Mystici Corporis

The Mystical Body of Christ, the Church

To Our Venerable Brethren, Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Local Ordinaries
enjoying Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.

Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction.

1. The doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, 1 was first taught us by the Redeemer
Himself. Illustrating as it does the great and inestimable privilege of our intimate union with so exalted a
Head, this doctrine by its sublime dignity invites all those who are drawn by the Holy Spirit to study it,
and gives them, in the truths of which it proposes to the mind, a strong incentive to the performance of
such good works as are conformable to its teaching. For this reason, We deem it fitting to speak to you
on this subject through this Encyclical Letter, developing and explaining above all, those points which
concern the Church Militant. To this We are urged not only by the surpassing grandeur of the subject but
also by the circumstances of the present time.

2. For We intend to speak of the riches stored up in this Church which Christ purchased with His own
Blood, 2 and whose members glory in a thorn crowned Head. The fact that they thus glory is a striking
proof that the greatest joy and exaltation are born only of suffering, and hence that we should rejoice if
we partake of the sufferings of Christ, that when His glory shall be revealed we may also be glad with
exceeding joy. 3

3. From the outset it should be noted that the society established by the Redeemer of the human race
resembles its divine Founder who was persecuted, calumniated and tortured by those very men whom
He had undertaken to save. We do not deny, rather from a heart filled with gratitude to God We admit,
that even in our turbulent times there are many who, though outside the fold of Jesus Christ, look to the
Church as the only haven of salvation; but We are also aware that the Church of God not only 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 ancient paganism, but is ignored, neglected, and even at
times looked upon as irksome by many Christians who are allured by specious error or caught in the
meshes of the world’s corruption. In obedience, therefore, Venerable Brethren, to the voice of Our
conscience and in compliance with the wishes of many, We will set forth before the eyes of all and extol
the beauty, the praises, and the glory of Mother Church to whom, after God, we owe everything.
4. And it is to be hoped that Our instructions and exhortations will bring forth abundant fruit in the souls
of the faithful in the present circumstances. For We know that if all the sorrows and calamities of these
stormy times, by which countless multitudes are being sorely tried, are accepted from God’s hands with
calm submission, they naturally lift souls above the passing things of earth to those of heaven that abide
forever, and arouse a certain secret thirst and intense desire for spiritual things. Thus, urged by the Holy
Spirit, men are moved, and, as it were, impelled to seek the Kingdom of God with greater diligence; for
the more they are detached from the vanities of this world and from inordinate love of temporal things,
the more apt they will be to perceive the light of heavenly mysteries. But the vanity and emptiness of
earthly things are more manifest today than perhaps at any other period, when Kingdoms and States are
crumbling, when enormous quantities of goods and all kinds of wealth are being sunk in the depths of
the sea, and cities, towns and fertile fields are strewn with massive ruins and defiled with the blood of
brothers.

5. Moreover, We trust that Our exposition of the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ will be
acceptable and useful to those also who are without the fold of the Church, not only because their good
will towards the Church seems to grow from day to day, but also because, while before their eyes nation
rises up against nation, kingdom against kingdom and discord is sown everywhere together with the
seeds of envy and hatred, if they turn their gaze to the Church, if they contemplate her divinely-given
unity — by which all men of every race are united to Christ in the bond of brotherhood they will be
forced to admire this fellowship in charity, and with the guidance and assistance of divine grace will long
to share in the same union and charity.

6. There is a special reason too, and one most dear to Us, which recalls this doctrine to Our mind and
with it a deep sense of joy. During the year that has passed since the twenty-fifth anniversary of Our
Episcopal consecration, We have had the great consolation of witnessing something that has made the
image of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ stand out most clearly before the whole world. Though a long
and deadly war has pitilessly broken the bond of brotherly union between nations, We have seen Our
children in Christ, in whatever part of the world they happened to be, one in will and affection, lift up
their hearts to the common Father, who, carrying in his own heart the cares and anxieties of all, is
guiding the barque of the Catholic Church in the teeth of a raging tempest. This is a testimony to the
wonderful union existing among Christians; but it also proves that, as Our paternal love embraces all
peoples, whatever their nationality and race, so Catholics the world over, though their countries may
have drawn the sword against each other, look to the Vicar of Jesus Christ as to the loving Father of them
all, who, with absolute impartiality and incorruptible judgment, rising above the conflicting gales of
human passions, takes upon himself with all his strength the defense of truth, justice and charity.

7. We have been no less consoled to know that with spontaneous generosity a fund has been created for
the erection of a church in Rome to be dedicated to Our saintly predecessor and patron Eugene I. As this
temple, to be built by the wish and through the liberality of all the faithful, will be a lasting memorial of
this happy event, so We desire to offer this Encyclical Letter in testimony of Our gratitude. It tells of
those living stones which rest upon the living cornerstone, which is Christ, and are built together into a
holy temple, far surpassing any temple built by hands, into a habitation of God in the Spirit. 4
8. But the chief reason for Our present exposition of this sublime doctrine is Our solicitude for the souls
entrusted to Us. Much indeed has been written on this subject; and we know that many today are
turning with greater zest to a study which delights and nourishes Christian piety. This, it would seem, is
chiefly because a revived interest in the sacred liturgy, the more widely spread custom of frequent
Communion, and the more fervent devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus practiced today, have brought
many souls to a deeper consideration of the unsearchable riches of Christ which are preserved in the
Church. Moreover recent pronouncements on Catholic Action, by drawing closer the bonds of union
between Christians and between them and the ecclesiastical hierarchy and especially the Roman Pontiff,
have undoubtedly helped not a little to place this truth in its proper light. Nevertheless, while We can
derive legitimate joy from these considerations, We must confess that grave errors with regard to this
doctrine are being spread among those outside the true Church, and that among the faithful, also,
inaccurate or thoroughly false ideas are being disseminated which turn minds aside from the straight
path of truth.

9. For while there still survives a false rationalism, which ridicules anything that transcends and defies
the power of human genius, and which is accompanied by a cognate error, the so-called popular
naturalism, which sees and wills to see in the Church nothing but a juridical and social union, there is on
the other hand a false mysticism creeping in, which, in its attempt to eliminate the immovable frontier
that separates creatures from their Creator, falsifies the Sacred Scriptures.

10. As a result of these conflicting and mutually antagonistic schools of thought, some through vain fear,
look upon so profound a doctrine as something dangerous, and so they shrink from it as from the
beautiful but forbidden fruit of paradise. But this is not so. Mysteries revealed by God cannot be harmful
to men, nor should they remain as treasures hidden in a field, useless. They have been given from on
high precisely to help the spiritual progress of those who study them in a spirit of piety. For, as the
Vatican Council teaches, “reason illumined by faith, if it seeks earnestly, piously and wisely, does attain
under God, to a certain and most helpful knowledge of mysteries, by considering their analogy with what
it knows naturally, and their mutual relations, and their common relations with man’s last end,”
although, as the same holy Synod observes, reason, even thus illumined, “is never capable of
understanding those mysteries as it does those truths which form its proper object.” 5

11. After pondering all this long and seriously before God We consider it part of Our pastoral duty to
explain to the entire flock of Christ through this Encyclical Letter the doctrine of the Mystical Body of
Christ and of the union in this Body of the faithful with the divine Redeemer; and then, from this
consoling doctrine, to draw certain lessons that will make a deeper study of this mystery bear yet richer
fruits of perfection and holiness. Our purpose is to throw an added ray of glory on the supreme beauty
of the Church; to bring out into fuller light the exalted supernatural nobility of the faithful who in the
Body of Christ are united with their Head; and finally, to exclude definitively the many errors current with
regard to this matter.
12. When one reflects on the origin of this doctrine, there come to mind at once the words of the
Apostle: “Where sin abounded, grace did more abound.” 6 All know that the father of the whole human
race was constituted by God in so exalted a state that he was to hand on to his posterity, together with
earthly existence, the heavenly life of divine grace. But after the unhappy fall of Adam, the whole human
race, infected by the hereditary stain, lost their participation in the divine nature, 7 and we were all
“children of wrath.” 8 But the all-merciful God “so loved the world as to give his only-begotten Son”; 9
and the Word of the Eternal Father with the same divine love assumed human nature from the race of
Adam — but an innocent and spotless nature — so that He, as the new Adam, might be the source
whence the grace of the Holy Spirit should flow unto all the children of the first parent. Through the sin
of the first man they had been excluded from adoption as children of God; through the Word incarnate,
made brothers according to the flesh of the only-begotten Son of God, they receive also the power to
become the sons of God. 10 As He hung upon the Cross, Christ Jesus not only appeased the justice of the
Eternal Father which had been violated, but He also won for us, His brethren, an ineffable flow of graces.
it was possible for Him of Himself to impart these graces to mankind directly; but He willed to do so only
through a visible Church made up of men, so that through her all might cooperate with Him in
dispensing the graces of Redemption. As the Word of God willed to make use of our nature, when in
excruciating agony He would redeem mankind, so in the same way throughout the centuries He makes
use of the Church that the work begun might endure. 11

13. If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ — which is the One, Holy, Catholic,
Apostolic Roman Church 12— we shall find nothing more noble, morre sublime, or more divine than the
expression “the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ” – an expression which springs from and is, as it were, the
fair flowering of the repeated teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and the holy Fathers.

14. That the Church is a body is frequently asserted in the Sacred Scriptures. “Christ,” says the Apostle,
“is the Head of the Body of the Church.” 13If the Church is a body, it must be an unbroken unity,
according to those words of Paul: “Though many we are one body in Christ.” 14 But it is not enough that
the body of the Church should be an unbroken unity; it must also be something definite and perceptible
to the senses as Our predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII, in his Encyclical Satis Cognitum asserts: “the
Church is visible because she is a body.” 15 Hence they err in a matter of divine truth, who imagine the
Church to be invisible, intangible, a something merely “pneumatological” as they say, by which many
Christian communities, though they differ from each other in their profession of faith, are united by an
invisible bond.

