular good will, We most lovingly in 
the Lord bestow on you all, Venerable Brethren, and on the flocks committed 
to your care, the Apostolic Benediction.

Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, on the 15th day of February, in the year of 
Our Lord 1882, and of Our Pontificate the fourth.

     ENDNOTES:

     1. Heb. vi. 7, 8.