| Mystici Corporis Christi Latin for 'The Mystical Body of Christ' Encyclical ofPopePius XII | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Signature date | 29 June 1943 |
| Subject | On the Mystical Body of Christ and the Church |
| Number | 4 of 41 of the pontificate |
| Text | |
| AAS | 35 (7):193-248 |
Mystici Corporis Christi(The Mystical Body of Christ) is anencyclical issued byPope Pius XII on 29 June 1943 duringWorld War II. Its main topic is theCatholic Church as theMystical Body of Christ.
The encyclical is remembered for its statement that the Mystical Body of Christ is the Catholic Church. According toMystici corporis, to be truly a member of the mystical body, one must be a member of the Catholic Church. Non-Catholics who erred ingood faith could be unsuspectingly united to the mystical body by an unconscious desire and longing.[1]
According to theJesuit theologianAvery Dulles,Mystici Corporis was "the most comprehensive official Catholic pronouncementon the Church prior toVatican II".[1] Its primary writerSebastiaan Tromp drew mainly on the first schema ofVatican I and on the encyclicals ofLeo XIII.[2] It de-emphasizedpapal jurisdiction, but insisted on thevisibility of the church and warned against an excessivelymystical understanding of the union betweenChrist and the Church.[1]
The encyclical builds on a theological development in the 1920s and 1930s inItaly,France,Germany andEngland, which all re-discovered thePauline concept of theMystical Body of Christ.[3] In 1936,Emile Mersch[who?] had warned of some false mysticisms being advanced with regard to the mystical body, and his history of this topic was seen as influencing the encyclical.[4]
On 18 January 1943, five months before the promulgation ofMystici Corporis Christi,ArchbishopConrad Gröber ofFribourg promulgated a letter in which he addressed thedocetic tendencies of some mystical body theology (tendencies to separate thespiritual and the material elements in man). Timothy Gabrielli saw Pius' emphasis on the church as aperfect society on earth as an attempt to save the mystical body theology, with its many theological,pastoral, and spiritual benefits, from the danger of docetism.[5]
The encyclical teaches that bothlaypeople and the leadership have a role to play in the Catholic Church. Lay people are at the forefront of the Church, and have to be aware of 'being the Church', not just 'belonging to the Church'. At the same time, thePope andbishops are responsible for providing leadership for all the faithful. Together, they are the Church and work for the good of the Church.[6]
The encyclical states thatChrist, while still on earth, instructed by precept, counsel and warnings "in words that shall never pass away, and will be spirit and life" to all men of all times.[7] He conferred a triple power onhis Apostles andtheir successors, to teach, to govern, to lead men to holiness, making this power, defined by special ordinances, rights and obligations, the fundamental law of the whole Church.[8] God governs directly and guides personally the Church which He founded. Pius XII quotedProverbs 21:1, noting thatGod reigns within the minds and hearts of men, and bends and subjects their wills to His good pleasure, even when rebellious.[9]
Mystici Corporis requests the faithful to love their Church and to always see Christ in her, especially in the old and sick members. They must accustom themselves "to see Christ Himself in the Church. For it is Christ who lives in His Church, and through her, teaches, governs, and sanctifies; it is Christ also who manifests Himself differently in different members of His society".[10]
Pius XII wrote: "The Church of God […] is despised and hated maliciously by those who shut their eyes to the light of Christian wisdom and miserably return to the teachings, customs and practices of ancientpaganism". He quoted thebook of Wisdom to the effect that "a most severe judgment shall be for them that bear rule. […] The mighty shall be mightily tormented […] A greater punishment is ready for the more mighty".[11]
Ronald Rychlak has described the encyclical as "an obvious attack on the theoretical basis ofNational Socialism".[12]
Pius' statement of "profound grief" at the death of "the deformed, the insane, and those suffering from hereditary disease […] as though they were a useless burden to Society"[13] was a condemnation of the ongoingNazi euthanasia program, under which disabled Germans were being removed from care facilities and murdered by the state as "life unworthy of life".[14]
Pius XII appealed to "Catholics the world over" to "look to theVicar of Jesus Christ as the loving Father of them all, who […] takes upon himself with all his strength the defense of truth, justice and charity". He explained: "Our paternal love embraces all peoples, whatever their nationality or race". Christ, by his blood, made the Jews and Gentiles one "breaking down the middle wall of partition […] in his flesh by which the two peoples were divided". He noted thatJews wereamong the first people to adore Jesus. Pius then made an appeal for all to "follow our peaceful King [Jesus Christ] who taught us to love not only those who are of a different nation or race, but even our enemies".[11]
Mystici Corporis Christi strongly condemned theforced conversions to Catholicism that were then occurring inFascist Croatia.[15] Church membership and conversions must be voluntary. Regarding conversions, it states: "We recognize that this must be done of their own free will; for no one believes unless he wills to believe. Hence they are most certainly not genuine Christians who against their belief are forced to go into a church, to approach the altar and to receive theSacraments; for the 'faith without which it is impossible to please God' is an entirely free 'submission of intellect and will.'".