15. But a body calls also for a multiplicity of members, which are linked together in such a way as to help
one another. And as in the body when one member suffers, all the other members share its pain, and
the healthy members come to the assistance of the ailing, so in the Church the individual members do
not live for themselves alone, but also help their fellows, and all work in mutual collaboration for the
common comfort and for the more perfect building up of the whole Body.

16. Again, as in nature a body is not formed by any haphazard grouping of members but must be
constituted of organs, that is of members, that have not the same function and are arranged in due
order; so for this reason above all the Church is called a body, that it is constituted by the coalescence of
structurally united parts, and that it has a variety of members reciprocally dependent. It is thus the
Apostle describes the Church when he writes: “As in one body we have many members, but all the
members have not the same office: so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members
one of another.” 16

17. One must not think, however, that this ordered or “organic” structure of the body of the Church
contains only hierarchical elements and with them is complete; or, as an opposite opinion holds, that it is
composed only of those who enjoy charismatic gifts — though members gifted with miraculous powers
will never be lacking in the Church. That those who exercise sacred power in this Body are its first and
chief members, must be maintained uncompromisingly. It is through them, by commission of the Divine
Redeemer Himself, that Christ’s apostolate as Teacher, King and Priest is to endure. At the same time,
when the Fathers of the Church sing the praises of this Mystical Body of Christ, with its ministries, its
variety of ranks, its officers, its conditions, its orders, its duties, they are thinking not only of those who
have received Holy Orders, but all those too, who, following the evangelical counsels, pass their lives
either actively among men, or hidden in the silence of the cloister, or who aim at combining the active
and contemplative life according to their Institute; as also of those who, though living in the world,
consecrate themselves wholeheartedly to spiritual or corporal works of mercy, and of those who live in
the state of holy matrimony. Indeed, let this be clearly understood, especially in these our days: fathers
and mothers of families, those who are godparents through Baptism, and in particular those members of
the laity who collaborate with the ecclesiastical hierarchy in spreading the Kingdom of the Divine
Redeemer occupy an honorable, if often a lowly, place in the Christian community, and even they under
the impulse of God and with His help, can reach the heights of supreme holiness, which, Jesus Christ has
promised, will never be wanting to the Church.

18. Now we see that the human body is given the proper means to provide for its own life, health and
growth, and for that of all its members. Similarly the Savior of mankind out of His infinite goodness has
provided in a wonderful way for His Mystical Body, endowing it with the Sacraments, so that, as though
by an uninterrupted series of graces, its members should be sustained from birth to death, and that
generous provision might be made for the social needs of the Church. Through the waters of Baptism
those who are born into this world dead in sin are not only born again and made members of the
Church, but being stamped with a spiritual seal they become able and fit to receive the other
Sacraments. By the chrism of Confirmation, the faithful are given added strength to protect and defend
the Church, their Mother, and the faith she has given them. In the Sacrament of Penance a saving
medicine is offered for the members of the Church who have fallen into sin, not only to provide for their
own health, but to remove from other members of the Mystical Body all danger of contagion, or rather
to afford them an incentive to virtue, and the example of a virtuous act.

19. Nor is that all; for in the Holy Eucharist the faithful are nourished and strengthened at the same
banquet and by a divine, ineffable bond are united with each other and with the Divine Head of the
whole Body. Finally, like a devoted mother, the Church is at the bedside of those who are sick unto
death; and if it be not always God’s will that by the holy anointing she restore health to the mortal body,
nevertheless she administers spiritual medicine to the wounded soul and sends new citizens to heaven
— to be her new advocates — who will enjoy forever the happiness of God.

20. For the social needs of the Church Christ has provided in a particular way by the institution of two
other Sacraments. Through Matrimony, in which the contracting parties are ministers of grace to each
other, provision is made for the external and duly regulated increase of Christian society, and, what is of
greater importance, for the correct religious education of the children, without which this Mystical body
would be in grave danger. Through Holy Orders men are set aside and consecrated to God, to offer the
Sacrifice of the Eucharistic Victim, to nourish the flock of the faithful with the Bread of Angels and the
food of doctrine, to guide them in the way of God’s commandments and counsels and to strengthen
them with all other supernatural helps.

21. In this connection it must be borne in mind that, as God at the beginning of time endowed man’s
body with most ample power to subject all creatures to himself, and to increase and multiply and fill the
earth, so at the beginning of the Christian era, He supplied the Church with the means necessary to
overcome countless dangers and to fill not only the whole world but the realms of heaven as well.

22. Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and
profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity
of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed. “For in one spirit” says
the Apostle, “were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free.” 17
As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one
Baptism, so there can be only one faith. 18 And therefore if a man refuse to hear the Church let him be
considered — so the Lord commands — as a heathen and a publican. 19 It follows that those are divided
in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its
one Divine Spirit.

23. Nor must one imagine that the Body of the Church, just because it bears the name of Christ, is made
up during the days of its earthly pilgrimage only of members conspicuous for their holiness, or that it
consists only of those whom God has predestined to eternal happiness. it is owing to the Savior’s infinite
mercy that place is allowed in His Mystical Body here below for those whom, of old, He did not exclude
from the banquet.20 For not every sin, however grave it may be, is such as of its own nature to sever a
man from the Body of the Church, as does schism or heresy or apostasy. Men may lose charity and divine
grace through sin, thus becoming incapable of supernatural merit, and yet not be deprived of all life if
they hold fast to faith and Christian hope, and if, illumined from above, they are spurred on by the
interior promptings of the Holy Spirit to salutary fear and are moved to prayer and penance for their
sins.
24. Let every one then abhor sin, which defiles the mystical members of our Redeemer; but if anyone
unhappily falls and his obstinacy has not made him unworthy of communion with the faithful, let him be
received with great love, and let eager charity see in him a weak member of Jesus Christ. For, as the
Bishop of Hippo remarks, it is better “to be cured within the Church’s community than to be cut off from
its body as incurable members.” 21 “As long as a member still forms part of the body there is no reason
to despair of its cure; once it has been cut off, it can be neither cured nor healed.” 22

25. In the course of the present study, Venerable Brethren, we have thus far seen that the Church is so
constituted that it may be likened to a body. We must now explain clearly and precisely why it is to be
called not merely a body, but the Body of Jesus Christ. This follows from the fact that our Lord is the
Founder, the Head, the Support and the Savior of this Mystical Body.

26. As We set out briefly to expound in what sense Christ founded His social Body, the following thought
of Our predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII, occurs to Vs at once: “The Church which, already
conceived, came forth from the side of the second Adam in His sleep on the Cross, first showed Herself
before the eyes of men on the great day of Pentecost.” 23For the Divine Redeemer began the building of
the mystical temple of the Church when by His preaching He made known His precepts; He completed it
when He hung glorified on the Cross; and He manifested and proclaimed it when He sent the Holy Ghost
as Paraclete in visible form on His disciples.

27. For while fulfilling His office as preacher He chose Apostles, sending them as He had been sent by the
Father 24 namely, as teachers, rulers, instruments of holiness in the assembly of the believers; He
appointed their Chief and His Vicar on earth; 25 He made known to them all things whatsoever He had
heard from His Father; 26 He also determined that through Baptism 27 those who should believe would
be incorporated in the Body of the Church; and finally, when He came to the close of His life, He
instituted at the Last Supper the wonderful Sacrifice and Sacrament of the Eucharist.

28. That He completed His work on the gibbet of the Cross is the unanimous teaching of the holy Fathers
who assert that the Church was born from the side of our Savior on the Cross like a new Eve, mother of
all the living. 28 “And it is now,” says the great St. Ambrose, speaking of the pierced side of Christ, “that it
is built, it is now that it is formed, it is now that is …. molded, it is now that it is created . . . Now it is that
arises a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.” 29 One who reverently examines this venerable teaching will
easily discover the reasons on which it is based.

29. And first of all, by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law
which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions,
and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ. For, while our Divine Savior
was preaching in a restricted area — He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of the house of
Israel 30 -the Law and the Gospel were together inn force; 31 but on the gibbet of his death Jesus made
void the Law with its decrees, 32 fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, 33
establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race. 34 “To such an extent,
then,” says St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of our Lord, “was there effected a transfer from the
Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from many sacrifices to one Victim, that, as our
Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was
rent violently from top to bottom.” 35

30. On the Cross then the Old Law died, soon to be buried and to be a bearer of death, 36 in order to
give way to the New Testament of which Christ had chosen the Apostles as qualified ministers;37 and
although He had been constituted the Head of the whole human family in the womb of the Blessed
Virgin, it is by the power of the Cross that our Savior exercises fully the office itself of Head in His Church.
“For it was through His triumph on the Cross,” according to the teaching of the Angelic and Common
Doctor, “that He won power and dominion over the gentiles”; 38 by that same victory He increased the
immense treasure of graces, which, as He reigns in glory in heaven, He lavishes continually on His mortal
members it was by His blood shed on the Cross that God’s anger was averted and that all the heavenly
gifts, especially the spiritual graces of the New and Eternal Testament, could then flow from the
fountains of our Savior for the salvation of men, of the faithful above all; it was on the tree of the Cross,
finally, that He entered into possession of His Church, that is, of all the members of His Mystical Body; for
they would not have been united to this Mystical Body through the waters of Baptism except by the
salutary virtue of the Cross, by which they had been already brought under the complete sway of Christ.

