Acerba animi

Acerba animi (Latin, "Of harsh souls"; also called On the Persecution of the Church in Mexico) is an

anticlerical persecution of the Church, and the Pope harshly criticised the government for its past and current abuse of the Church and its faithful and chided the government for not only violating its promises to the Church made in the recent cessation of the Catholic uprising, the Cristero War, but expanding the persecution.^[2]^[1]

Substance of the Encyclical

The Pope criticized the state's continued persecution noting that the Mexican people had been "so long harassed by grievous persecutions".

inalienable rights of the Church and of the faithful" and that both he and his predecessor had endeavored to avoid their application by the Mexican government.^[4] The Pope chided the Mexican government for breaking its promise not to apply the anticlerical provisions, just shortly after making those promises in writing to the Holy See.^[2]

The letter noted the recent history of Mexico where a "rigorous application was given to Article 130 of the Constitution" which due to its "extreme hostility to the Church as may be seen from Our Encyclical Iniquis afflictisque" caused the

martyrdom of their priests and flock.^[2]

The persecution led to the rebellion known as the Cristero War.

The letter allows that the See "did not forbear to encourage with word and counsel the lawful Christian resistance of the priests and the faithful"^[5]

The Pope noted that the government's indications that it was not averse to coming to an agreement gave some hope, even though the same government had a recent history of breaking its promises.^[6] Thus when the government indicated in 1929 that it did not by application of the anticlerical provisions of the constitution intend to destroy what the government called the "identity of the Church" nor to ignore its hierarchy, the Holy See agreed to relent, allowing the resuming of public worship, with the understanding that the Church would not accept the government regulation of worship, nor cease protest against, nor to combat it.^[7] Nonetheless, the government again broke its promises as "faithful Catholics continued to be penalized and imprisoned", exiled Bishops were not allowed to return and more were exiled "without any semblance of legality".^[8] In violation of promises, in many diocese, seized property, including churches, seminaries, Bishops' residences were not returned and "priests and laymen who had steadfastly defended the faith were abandoned to the cruel vengeance of their adversaries".^[8]

The government continued to spur antireligious, socialist and

U.S.S.R. at the time.^[11]

The Pope stated that "any restriction whatever of the number of priests is a grave violation of divine rights", urging the "Bishops, the clergy, and the Catholic laity to continue to protest with all their energy against such violation, using every legitimate means.".

grace and strength, and instruction in the truth of the faith.^[14] Rejecting further rebellion, the letter counseled laymen to "the closest union with the Church and the Hierarchy, manifesting it by their docility to her teachings and directions".^[14]

Reception and ramifications

The reaction of the government was hostile; the President at the time,

guerrilla action, deviating from the lack of rebellion from 1929-1931.^[15] On the other hand, substantial efforts were made to comply, in the least overtly political way possible, the goals of Acción Católica Mexicana

(Mexican Catholic Action – ACM):

1. To again place
Jesus Christ
in the middle of the family school and society

2. To combat by all just and legal means anti-Christian civilization.

3. To repair by the same means the grave disorders in our society.

4. To reestablish the principle that human authority is representative of that of God.[16]

Still, during most of the Maximato membership was not high and action was limited.^[16]

References

^ ^a ^b Philippe Levillain The Papacy: An Encyclopedia p. 1208, 2002 Routledge
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Acerba animi, paragraph 3
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 1
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 2
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 5
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 6
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 7
^ ^a ^b Acerba animi, paragraph 8
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 9-10
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 10-11
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 12
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 13
^ Acerba animi, paragraph 19
^ ^a ^b ^c Acerba animi, paragraph 20
^ ^a ^b Sherman, John W., The Mexican right: the end of revolutionary reform, 1929-1940, p. 35-36, Greenwood Publishing 1997
^ ^a ^b Sherman, John W., The Mexican right: the end of revolutionary reform, 1929-1940, p. 36, Greenwood Publishing 1997

External links

Acerba animi

[The_Papacy:_An_Encyclopedia-1] Philippe Levillain The Papacy: An Encyclopedia p. 1208, 2002 Routledge

[paragraph1-2] Acerba animi, paragraph 3

[3] Acerba animi, paragraph 1

[4] Acerba animi, paragraph 2

[5] Acerba animi, paragraph 5

[6] Acerba animi, paragraph 6

[7] Acerba animi, paragraph 7

[paragraph2-8] Acerba animi, paragraph 8

[9] Acerba animi, paragraph 9-10

[10] Acerba animi, paragraph 10-11

[11] Acerba animi, paragraph 12

[12] Acerba animi, paragraph 13

[13] Acerba animi, paragraph 19

[paragraph-14] Acerba animi, paragraph 20

[google35-15] Sherman, John W., The Mexican right: the end of revolutionary reform, 1929-1940, p. 35-36, Greenwood Publishing 1997

[google36-16] Sherman, John W., The Mexican right: the end of revolutionary reform, 1929-1940, p. 36, Greenwood Publishing 1997

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