Ecclesiology is one of the focus of the encyclical.
The encyclical defines the "true Church of Jesus Christ" and the "Mystical Body of Christ" as "theOne, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church".[16]
It states that the only ones who can be considered as "members of the Church" are those "who have beenbaptized and profess thetrue faith, and who have not […] separate[d] themselves from the unity of the Body, or beenexcluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed".[17] The encyclical also states that thesins ofheresy andschism, by their "own nature", "sever a man from the Body of the Church".[18]
As for "those who do not belong to the visible Body of the Catholic Church, […] even though by an unconscious desire and longing they have a certain relationship with the Mystical Body of theRedeemer, they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church".[19]
The encyclical rejects two views on the Church:[20]
The encyclical concludes with a summary of themariology of the Pope. The 1854 dogma of theImmaculate Conception byPius IX defined that theVirgin Mary was conceived withoutsin, as themother of God and of all humans. Pope Pius XII built on this inMystici Corporis : Mary, "whose sinless soul was filled with the divine spirit of Jesus Christ above all other created souls, who 'in the name of the whole human race' gave her consent 'for a spiritual marriage between theSon of God and human nature'". It adds: "she who, according to the flesh, was the mother of our Head [Jesus Christ], through the added title of pain and glory became, according to the Spirit, the mother of all His members. It was through her powerful prayers obtained that the spirit ofour Divine Redeemer,already given on the Cross, should be bestowed, accompanied by miraculous gifts, on thenewly founded Church at Pentecost; and finally, bearing with courage and confidence the tremendous burden of her sorrows and desolation, she, truly the Queen ofMartyrs".[23]
While theEarly Church Fathers tended to contrastEve's disobedience with Mary's acceptance at theAnnunciation, Pius looked rather to her presence atCalvary where "she, thesecond Eve, who, free from all sin,original or personal, and always more intimately united with her Son, offered Him on Golgotha to the Eternal Father for all the children ofAdam, sin-stained byhis unhappy fall".[24] Pius viewed her compassion there as the basis for her role in humanity'sredemption.[25]
If the Mother of God was born as the "second Eve", the Church was born as the "new Eve". Pius XII repeated that, according to "unanimous teaching" of the Church Fathers and themagisterium of Christ, the "Church was born from the side of ourSavior on the Cross like a new Eve, mother of all the living".[24]
Mystici Corporis did not receive much attention during the war years but became influential afterWorld War II.[20]
In theUnited States, the encyclical's comments on racial relationships were seen as a critique of any kind of prejudice againstAfrican Americans.[26]
The encyclical was followed, on 26 September 1943, by an open condemnation inNazi Germany by theGerman Bishops which, from everypulpit of every German churches, denounced the killing of "innocent and defenceless mentally handicapped, incurably infirm and fatally wounded, innocent hostages, and disarmed prisoners of war and criminal offenders, people of a foreign race or descent".[14]
Mystici Corporis Christi is principally remembered for its statement that theMystical Body of Christ is identical with theRoman Catholic Church, a position later reaffirmed byPius XII inHumani generis (1950) in response to dissension.[a][1]
In 1947, Pius XII wrote the encyclicalMediator Dei which acknowledged that baptized Christians were members of theMystical Body and participated inChrist's priestly office.[1]
During theSecond Vatican Council,Yves Congar argued that the termecclesia ('church') concerned the people "called forth", thePeople of God, those over whom God reigns. "Body of Christ", then, would emphasize the special union with therisen Christ that came with thenew covenant. Congar was later denounced by theHoly Office for describing the Church as essentially acommunity in the Spirit, a gathering of the faithful.[1]
The Second Vatican Council would later define inLumen gentium that the Churchsubsists in (in Latin:subsistit in) the Catholic Church.[1]
Paul VI's 1964 encyclical letterEcclesiam Suam quotesMystici Corporis Christi:
Consider, then, this splendid utterance of Our predecessor:
"The doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, a doctrine revealed originally from the lips of the Redeemer Himself, and making manifest the inestimable boon of our most intimate union with so august a Head, has a surpassing splendor which commends it to the meditation of all who are moved by the divine Spirit, and with the light which it sheds on their minds, is a powerful stimulus to the salutary conduct which it enjoins."[28]
In 1947, Pius XII issued theapostolic constitutionProvida Mater Ecclesia, which allowedlay people to form their own secular communities, and establish them within a newly establishedcanon law framework.[29]
| General |
| ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People |
| ||||
| Benedictine- establishments | |||||
| Papal documents | |||||
| Architecture | |||||
| Issues | |||||
| See also | |||||
.svg)