31. But if our Savior, by His death, became, in the full and complete sense of the word, the Head of the
Church, it was likewise through His blood that the Church was enriched with the fullest communication
of the Holy Spirit, through which, from the time when the Son of man was lifted up and glorified on the
Cross by His sufferings, she is divinely illumined. For then, as Augustine notes, 39 with the rending of the
veil of the temple it happened that the dew of the Paraclete’s gifts, which heretofore had descended
only on the fleece, that is on the people of Israel, fell copiously and abundantly (while the fleece
remained dry and deserted) on the whole earth, that is on the Catholic Church, which is confined by no
boundaries of race or territory. Just as at the first moment of the Incarnation the Son of the Eternal
Father adorned with the fullness of the Holy Spirit the human nature which was substantially united to
Him, that it might be a fitting instrument of the Divinity in the sanguinary work of the Redemption, so at
the hour of His precious death He willed that His Church should be enriched with the abundant gifts of
the Paraclete in order that in dispensing the divine fruits of the Redemption she migt be, for the
Incarnate Word, a powerful instrument that would never fail. For both the juridical mission of the
Church, and the power to teach, govern and administer the Sacraments, derive their supernatural
efficacy and force of the building up of the body of Christ from the fact that Jesus Christ, hanging on the
Cross, opened up to His Church the fountain of those divine gifts, which prevent her from ever teaching
false doctrine and enable her to rule them for the salvation of their souls through divinely enlightened
pastors and to bestow on them an abundance of heavenly graces.

32. If we consider closely all these mysteries of the Cross, those words of the Apostle are no longer
obscure, in which he teaches the Ephesians that 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; and
that He made the Old Law void “that he might make the two in himself into one new man,” that is, the
Church, and might reconcile both to God in one Body by the Cross. 40

33. The Church which He founded by His Blood, He strengthened on the day of Pentecost by a special
power, given from heaven. For, having solemnly installed in his exalted office him whom He had already
nominated as His Vicar, He had ascended into Heaven; and sitting now at the right hand of the Father He
wished to make known and proclaim His Spouse through the visible coming of the Holy Spirit with the
sound of a mighty wind and tongues of fire.41 For just as He Himself when He began to preach was
made known by His Eternal Father through the Holy Spirit descending and remaining on Him in the form
of a dove, 42so likewise, as the Apostles were about to enter upon their ministry of preaching, Christ our
Lord sent the Holy Spirit down from Heaven, to touch them with tongues of fire and to point out, as by
the finger of God, the supernatural mission and office of the Church.

34. That this Mystical Body which is the Church should be called Christ’s is proved in the second place
from the fact that He must be universally acknowledged as its actual Head. “He,” as St. Paul says, “is the
Head of the Body, the Church. 43 He is the Head from whom the whole body perfectly organized,
“groweth and maketh increase unto the edifying of itself.” 44

35. You are familiar, Venerable Brethren, with the admirable and luminous language used by the masters
of Scholastic Theology, and chiefly by the Angelic and Common Doctor, when treating this question; and
you know that the reasons advanced by Aquinas are a faithful reflection of the mind and the writings of
the holy Fathers, who moreover merely repeated and commented on the inspired word of Sacred
Scripture.

36. However for the good of all We wish to touch on this point briefly. And first of all it is clear that the
Son of God and of the Blessed Virgin is to be called the Head of the Church by reason of His singular pre-
eminence. For the Head is in the highest place. But who is in a higher place than Christ God, who as the
Word of The Eternal Father must be acknowledged to be the “firstborn of every creature? 45 Who has
reached more lofty heights than Christ Man, who, though born of the Immaculate Virgin, is the true and
natural Son of God, and in virtue of His miraculous and glorious resurrection, a resurrection triumphant
over death, has become the “firstborn of the dead?” 46Who finally has been so exalted as He, who as
“the one mediator of God and men” 47has in a most wonderful manner linked earth to heaven, who,
raised on the Cross as on a throne of mercy, has drawn all things to Himself, 48who, as the Son of Man
chosen from among thousands, is beloved of God beyond all men, all angels and all created things?49

37. Because Christ is so exalted, He alone by every right rules and governs the Church; and herein is yet
another reason why He must be likened to a head. As the head is the “royal citadel” of the body 50 — to
use the words of Ambrose — and alll the members over whom it is placed for their good 51 are
naturally guided by it as being endowed with superior powers, so the Divine Redeemer holds the helm of
the universal Christian community and directs its course. And as to govern human society signifies to
lead men to the end proposed by means that are expedient, just and helpful,52it is easy to see how our
Savior, model and ideal of good Shepherds, 53performs all these functions in a most striking way.

38. While still on earth, He instructed us by precept, counsel and warning in words that shall never pass
away, and will be spirit and life 54 to all men of all times. Moreover He conferred a triple power on His
Apostles and their 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.

39. But our Divine Savior governs and guides the Society which He founded directly and personally also.
For it is He who reigns within the minds and hearts of men, and bends and subjects their wills to His
good pleasure, even when rebellious. “The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord; whithersoever he
will, he shall turn it.” 55 By this interior guidance He, the “Shepherd and Bishop of our souls,” 56 not only
watches over individuals but exercises His providence over the universal Church, whether by
enlightening and giving courage to the Church’s rulers for the loyal and effective performance of their
respective duties, or by singling out from the body of the Church — especially when times are grave —
men and women of conspicuous holiness, who may point the way for the rest of Christendom to the
perfecting of His Mystical Body. Moreover from heaven Christ never ceases to look down with especial
love on His spotless Spouse so sorely tried in her earthly exile; and when He sees her in anger, saves her
from the tempestuous sea either Himself or through the ministry of His angels, 57 or through her whom
we invoke as the Help of Christians, or through other heavenly advocates, and in calm and tranquil
waters comforts her with the peace “which surpasseth all understanding.”58

40. But we must not think that He rules only in a hidden 59 or extraordinary manner. On the contrary,
our Divine Redeemer also governs His Mystical Body in a visible and normal way through His Vicar on
earth. You know, Venerable Brethren, that after He had ruled the “little flock” 60 Himself during His
mortal pilgrimage, Christ our Lord, when about to leave this world and return to the Father, entrusted to
the Chief of the Apostles the visible government of the entire community He had founded. Since He was
all wise He could not leave the body of the Church He had founded as a human society without a visible
head. Nor against this may one argue that the primacy of jurisdiction established in the Church gives
such a Mystical Body two heads. For Peter in virtue of his primacy is only Christ’s Vicar; so that there is
only one chief Head of this Body, namely Christ, who never ceases Himself to guide the Church invisible,
though at the same time He rules it visibly, through him who is His representative on earth. After His
glorious Ascension into heaven this Church rested not on Him alone, but on Peter too, its visible
foundation stone. That Christ and His Vicar constitute one only Head is the solemn teaching of Our
predecessor of immortal memory Boniface VIII in the Apostolic Letter Unam Sanctam; 61 and his
successors have never ceased to repeat the same.

41. They, therefore, walk in the path of dangerous error who believe that they can accept Christ as the
Head of the Church, while not adhering loyally to His Vicar on earth. They have taken away the visible
head, broken the visible bonds of unity and left the Mystical Body of the Redeemer so obscured and so
maimed, that those who are seeking the haven of eternal salvation can neither see it nor find it.

42. What We have thus far said of the Universal Church must be understood also of the individual
Christian communities, whether Oriental or Latin, which go to make up the one Catholic Church. For
they, too, are ruled by Jesus Christ through the voice of their respective Bishops. Consequently, Bishops
must be considered as the more illustrious members of the Universal Church, for they are united by a
very special bond to the divine Head of the whole Body and so are rightly called “principal parts of the
members of the Lord”;62moreover, as far as his own diocese is concerned, each one as a true Shepherd
feeds the flock entrusted to him and rules it in the name of Christ. 63Yet in exercising this office they are
not altogether independent, but are subordinate to the lawful authority of the Roman Pontiff, although
enjoying the ordinary power of jurisdiction which they receive directly from the same Supreme Pontiff.
Therefore, Bishops should be revered by the faithful as divinely appointed successors of the
Apostles,64and to them, even more than to the highest civil authorities should be applied the words:
“Touch not my anointed ones.”65For the Bishops have been anointed with the chrism of the Holy Spirit.

43. That is why We are deeply pained when We hear that not a few of Our Brother Bishops are being
attacked and persecuted not only in their own persons, but — what is more cruel and heartrending for
them — in the faithful committed to their care, in those who share their apostolic labors, even in the
virgins consecrated to God; and all this, merely because they are a pattern of the flock from the heart 66
and guard with energy and loyalty, as they should the sacred “deposit of faith” 67confided to them;
merely because they insist on the sacred laws that have been engraved by God on the souls of men, and
after the example of the Supreme Shepherd defend their flock against ravenous wolves. Such an offense
We consider as committed against Our own person and We repeat the noble words of Our predecessor
of immortal memory Gregory the Great: “Our honor is the honor of the Universal Church; Our honor is
the united strength of Our Brethren; and We are truly honored when honor is given to each and every
one.”68

44. Because Christ the Head holds such an eminent position, one must not think that he does not require
the help of the Body. What Paul said of the human organism is to be applied likewise to the mystical
Body: “The head cannot say to the feet: I have no need of you.” 69It is manifestly clear that the faithful
need the help of the Divine Redeemer, for He has said: “Without me you can do nothing,” 70and
according to the teaching of the Apostle every advance of this Mystical Body towards its perfection
derives from Christ the Head.71 Yet this, also, must be held, marvelous though it may seem: Christ has
need of His members. First, because the person of Jesus Christ is represented by the Supreme Pontiff,
who in turn must call on others to share much of his solicitude lest he be overwhelmed by the burden of
his pastoral office, and must be helped daily by the prayers of the Church. Moreover as our Savior does
not rule the Church directly in a visible manner, He wills to be helped by the members of His Body in
carrying out the work of redemption. This is not because He is indigent and weak, but rather because He
has so willed it for the greater glory of His spotless Spouse. Dying on the Cross He left to His Church the
immense treasury of the Redemption, towards which she contributed nothing. But when those graces
come to be distributed, not only does He share this work of sanctification with His Church, but He wills
that in some way it be due to her action. This is a deep mystery, and an inexhaustible subject of
meditation, that the salvation of many depends on the prayers and voluntary penances which the
members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ offer for this intention and on the cooperation of pastors of
souls and of the faithful, especially of fathers and mothers of families, a cooperation which they must
offer to our Divine Savior as though they were His associates.

