Traditi humilitati nostrae

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Coat of arms of Pope Pius VIII.

Traditi humilitati nostrae (“Owing to our humility”) is the only encyclical of Pope Pius VIII. The encyclical addressed to the bishops of the Church on the general direction of his pontificate was published on May 24, 1829.

After taking up his pontificate, Pius VIII sees his first and foremost duty in the shepherd's care for his flock so that no sheep is lost. The Pope deplores the increasing spread of errors and unnatural doctrines, which no longer acted in secret but in all openness and emphatically against the Catholic faith. These heresies also include the lack of power of discrimination with regard to religions and the view that the gate to eternal salvation opens up for everyone and out of every faith. Carelessly and out of stupidity, believers also turned away from Catholicism. In fact, this fatal idea also contradicts the light of natural reason. If one is right, the other must necessarily be wrong, there can be no unity of light with darkness.

But one should also beware of those who enriched and disseminated the Scriptures with new interpretations that contradict the teachings of the Church. They skillfully replaced what the scriptures said with their own opinion. With incredible effort, Bible translations in the respective mother tongue would also be made accessible to the uneducated. Those editions can hardly be found without small insertions that Pius describes as "abnormal". Those ensured that the reader would drink deadly poison instead of the water of salvation. At this point, the Pope refers to the Council of Trent , which stated that no one may twist the statements of Scripture with regard to questions of faith until they fit his own opinion or contradict the teaching of the Church or the Popes.

Furthermore, the Pope speaks about the work of secret leagues in schools and seminaries and the spread of heretical writings. The intention of those covenants is to destroy the kingdom of God. Pius also encourages the bishops to show the faithful the sanctity of the marital status and the sacrament of marriage . In the past, marriage only had the purpose of having children. Christ the Lord raised it to the dignity of a sacrament .

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