Quod apostolici muneris

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Pope Leo XIII. turned in his second encyclical Quod apostolici muneris (meaning: Our apostolic duty) of December 28, 1878 against socialism .

The confrontation with socialism

The Roman Catholic Church saw socialism as its most dangerous enemy in the 19th century . Accordingly, it was strictly hostile to socialism in general and to Marxism in particular. Pope Pius IX , the predecessor of Leo XIII., in his inaugural encyclical Qui pluribus in 1846 condemned communism as a "hideous doctrine" and in §4 of his syllabus errorum, among other things, rejected socialism and communism as "epidemics". Leo XIII. continued this dispute.

Shortly after taking up his pontificate, Pope Leo XIII. in his published encyclical Quod apostolici muneris the tone and content of the ecclesiastical declarations when he wrote of the socialists as “the party of those people who are called socialists, communists or nihilists by various, almost barbaric names , and all over the world are common ". He described socialism as a "plague" against which the "Church of God has such a great power as it cannot fall under either human law, the prohibitions of the authorities or the weapons of the soldiers." The Pope condemned socialists in the introductory paragraphs of the encyclical, among other things, because they refuse to obey those “higher powers” ​​who have received their worldly power from God and because they demand the equality of all people. Likewise condemned are those democratic states, according to whose constitution the law emanates from the people, not from God or monarchs ruling in his name.

Although he declares that rulers have to rule justly, he also admonishes all believers not to rebel against tyrants, but rather to endure their fate as God-imposed. Just as all people owe obedience to those in power when they appeal to God, women are, according to the encyclical, contrary to the egalitarian ideas of the socialists, urged to regard men as their masters. The inequality between men and women is accordingly given by God as well as differences in class and the differences between those who have and the poor. Equality and the abolition of these differences, which socialism strives for, is therefore an offense against the divine order.

The church would stand by political forces that act against the socialist parties and movements on the condition that the states restore it "that position and freedom in which it can exercise its most salutary influence for the benefit of society as a whole" .

The "small" social encyclics

In addition to the most famous, the encyclical Rerum novarum (May 15, 1891), Leo XIII wrote. with Diuturnum illud (June 29, 1881), Immortale Dei (November 1, 1885), Libertas (June 20, 1888) and Graves de communi re (January 19, 1901) a number of other "small" social encyclicals.

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