45. To the reasons thus far adduced to show that Christ our Lord should be called the Head of Society
which is His Body there may be added three others which are closely related to one another.

46. We begin with the similarity which we see existing between Head and body, in that they have the
same nature; and in this connection it must be observed that our nature, although inferior to that of the
angels, nevertheless through God’s goodness has risen above it: “For Christ,” as Aquinas says, “is Head of
the angels; for even in His humanity He is superior to angels. . . Even as man He illumines the angelic
intellect and influences the angelic will. But in respect to similarity of nature Christ is not Head of the
angels, because He did not take hold of the angels — to quote the Apostle – but of the seed of
Abraham.” 72 And Christ not only took our nature; He became one of our flesh and blood with a frail
body that should suffer and die. But “if the Word emptied himself taking the form of a slave,” 73it was
that He might make His brothers according to the flesh partakers of the divine nature, 74 through
sanctifying grace in this earthly exile, in heaven through the joys of eternal bliss. For the reason why the
only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father willed to be a son of man was that we might be made
conformed to the image of the Son of God 75and be renewed according to the image of Him who
created us. 76 Let all those, then, who glory in the name of Christian, look to our Divine Savior as the
most exalted and the most perfect exemplar of all virtues; but let them also, by careful avoidance of sin
and assiduous practice of virtue, bear witness by their conduct to His teaching and life, so that when the
Lord shall appear they may be like unto Him and see Him as He is.77

47. It is the will of Jesus Christ that the whole body of the Church, no less than the individual members,
should resemble Him. And we see this realized when, following in the footsteps of her Founder, the
Church teaches, governs, and offers the divine Sacrifice. When she embraces the evangelical counsels
she reflects the Redeemer’s poverty, obedience, and virginal purity. Adorned with institutes of many
different kinds as with so many precious jewels, she represents Christ deep in prayer on the mountain, or
preaching to the people, or healing the sick and wounded and bringing sinners back to the path of virtue
— in a word, doing good to all. What wonder then, if, while on this earth she, like Christ, suffer
persecutions, insults and sorrows.

48. Christ must be acknowledged Head of the Church for this reason too, that, as supernatural gifts have
their fullness and perfection in Him, it is of this fullness that His Mystical Body receives. It is pointed out
by many of the Fathers, that as the Head of our mortal body is the seat of all the senses, while the other
parts of our organism have only the sense of touch, so all the powers that are found in Christian society,
all the gifts, all the extraordinary graces, attain their utmost perfection in the Head, Christ. “In him it
hath well pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell.” 78He is gifted with those supernatural
powers that accompany the hypostatic union, since the Holy Spirit dwells in Him with a fullness of grace
than which no greater can be imagined. To Him has been given “power over all flesh”;79 “all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Him” 80 abundantly. The knowledge which is called “vision”
He possesses with such clarity and comprehensiveness that it surpasses similar celestial knowledge
found in all the saints of heaven. So full of grace and truth is He that of His inexhaustible fullness we
have all received.81

49. These words of the disciple whom Jesus loved lead us to the last reason why Christ our Lord should
be declared in a very particular way Head of His Mystical Body. As the nerves extend from the head to all
parts of the human body and give them power to feel and move, in like manner our Savior
communicates strength and power to His Church so that the things of God are understood more clearly
and are more eagerly desired by the faithful. From Him streams into the body of the Church all the light
with which those who believe are divinely illumined, and all the grace by which they are made holy as He
is holy.

50. Christ enlightens His whole Church, as numberless passages from the Sacred Scriptures and the holy
Fathers prove. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the
Father, he hath declared him.” 82 Coming as a teacher from God83 to give testimony to the truth,84 He
shed such light upon the nascent apostolic Church that the Prince of the apostles exclaimed: “Lord, to
whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life”; 85 from heaven He assisted the evangelists in
such a way that as members of Christ they wrote what they had learnt, as it were, at the dictation of the
Head.86 And for us today, who linger on in this earthly exile, He is still the author of faith as in our
heavenly home He will be its finisher. 87 It is He who imparts the light of faith to believers; it is He who
enriches pastors and teachers and above all His Vicar on earth with the supernatural gifts of knowledge,
understanding and wisdom, so that they may loyally preserve the treasury of faith, defend it vigorously,
and explain and confirm it with reverence and devotion. Finally it is He who, though unseen, presides at
the Councils of the Church and guides them.88

51. Holiness begins from Christ; and Christ is its cause. For no act conducive to salvation can be
performed unless it proceeds from Him as from its supernatural source. “Without me,” He says, “you can
do nothing.”89 If we grieve and do penance for our sins, if, with filial fear and hope, we turn again to
God, it is because He is leading us. Grace and glory flow from His inexhaustible fullness. Our Savior is
continually pouring out His gifts of counsel, fortitude, fear and piety, especially on the leading members
of His Body, so that the whole Body may grow ever more and more in holiness and in integrity of life.
When the Sacraments of the Church are administered by external rite, it is He who produces their effect
in souls.90 He nourishes the redeemed with His own flesh and blood and thus calms the turbulent
passions of the soul; He gives increase of grace and prepares future glory for souls and bodies. All these
treasures of His divine goodness He is said to bestow on the members of His Mystical Body, not merely
because He, as the Eucharistic Victim on earth and the glorified Victim in heaven, through His wounds
and His prayers pleads our cause before the Eternal Father, but because He selects, He determines, He
distributes every single grace to every single person “according to the measure of the giving of Christ.”91
Hence it follows that from our Divine Redeemer as from a fountainhead “the whole body, being
compacted and fitly joined together, by what every joint supplieth according to the operation in the
measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in charity.”92

52. These truths which We have expounded, Venerable Brethren, briefly and succinctly tracing the
manner in which Christ our Lord wills that His abundant graces should flow from His fullness into the
Church, in order that she should resemble Him as closely as possible, help not a little to explain the third
reason why the social Body of the Church should be honored by the name of Christ — namely, that our
Savior Himself sustains in a divine manner the society which He founded.

53. As Bellarmine notes with acumen and accuracy, 93 this appellation of the Body of Christ is not to be
explained solely by the fact that Christ must be called the Head of His Mystical Body, but also by the fact
that He so sustains the Church, and so in a certain sense lives in the Church, that she is, as it were,
another Christ. The Doctor of the Gentiles, in his letter to the Corinthians, affirms this when, without
further qualification, he calls the Church “Christ,”

94

following no doubt the example of his Master who called out to him from on high when he was attacking
the Church: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?”95

Indeed, if we are to believe Gregory of Nyssa, the Church is often called simply “Christ” by the Apostle;
96 and you are familiar, Venerable Brethren, with that phrase of Augustine: “Christ preaches Christ.”97

54. Nevertheless this most noble title of the Church must not be so understood as if that ineffable bond
by which the Son of God assumed a definite human nature belongs to the universal Church; but it
consists in this, that our Savior shares prerogatives peculiarly His own with the Church in such a way that
she may portray, in her whole life, both exterior and interior, a most faithful image of Christ. For in virtue
of the juridical mission by which our Divine Redeemer sent His Apostles into the world, as He had been
sent by the Father,98 it is He who through the Church baptizes, teaches, rules, looses, binds, offers,
sacrifices.

55. But in virtue of that higher, interior, and wholly sublime communication, with which We dealt when
We described the manner in which the Head influences the members, Christ our Lord wills the Church to
live His own supernatural life, and by His divine power permeates His whole Body and nourishes and
sustains each of the members according to the place which they occupy in the Body, in the same way as
the vine nourishes and makes fruitful the branches which are joined to it.99
56. If we examine closely this divine principle of life and power given by Christ, in so far as it constitutes
the very source of every gift and created grace, we easily perceive that it is nothing else than the Holy
Spirit, the Paraclete, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, and who is called in a special way the
“Spirit of Christ” or the “Spirit of the Son.”100 For it was by this Breath of grace and truth that the Son of
God anointed His soul in the immaculate womb of the Blessed Virgin; this Spirit delights to dwell in the
beloved soul of our Redeemer as in His most cherished shrine; this Spirit Christ merited for us on the
Cross by shedding His own blood; this Spirit He bestowed on the Church for the remission of sins, when
He breathed on the Apostles; 101and while Christ alone received this Spirit without measure,102 to the
members of the Mystical Body He is imparted only according to the measure of the giving of Christ from
Christ’s own fullness.103 But after Christ’s glorification on the Cross, His Spirit is communicated to the
Church in an abundant outpouring, so that she, and her individual members, may become daily more
and more like to our Savior. It is the Spirit of Christ that has made us adopted sons of God104 in order
that one day “we all beholding the glory of the Lord with open face may be transformed into the same
image from glory to glory.” 105

57. To this Spirit of Christ, also, as to an invisible principle is to be ascribed the fact that all the parts of
the Body are joined one with the other and with their exalted Head; for He is entire in the Head, entire in
the Body, and entire in each of the members. To the members He is present and assists them in
proportion to their various duties and offices, and the greater or less degree of spiritual health which
they enjoy. It is He who through His heavenly grace is the principle of every supernatural act in all parts
of the Body. It is He who while He is personally present and divinely active in all the members,
nevertheless in the inferior members acts also through the ministry of the higher members. Finally, while
by His grace He provides for the continual growth of the Church, He yet refuses to dwell through
sanctifying grace in those members that are wholly severed from the Body. This presence and activity of
the Spirit of Jesus Christ is tersely and vigorously described by Our predecessor of immortal memory Leo
XIII in his Encyclical Letter Divinum Illud in these words: “Let it suffice to say that, as Christ is the Head of
the Church, so is the Holy Spirit her soul.” 106

58. If that vital principle, by which the whole community of Christians is sustained by its Founder, be
considered not now in itself, but in the created effects which proceed from it, it consists in those
heavenly gifts which our Redeemer, together with His Spirit, bestows on the Church, and which He and
His Spirit, from whom come supernatural light and holiness, make operative in the Church. The Church,
then, no less than each of her holy members can make this great saying of the Apostle her own: “And I
live, now not l; but Christ liveth in me.”107

