Affari vos

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Affari vos is an encyclical of Pope Leo XIII. dated December 8, 1897, addressed to the Canadian bishops and answered the question about schools in Manitoba .

Liberal reforms in education

The then still young community of Catholics in Manitoba could not decide on a clear stance towards the reforms of the education system of the liberal government. They turned to Rome for assistance and sought the help of the pontiff . The decisive factor was the decision of the government under Félix-Gabriel Marchand (1897–1900) to push ahead with the reforms of the school system and to create a Ministry of Education for this purpose. For this he had also informed the Curia , which had the success that Pope Leo XIII. demanded a postponement of the law on educational reform, with this encyclical on the Manitoba school question he wanted to make it clear that there were no plans in Rome to interfere more than necessary in the religious and political conflicts in Canada . A law of 1897 then regulated the free distribution of school books for the first time, against the resistance of part of the church. There was public debate about crucifixes in classrooms and about the free school, which has been severely criticized by leading theologians.

The encyclical

In his greeting, he emphasized the work and spirit of Saint François de Montmorency-Laval , the first bishop of Québec , and praised his religious work. The Pope emphasizes the previous good educational work of his confreres and underlines the excellent quality of Catholic education, he particularly mentions the University of Laval . Leo XIII. writes that he has been following the legislative timeliness of Manitoba with keen interest and that he has noted that this province has indeed passed a law intending to abolish Catholic schools. He considered this law to be a bad law and therefore called for the Catholic schools to be retained so that Christian education could continue to exist in harmony with scientific studies.

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