59. What We have said concerning the “mystical Head”108 would indeed be incomplete if We were not
at least briefly to touch on this saying of the same Apostle: “Christ is the Head of the Church: he is the
Savior of his Body.” 109 For in these words we have the final reason why the Body of the Church is given
the name of Christ, namely, that Christ is the Divine Savior of this Body. The Samaritans were right in
proclaiming Him “Savior of the world”; 110 for indeed He most certainly is to be called the “Savior of all
men,” even though we must add with Paul: “especially of the faithful, 111since, before all others, He has
purchased with His Blood His members who constitute the Church. 112 But as We have already treated
this subject fully and clearly when speaking of the birth of the Church on the Cross, of Christ as the
source of life and the principle of sanctity, and of Christ as the support of His Mystical Body, there is no
reason why We should explain it further; but rather let us all, while giving perpetual thanks to God,
meditate on it with a humble and attentive mind. For that which our Lord began when hanging on the
Cross, He continues unceasingly amid the joys of heaven: “Our Head” says St. Augustine “intercedes for
us: some members He is receiving, others He is chastising, others cleansing, others consoling, others
creating, others calling, others recalling, others correcting, others renewing.” 113 But it is for us to
cooperate with Christ in this work of salvation, “from one and through one saved and saviours.” 114

60. And now, Venerable Brethren, We come to that part of Our explanation in which We desire to make
clear why the Body of Christ, which is the Church, should be called mystical. This name, which is used by
many early writers, has the sanction of numerous Pontifical documents. There are several reasons why it
should be used; for by it we may distinguish the Body of the Church, which is a Society whose Head and
Ruler is Christ, from His physical Body, which, born of the Virgin Mother of God, now sits at the right
hand of the Father and is hidden under the Eucharistic veils; and, that which is of greater importance in
view of modern errors, this name enables us to distinguish it from any other body, whether in the
physical or the moral order.

61. In a natural body the principle of unity unites the parts in such a manner that each lacks its own
individual subsistence; on the contrary, in the Mystical Body the mutual union, though intrinsic, links the
members by a bond which leaves to each the complete enjoyment of his own personality Moreover, if
we examine the relations existing between the several members and the whole body, in every physical,
living body, all the different members are ultimately destined to the good of the whole alone; while if we
look to its ultimate usefulness, every moral association of men is in the end directed to the advancement
of all in general and of each single member in particular; for they are persons. And thus — to return to
Our theme — as the Son of the Eternal Father came down from heaven for the salvation of us all, He
likewise established the body of the Church and enriched it with the divine Spirit to ensure that immortal
souls should attain eternal happiness according to the words of the Apostle: “All things are yours; and
you are Christ’s: and Christ is God’s.”115 For the Church exists both for the good of the faithful and for
the glory of God and of Jesus Christ whom He sent.

62. But if we compare a mystical body with a moral body, it is to be noted that the difference between
them is not slight; rather it is very considerable and very important. In the moral body the principal of
union is nothing else than the common end, and the common cooperation of all under the authority of
society for the attainment of that end; whereas in the Mystical Body of which We are speaking, this
collaboration is supplemented by another internal principle, which exists effectively in the whole and in
each of its parts, and whose excellence is such that of itself it is vastly superior to whatever bonds of
union may be found in a physical or moral body. As We said above, this is something not of the natural
but of the supernatural order; rather it is something in itself infinite, uncreated: the Spirit of God, who,
as the Angelic Doctor says, “numerically one and the same, fills and unifies the whole Church.” 116
63. Hence, this word in its correct signification gives us to understand that the Church, a perfect society
of its kind, is not made up of merely moral and juridical elements and principles. It is far superior to all
other human societies;117it surpasses them as grace surpasses nature, as things immortal are above all
those that perish.118 Such human societies, and in the first place civil Society, are by no means to be
despised or belittled, but the Church in its entirely is not found within this natural order, any more than
the whole of man is encompassed within the organism of our mortal body. 119 Although the juridical
principles, on which the Church rests and is established, derive from the divine constitution given to it by
Christ and contribute to the attaining of its supernatural end, nevertheless that which lifts the Society of
Christians far above the whole natural order is the Spirit of our Redeemer who penetrates and fills every
part of the Church’s being and is active within it until the end of time as the source of every grace and
every gift and every miraculous power. just as our composite mortal body, although it is a marvelous
work of the Creator, falls far short of the eminent dignity of our soul, so the social structure of the
Christian community, though it proclaims the wisdom of its divine Architect, still remains something
inferior when compared to the spiritual gifts which give it beauty and life, and to the divine source
whence they flow.

64. From what We have thus far written and explained, Venerable Brethren, it is clear, We think, how
grievously they err who arbitrarily claim that the Church is something hidden and invisible, as they also
do who look upon her as a mere human institution possessing a certain disciplinary code and external
ritual, but lacking power to communicate supernatural life.120 On the contrary, as Christ, Head and
Exemplar of the Church “is not complete, if only His visible human nature is considered. . ., or if only His
divine, invisible nature. . ., but He is one through the union of both and one in both . . . so is it with His
Mystical Body”121 since the Word of God took unto Himself a human nature liable to sufferings, so that
He might consecrate in His blood the visible Society founded by Him and “lead man back to things
invisible under a visible rule.”122

65. For this reason We deplore and condemn the pernicious error of those who dream of an imaginary
Church, a kind of society that finds its origin and growth in charity, to which, somewhat contemptuously,
they oppose another, which they call juridical. But this distinction which they introduce is false: for they
fail to understand that the reason which led our Divine Redeemer to give to the community of man He
founded the constitution of a Society, perfect of its kind and containing all the juridical and social
elements -namely, that He might perpetuate on earrth the saving work of Redemption 123 — was also
the reason why He willed it to be enriched with the heavenly gifts of the Paraclete. The Eternal Father
indeed willed it to be the “kingdom of the Son of his predilection;” 124but it was to be a real kingdom, in
which all believers should make Him the entire offering of their intellect and will,125and humbly and
obediently model themselves on Him, Who for our sake “was made obedient unto death.”126 There
can, then, be no real opposition or conflict between the invisible mission of the Holy Spirit and the
juridical commission of Ruler and Teacher received from Christ, since they mutually complement and
perfect each other — as do the body and soul in man — and proceed from our one Redeemer who not
only said as He breathed on the Apostles “Receive ye the Holy Spirit,”127but also clearly commanded:
“As the Father hath sent me, I also send you”;128and again: “He that heareth you heareth me.”129
66. And if at times there appears in the Church something that indicates the weakness of our human
nature, it should not be attributed to her juridical constitution, but rather to that regrettable inclination
to evil found in each individual, which its Divine Founder permits even at times in the most exalted
members of His Mystical Body, for the purpose of testing the virtue of the shepherds no less than of the
flocks, and that all may increase the merit of their Christian faith. For, as We said above, Christ did not
wish to exclude sinners from His Church; hence if some of her members are suffering from spiritual
maladies, that is no reason why we should lessen our love for the Church, but rather a reason why we
should increase our devotion to her members. Certainly the loving Mother is spotless in the Sacraments,
by which she gives birth to and nourishes her children; in the faith which she has always preserved
inviolate; in her sacred laws imposed on all; in the evangelical counsels which she recommends; in those
heavenly gifts and extraordinary graces through which, with inexhaustible fecundity,130 she generates
hosts of martyrs, virgins and confessors. But it cannot be laid to her charge if some members fall, weak
or wounded. In their name she prays to God daily: “Forgive us our trespasses”; and with the brave heart
of a mother she applies herself at once to the work of nursing them back to spiritual health. When
therefore we call the Body of Jesus Christ “mystical,” the very meaning of the word conveys a solemn
warning. It is a warning that echoes in these words of St. Leo: “Recognize, O Christian, your dignity, and
being made a sharer of the divine nature go not back to your former worthlessness along the way of
unseemly conduct. Keep in mind of what Head and of what Body you are a member.” 131

67. Here, Venerable Brethren, We wish to speak in a very special way of our union with Christ in the
Body of the Church, a thing which is, as Augustine justly remarks, sublime, mysterious and divine;132 but
for that very reason it often happens that many misunderstand it and explain it incorrectly. It is at once
evident that this union is very close. In the Sacred Scriptures it is compared to the chaste union of man
and wife, to the vital union of branch and vine, and to the cohesion found in our body.133Even more, it
is represented as being so close that the Apostle says: “He (Christ) is Head of the Body of the
Church,”134 and the unbroken tradition of the Fathers from the earliest times teaches that the Divine
Redeemer and the Society which is His Body form but one mystical person, that is to say, to quote
Augustine, the whole Christ.135Our Savior Himself in His sacerdotal prayer did not hesitate to liken this
union to that wonderful unity by which the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son.136

68. Our union in and with Christ is first evident from the fact that, since Christ wills His Christian
community to be a Body which is a perfect Society, its members must be united because they all work
together towards a single end. The nobler the end towards which they strive, and the more divine the
motive which actuates this collaboration, the higher, no doubt, will be the union. Now the end in
question is supremely exalted; the continual sanctifying of the members of the Body for the glory of God
and of the Lamb that was slain.137 The motive is altogether divine: not only the good pleasure of the
Eternal Father, and the most earnest wish of our Savior, but the interior inspiration and impulse of the
Holy Spirit in our minds and hearts. For if not even the smallest act conducive to salvation can be
performed except in the Holy Spirit, how can countless multitudes of every people and every race work
together harmoniously for the supreme glory of the Triune God, except in the power of Him, who
proceeds from the Father and the Son in one eternal act of love?
69. Now since its Founder willed this social body of Christ to be visible, the cooperation of all its
members must also be externally manifest through their profession the same faith and their sharing the
same sacred rites, through participation in the same Sacrifice, and the practical observance of the same
laws. Above all, it is absolutely necessary that the Supreme Head, that is, the Vicar of Jesus Christ on
earth, be visible to the eyes of all, since it is He who gives effective direction to the work which all do in
common in a mutually helpful way towards the attainment of the proposed end. As the Divine Redeemer
sent the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, who in His name 138should govern the Church in an invisible way,
so, in the same manner, He commissioned Peter and his successors to be His personal representatives on
earth and to assume the visible government of the Christian community.

70. These juridical bonds in themselves far surpass those of any other human society, however exalted;
and yet another principle of union must be added to them in those three virtues, Christian faith, hope
and charity, which link us so closely to each other and to God.

71. “One Lord, one faith,” 139writes the Apostle: the faith, that is, by which we hold fast to God, and to
Jesus Christ whom He has sent. 140 The beloved disciple teaches us how closely this faith binds us to
God: “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God.” 141This
Christian faith binds us no less closely to each other and to our divine Head. For all we who believe,
“having the same spirit of faith,” 142 are illumined by the same light of Christ, nourished by the same
Food of Christ, and live under the teaching authority of Christ. If the same spirit of faith breathes in all,
we are all living the same life “in the faith of the Son of God who loved us and delivered himself for us.”
143 And once we have received Christ, our Head, through an ardent faith so that He dwells within our
hearts, 144 as He is the author so He will be the finisher of our faith. 145

72. As by faith on this earth we hold fast to God as the Author of truth, so by Christian hope we long for
Him as the fount of blessedness, “looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great
God.”146 It is because of this universal longing for the heavenly Kingdom, that we do not desire a
permanent home here below but seek for one above,147 and because of our yearning for the glory on
high, that the Apostle of the Gentiles did not hesitate to say: “One Body and one Spirit, as you are called
in one hope of your calling”;148nay rather that Christ in us is our hope of glory.149

73. But if the bonds of faith and hope, which bind us to our Redeemer in His Mystical Body are weighty
and important, those of charity are certainly no less so. If even in the natural order the love of friendship
is something supremely noble, what shall we say of that supernatural love, which God infuses into our
hearts? “God is charity and he that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him.” 150 The effect of
this charity — such would seem to be God’s law — is to compel Him to enter into our loving hearts to
return love for love, as He said: “If anyone love me . . ., my Father will love him and we will come to him
and will make our abode with him.”151 Charity then, more than any other virtue binds us closely to
Christ. How many children of the Church, on fire with this heavenly flame, have rejoiced to suffer insults
for Him, and to face and overcome the hardest trials, even at the cost of their lives and the shedding of
their blood. For this reason our Divine Savior earnestly exhorts us in these words: “Abide in my love.”
And as charity, if it does not issue effectively in good works, is something altogether empty and
unprofitable, He added immediately: “If you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love; as I
also have kept my Father’s commandments and do abide in his love.”152

74. But, corresponding to this love of God and of Christ, there must be love of the neighbor. How can we
claim to love the Divine Redeemer, if we hate those whom He has redeemed with His precious blood, so
that He might make them members of His Mystical Body? For that reason the beloved disciple warns us:
“If any man say: I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom
he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not. And this commandment we have from God, that he
who loveth God love also his brother.” 153 Rather it should be said that the more we become “members
one of another,” 154 “mutually careful one for another,”155 the closer we shall be united with God and
with Christ; as, on the other hand, the more ardent the love that binds us to God and to our divine Head,
the closer we shall be united to each other in the bonds of charity.

75. Now the only-begotten Son of God embraced us in His infinite knowledge and undying love even
before the world began. And that He might give a visible and exceedingly beautiful expression to this
love, He assumed our nature in hypostatic union: hence -as Maximus of Turin with a certain unaffected
simplicity remarks — “in Christ our own flesh loves us 156 But the knowledge and love of our Divine
Redeemer, of which we were the object from the first moment of His Incarnation, exceed all the human
intellect can hope to grasp. For hardly was He conceived in the womb of the Mother of God, when He
began to enjoy the beatific vision, and in that vision all the members of His Mystical Body were
continually and unceasingly present to Him, and He embraced them with His redeeming love. O
marvelous condescension of divine love for us! O inestimable dispensation of boundless charity. In the
crib, on the Cross, in the unending glory of the Father, Christ has all the members of the Church present
before Him and united to Him in a much clearer and more loving manner than that of a mother who
clasps her child to her breast, or than that with which a man knows and loves himself.

76. From all that We have hitherto said, you will readily understand, Venerable Brethren, why Paul the
Apostle so often writes that Christ is in us and we in Christ. In proof of which, there is this other more
subtle reason. Christ is in us through His Spirit whom He gives to us and through whom He acts within us
in such a way that all divine activity of the Holy Spirit within our souls must also be attributed to
Christ.157 “If a man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his,” says the Apostle, “but if Christ be in
you, . . . the spirit liveth because of justification.”

158

77. This communication of the Spirit of Christ is the channel through which all the gifts, powers, and
extraordinary graces found superabundantly in the Head as in their source flow into all the members of
the Church, and are perfected daily in them according to the place they hold in the Mystical Body of
Jesus Christ. Thus the Church becomes, as it were, the filling out and the complement of the Redeemer,
while Christ in a sense attains through the Church a fullness in all things. 159 Herein we find the reason
why, according to the opinion of Augustine already referred to, the mystical Head, which is Christ, and
the Church, which here below as another Christ shows forth His person, constitute one new man, in
whom heaven and earth are joined together in perpetuating the saving work of the Cross: Christ We
mean, the Head and the Body, the whole Christ.

78. For indeed We are not ignorant of the fact that this profound truth — of our union with the Divine
Redeemer and in particular of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our souls — is shrouded in darkness by
many a veil that impedes our power to understand and explain it, both because of the hidden nature of
the doctrine itself, and of the limitations of our human intellect. But We know, too, that from
welldirected and earnest study of this doctrine, and from the clash of diverse opinions and the
discussion thereof, provided that these are regulated by the love of truth and by due submission to the
Church, much light will be gained, which, in its turn will help to progress in kindred sacred sciences.
Hence We do not censure those who in various ways, and with diverse reasonings make every effort to
understand and to clarify the mystery of this our wonderful union with Christ. But let all agree
uncompromisingly on this, if they would not err from truth and from the orthodox teaching of the
Church: to reject every kind of mystic union by which the faithful of Christ should in any way pass beyond
the sphere of creatures and wrongly enter the divine, were it only to the extent of appropriating to
themselves as their own but one single attribute of the eternal Godhead. And, moreover, let all hold this
as certain truth, that all these activities are common to the most Blessed Trinity, in so far as they have
God as supreme efficient cause.

79. It must also be borne in mind that there is question here of a hidden mystery, which during this
earthly exile can only be dimly seen through a veil, and which no human words can express. The Divine
Persons are said to indwell inasmuch as they are present to beings endowed with intelligence in a way
that lies beyond human comprehension, and in a unique and very intimate manner, which transcends all
created nature, these creatures enter into relationship with Them through knowledge and love.

160

If we would attain, in some measure, to a clearer perception of this truth, let us not neglect the method
strongly recommended by the Vatican Council [/note]Sess. III, Const. de fide Cath., Cap. 4. [/note] in
similar cases, by which these mysteries are compared one with another and with the end to which they
are directed, so that in the light which this comparison throws upon them we are able to discern, at least
partially, the hidden things of God.

80. Therefore, Our most learned predecessor Leo XIII of happy memory, speaking of our union with
Christ and with the Divine Paraclete who dwells within us, and fixing his gaze on that blessed vision
through which this mystical union will attain its confirmation and perfection in heaven says: “This
wonderful union, or indwelling properly so-called, differs from that by which God embraces and gives joy
to the elect only by reason of our earthly state.”161In that celestial vision it will be granted to the eyes of
the human mind strengthened by the light of glory, to contemplate the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit in an utterly ineffable manner, to assist throughout eternity at the processions of the Divine
Persons, and to rejoice with a happiness like to that with which the holy and undivided Trinity is happy.

81. It seems to Us that something would be lacking to what We have thus far proposed concerning the
close union of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ with its Head, were We not to add here a few words on
the Holy Eucharist, by which this union during his mortal life reaches, as it were a culmination.

82. By means of the Eucharistic Sacrifice Christ our Lord willed to give to the faithful a striking
manifestation of our union among ourselves and with our divine Head, wonderful as it is and beyond all
praise. For in this Sacrifice the sacred minister acts as the vicegerent not only of our Savior but of the
whole Mystical Body and of each one of the faithful. In this act of Sacrifice through the hands of the
priest, by whose word alone the Immaculate Lamb is present on the altar, the faithful themselves, united
with him in prayer and desire, offer to the Eternal Father a most acceptable victim of praise and
propitiation for the needs of the whole Church. And as the Divine Redeemer, when dying on the Cross,
offered Himself to the Eternal Father as Head of the whole human race, so “in this clean oblation”162 He
offers to the heavenly Father not only Himself as Head of the Church, but in Himself His mystical
members also, since He holds them all, even those who are weak and ailing, in His most loving Heart.

83. The Sacrament of the Eucharist is itself a striking and wonderful figure of the unity of the Church, if
we consider how in the bread to be consecrated many grains go to form one whole,163and that in it the
very Author of supernatural grace is given to us, so that through Him we may receive the spirit of charity
in which we are bidden to live now no longer our own life but the life of Christ, and to love the
Redeemer Himself in all the members of His social Body.

84. As then in the sad and anxious times through which we are passing there are many who cling so-
firmly to Christ the Lord hidden beneath the Eucharistic veils that neither tribulation, nor distress, nor
famine, nor nakedness, nor danger, nor persecution, nor the sword can separate them from His
love,164surely no doubt can remain that Holy Communion which once again in God’s providence is much
more frequented even from early childhood, may become a source of that fortitude which not
infrequently makes Christians into heroes.

85. If the faithful, Venerable Brethren, in a spirit of sincere piety understand these things accurately and
hold to them steadfastly, they will the more easily avoid those errors which arise from an irresponsible
investigation of this difficult matter, such as some have made not without seriously endangering Catholic
faith and disturbing the peace of souls.

86. For some there are who neglect the fact that the Apostle Paul has used metaphorical language in
speaking of this doctrine, and failing to distinguish as they should the precise and proper meaning of the
terms the physical body, the social body, and the mystical Body, arrive at a distorted idea of unity. They
make the Divine Redeemer and the members of the Church coalesce in one physical person, and while
they bestow divine attributes on man, they make Christ our Lord subject to error and to human
inclination to evil. But Catholic faith and the writings of the holy Fathers reject such false teaching as
impious and sacrilegious; and of the mind of the Apostle of the Gentiles it is equally abhorrent, for
although he brings Christ and His Mystical Body into a wonderfully intimate union, he nevertheless
distinguishes one from the other as Bridegroom from Bride.165

87. No less far from the truth is the dangerous error of those who endeavor to deduce from the
mysterious union of us all with Christ a certain unhealthy quietism. They would attribute the whole
spiritual life of Christians and their progress in virtue exclusively to the action of the divine Spirit, setting
aside and neglecting the collaboration which is due from us. No one of course can deny that the Holy
Spirit of Jesus Christ is the one source of whatever supernatural power enters into the Church and its
members. For “the Lord will give grace and glory” as the Psalmist says.166 But that men should
persevere constantly in their good works, that they should advance eagerly in grace and virtue, that they
should strive earnestly to reach the heights of Christian perfection and at the same time to the best of
their power should stimulate others to attain the same goal, — all this the heavenly Spirit does not will
to effect unless they contribute their daily share of zealous activity. “For divine favors are conferred not
on those who sleep, but on those who watch” as St. Ambrose says.167 For if in our mortal body the
members are strengthened and grow through continued exercise, much more truly can this be said of
the social Body of Jesus Christ in which each individual member retains his own personal freedom,
responsibility, and principles of conduct. For that reason he who said: “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth
in me”168 did not at the same time hesitate to assert: “His (God’s) grace in men has not been void, but I
have labored more abundantly than all they: yet not 1, but the grace of God with me.”169 It is perfectly
clear, therefore, that in these false doctrines the mystery which we are considering is not directed to the
spiritual advancement of the faithful but is turned to their deplorable ruin.

88. The same result follows from the opinions of those who assert that little importance should be given
to the frequent confession of venial sins. Far more important, they say, is that general confession which
the Spouse of Christ, surrounded by her children in the Lord, makes each day by the mouth of the priest
as he approaches the altar of God. As you well know, Venerable Brethren, it is true that venial sins may
be expiated in many ways which are to be highly commended. But to ensure more rapid progress day by
day in the path of virtue, We will that the pious practice of frequent confession, which was introduced
into the Church by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, should be earnestly advocated. By it genuine self-
knowledge is increased, Christian humility grows, bad habits are corrected, spiritual neglect and tepidity
are resisted, the conscience is purified, the will strengthened, a salutary self-control is attained, and
grace is increased in virtue of the Sacrament itself. Let those, therefore, among the younger clergy who
make light of or lessen esteem for frequent confession realize that what they are doing is alien to the
Spirit of Christ and disastrous for the Mystical Body of our Savior.

89. There are others who deny any impetratory power to our prayers, or who endeavor to insinuate into
men’s minds the idea that prayers offered to God in private should be considered of little worth, whereas
public prayers which are made in the name of the Church are those which really matter, since they
proceed from the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. This opinion is false; for the divine Redeemer is most
closely united not only with His Church, which is His beloved Spouse, but also with each and every one
of the faithful, and He ardently desires to speak with them heart to heart, especially after Holy
Communion. It is true that public prayer, inasmuch as it is offered by Mother Church, excels any other
kind of prayer by reason of her dignity as Spouse of Christ; but no prayer, even the most private, is
lacking in dignity or power, and all prayer is of the greatest help to the Mystical Body in which, through
the Communion of Saints, no good can be done, no virtue practiced by individual members, which does
not redound also to the salvation of all. Neither is a man forbidden to ask for himself particular favors
even for this life merely because he is a member of this Body, provided he is always resigned to the
divine will; for the members retain their own personality and remain subject to their own individual
needs.

170

Moreover, how highly all should esteem mental prayer is proved not only by ecclesiastical documents
but also by the custom and practice of the saints.

90. Finally there are those who assert that our prayers should be directed not to the person of Jesus
Christ but rather to God, or to the Eternal Father through Christ, since our Savior as Head of His Mystical
Body is only “Mediator of God and men.”171 But this certainly is opposed not only to the mind of the
Church and to Christian usage but to truth. For, to speak exactly, Christ is Head of the universal Church as
He exists at once in both His natures;172 moreover He Himself has solemnly declared: “If you shall ask
me anything in my name, that I will do.” 173 For although prayers are very often directed to the Eternal
Father through the only-begotten Son, especially in the Eucharistic Sacrifice — in which Christ, at once
Priest and Victim, exercises in a special manner the office of Mediator — nevertheless not infrequently
even in this Sacrifice prayers are addressed to the Divine Redeemer also; for all Christians must clearly
know and understand that the man Jesus Christ is also the Son of God and God Himself. And thus when
the Church militant offers her adoration and prayers to the Immaculate Lamb, the Sacred Victim, her
voice seems to re-echo the never-ending chorus of the Church triumphant: “To him that sitteth on the
throne and to the Lamb benediction and honor and glory and power for ever and ever.” 174

91. Venerable Brethren, in Our exposition of this mystery which embraces the hidden union of us all with
Christ, We have thus far, as Teacher of the Universal Church, illumined the mind with the light of truth,
and Our pastoral office now requires that We provide an incentive for the heart to love this Mystical
Body with that ardor of charity which is not confined to thoughts and words but which issues in deeds. If
those who lived under the Old Law could sing of their earthly city: “If I forget thee O Jerusalem let my
right hand be forgotten; let my tongue cleave to my jaws if I do not remember thee, if I make not
Jerusalem the beginning of my joy,”175 how much greater then should be the joy and exultation that
should fill our hearts who dwell in a City built on the holy mountain of living and chosen stones, “Jesus
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.” 176 For nothing more glorious, nothing nobler, nothing
surely more honorable can be imagined than to belong to the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic and Roman
Church, in which we become members of one Body as venerable as it is unique; are guided by one
supreme Head; are filled with one divine Spirit; are nourished during our earthly exile by one doctrine
and one heavenly Bread, until at last we enter into the one, unending blessedness of heaven.

92. But lest we be deceived by the angel of darkness who transforms himself into an angel of light,177
let this be the supreme law of our love: to love the Spouse of Christ as Christ willed her to be, and as He
purchased her with His blood. Hence not only should we cherish exceedingly the Sacraments with which
holy Mother Church sustains our life, the solemn ceremonies which she celebrates for our solace and our
joy, the sacred chant and the liturgical rites by which she lifts our minds up to heaven, but also the
sacramentals and all those exercises of piety by which she consoles the hearts of the faithful and sweetly
imbues them with the Spirit of Christ. As her children, it is our duty, not only to make a return to her for
her maternal goodness to us, but also to respect the authority which she has received from Christ in
virtue of which she brings into captivity our understanding unto the obedience of Christ.178 Thus we are
commanded to obey her laws and her moral precepts, even if at times they are difficult to our fallen
nature; to bring our rebellious body into subjection through voluntary mortification; and at times we are
warned to abstain even from harmless pleasures. Nor does it suffice to love this Mystical Body for the
glory of its divine Head and for its heavenly gifts; we must love it with an effective love as it appears in
this our mortal flesh -made up, that is, of weak human elements, even though at times they are little
fitted to the place which they occupy in this venerable Body.

93. In order that such a solid and undivided love may abide and increase in our souls day by day, we
must accustom ourselves 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. If the faithful strive to live in a spirit of lively faith, they will not only pay due
honor and reverence to the more exalted members of this Mystical Body, especially those who according
to Christ’s mandate will have to render an account of our souls,179 but they will take to their hearts
those members who are the object of our Savior’s special love: the weak, We mean, the wounded, and
the sick who are in need of material or spiritual assistance; children whose innocence is so easily
exposed to danger in these days, and whose young hearts can be molded as wax; and finally the poor, in
helping whom we recognize, as it were, through His supreme mercy, the very person of Jesus Christ.

94. For as the Apostle with good reason admonishes us: “Those that seem the more feeble members of
the Body are more necessary; and those that we think the less honorable members of the Body, we
surround with more abundant honour.”180Conscious of the obligations of Our high office We deem it
necessary to reiterate this grave statement today, when to Our profound grief We see at times the
deformed, the insane, and those suffering from hereditary disease deprived of their lives, as though they
were a useless burden to Society; and this procedure is hailed by some as a manifestation of human
progress, and as something that is entirely in accordance with the common good. Yet who that is
possessed of sound judgment does not recognize that this not only violates the natural and the divine
law181 written in the heart of every man, but that it outrages the noblest instincts of humanity? The
blood of these unfortunate victims who are all the dearer to our Redeemer because they are deserving
of greater pity “cries to God from the earth.”182
95. In order to guard against the gradual weakening of that sincere love which requires us to see our
Savior in the Church and in its members, it is most fitting that we should look to Jesus Himself as the
perfect model of love for the Church.

96. And first of all let us imitate the breath of His love. For the Church, the Bride of Christ, is one; and yet
so vast is the love of the divine Spouse that it embraces in His Bride the whole human race without
exception. Our Savior shed His Blood precisely in order that He might reconcile men to God through the
Cross, and might constrain them to unite in one Body, however widely they may differ in nationality and
race. True love of the Church, therefore, requires not only that we should be mutually solicitous one for
another183 as members of the same Body, rejoicing in the glory of the other members and sharing in
their suffering,184 but likewise that we should recognize in other men, although they are not yet joined
to us in the Body of the Church, our brothers in Christ according to the flesh, called, together with us, to
the same eternal salvation. It is true, unfortunately, especially today, that there are some who extol
enmity, hatred, and spite as if they enhanced the dignity and the worth of man. Let us however, while
we look with sorrow on the disastrous consequences of this teaching, follow our peaceful King who
taught us to love not only those who are of a different nation or race,185 but even our enemies186
While Our heart overflows with the sweetness of the teaching of the Apostle of the Gentiles, We extol
with him the length, and the breadth, and the height, and the depth of the charity of Christ, 187 which
neither diversity of race or customs can diminish, nor the trackless wastes of the ocean weaken, nor
wars, whether just or unjust, destroy.

97. In this gravest of hours, Venerable Brethren, when bodies are racked with pain and souls are
oppressed with grief, every individual must be aroused to this supernatural charity so that by the
combined efforts of all good men, striving to outdo each other in pity and mercy — We have in mind
especially, those who are engaged in any kind of relief work — the immense needs of mankind, both
spiritual and corporal, may be alleviated, and the devoted generosity, the inexhaustible fruitfulness of
the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, may shine resplendently throughout the whole world.

98. As the vastness of the charity with which Christ loved His Church is equaled by its constant activity,
we all, with the same assiduous and zealous charity must love the Mystical Body of Christ. Now from the
moment of His Incarnation, when he laid the first foundations of the Church, even to His last mortal
breath, our Redeemer never ceased for an instant, though He was the Son of God, to labor unto
weariness in order to establish and strengthen the Church, whether by giving us the shining example of
His holiness, or by preaching, or conversing, or gathering and instructing disciples. And so We desire that
all who claim the Church as their mother, should seriously consider that not only the clergy and those
who have consecrated themselves to God in the religious life, but the other members of the mystical
Body of Jesus Christ as well have, each in his degree, the obligation of working hard and constantly for
the building up and increase of this Body. We wish this to be borne in mind especially by members of
Catholic Action who assist the Bishops and the priests in their apostolic labor sand to their praise be it
said, they do realize it — and also by those members of pious associations who work for the same end.
There is not one who does not realize that their energetic zeal of the highest importance and of the
greatest weight especially in the present circumstances.

99. In this connection We cannot pass over in silence the fathers and mothers of families to whom our
Savior has entrusted the youngest members of His Mystical Body. We plead with them most earnestly,
for the love of Christ and the Church, to take the greatest possible care of the children confided to them,
and to protect them from the snares of every kind into which they can be lured so easily today.

100. Our Redeemer showed His burning love for the Church especially by praying for her to His heavenly
father. To recall but a few examples: everyone knows, Venerable Brethren, that just before the crucifixion
He prayed repeatedly for Peter, 188 for the other Apostles,189 for all who, through the preaching of the
holy Gospel, would believe in Him. 190

101. After the example of Christ we too should pray daily to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into
His harvest. 191 Our united prayer should rise daily to heaven for all the members of the Mystical Body
of Jesus Christ; first for Bishops who are responsible in a special way for their respective dioceses; then
for priests and religious, both men and women, who have been called to the service of God, and who, at
home and in the foreign missions, are protecting, increasing, and advancing the Kingdom of the Divine
Redeemer. No member of this venerated Body must be forgotten in this common prayer; and let there
be a special remembrance of those who are weighed down with the sorrows and afflictions of this
earthly exile, as also for the suffering souls in Purgatory. Neither must those be neglected who are being
instructed in Christian doctrine, so that they may be able to receive baptism without delay.

102. Likewise, We must earnestly desire that this united prayer may embrace in the same ardent charity
both those who, not yet enlightened by the truth of the Gospel, are still without the fold of the Church,
and those who, on account of regrettable schism, are separated from Us, who though unworthy,
represent the person of Jesus Christ on earth. Let us then reecho that divine prayer of our Savior to the
heavenly Father: “That they all may be one, as thou Father in me, and I in thee, that they also may be
one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” 192

103. As you know, Venerable Brethren, from the very beginning of Our Pontificate, We have committed
to the protection and guidance of heaven those who do not belong to the visible Body of the Catholic
Church, solemnly declaring that after the example of the Good Shepherd We desire nothing more
ardently than that they may have life and have it more abundantly.193 Imploring the prayers of the
whole Church We wish to repeat this solemn declaration in this Encyclical Letter in which We have
proclaimed the praises of the “great and glorious Body of Christ,” 194 and from a heart overflowing with
love We ask each and every one of them to correspond to the interior movements of grace, and to seek
to withdraw from that state in which they cannot be sure of their salvation.195 For even though by an
unconscious desire and longing they have a certain relationship with the Mystical Body of the Redeemer,
they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the
Catholic Church. Therefore may they enter into Catholic unity and, joined with Us in the one, organic
God of Jesus Christ, may they together with us run on to the one Head in the Society of glorious love.196
Persevering in prayer to the Spirit of love and truth, We wait for them with open and outstretched arms
to come not to a stranger’s house, but to their own, their father’s home.

104. Though We desire this unceasing prayer to rise to God from the whole Mystical Body in common,
that all the straying sheep may hasten to enter the one fold of Jesus Christ, yet We recognize that this
must be done of their own free will; for no one believes unless he wills to believe.197 Hence they are
most certainly not genuine Christians 198 who against their belief are forced to go into a church, to
approach the altar and to receive the Sacraments; for the “faith without which it is impossible to please
God”199 is an entirely free “submission of intellect and will.”200 Therefore whenever it happens, despite
the constant teaching of this Apostolic See, 201 that anyone is compelled to embrace the Catholic faith
against his will, Our sense of duty demands that We condemn the act. For men must be effectively
drawn to the truth by the Father of light through the Spirit of His beloved Son, because, endowed as
they are with free will, they can misuse their freedom under the impulse of mental agitation and base
desires. Unfortunately many are still wandering far from Catholic truth, being unwilling to follow the
inspirations of divine grace, because neither they202 nor the faithful pray to God with sufficient fervor
for this intention. Again and again we beg all who ardently love the Church to follow the example of the
Divine Redeemer and to give themselves constantly to such prayer.

105. And likewise, above all in the present crisis, it seems to Us not only opportune but necessary that
earnest supplications should be offered for kings, princes, and for all those who govern nations and are
thus in a position to assist the Church by their protecting power, so that the conflict ended, “peace the
work of justice”203 under the impulse of divine charity may emerge from out this raging tempest and be
restored to wearied man, and that holy Mother Church “may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety
and chastity.”204 We must plead with God to grant that the rulers of nations may love wisdom,205 so
that the severe judgment of the Holy Spirit may never fall on them: “Because being ministers of his
kingdom you have not judged rightly, nor kept the law of justice, nor walked according to the will of God;
horribly and speedily will he appear to you; for a most severe judgment shall be for them that bear rule.
For to him that is little, mercy is granted; but the mighty shall be mightily tormented. For God will not
except any man’s person, neither will he stand in awe of any man’s greatness; for he made the little and
the great, and he hath equally care of all. But a greater punishment is ready for the more mighty. To you,
therefore, O Kings, are these my words, that you may learn wisdom and not fall from it.”206

106. Moreover, Christ proved His love for His spotless Bride not only at the cost of immense labor and
constant prayer, but by His sorrows and His sufferings which He willingly and lovingly endured for her
sake. “Having loved his own . . . he loved them unto the end.”207 Indeed it was only at the price of His
blood that He purchased the Church.208Let us then follow gladly in the bloodstained footsteps of our
King, for this is necessary to ensure our salvation. “For if we have been planted together in the likeness
of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection,”209 and “if we be dead with him, we
shall live also with him.” 210 Also our zealous love for the Church demands it, and our brotherly love for
the souls she brings forth to Christ. For although our Savior’s cruel passion and death merited for His
Church an infinite treasure of graces, God’s inscrutable providence has decreed that these graces should
not be granted to us all at once; but their greater or lesser abundance will depend in no small part on
our good works, which draw down on the souls of men a rain of heavenly gifts freely bestowed by God.
These heavenly gifts will surely flow more abundantly if we not only pray fervently to God, especially by
participating every day if possible in the Eucharistic Sacrifice; if we not only try to relieve the distress of
the needy and of the sick by works of Christian charity, but if we also set our hearts on the good things of
eternity rather than on the passing things of this world; if we restrain this mortal body by voluntary
mortification, denying it what is forbidden, and forcing it to do what is hard and distasteful; and finally, if
we humbly accept as from God’s hands the burdens and sorrows of this present life. Thus, according to
the Apostle, “we shall fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in our flesh for his
Body, which is the Church.”211

107. As We write these words there passes before Our eyes, alas, an almost endless throng of
unfortunate beings for whom We shed tears of sorrow: sick, poor, disabled, widows, orphans, and many
not infrequently languishing even unto death on account of their own painful trials or those of their
families. With the heart of a father We exhort all those who from whatever cause are plunged in grief
and anguish to lift their eyes trustfully to heaven and to offer their sorrows to Him who will one day
reward them abundantly. Let them all remember that their sufferings are not in vain, but that they will
turn to their own immense gain and that of the Church, if to this end they bear them with patience. The
daily use of the offering made by the members of the Apostleship of Prayer will contribute very much to
make this intention more efficacious and We welcome this opportunity of recommending this
Association highly, as one which is most pleasing to God.

108. There never was a time, Venerable Brethren, when the salvation of souls did not impose on all the
duty of associating their sufferings with the torments of our Divine Redeemer. But today that duty is
clearer than ever, when a gigantic conflict has set almost the whole world on fire and leaves in its wake
so much death, so much misery, so much hardship; in the same way today, in a special manner, it is the
duty of all to fly from vice, the attraction of the world, the unrestrained pleasures of the body, and also
from worldly frivolity and vanity which contribute nothing to the Christian training of the soul nor to the
gaining of Heaven. Rather let those weighty words of Our immortal predecessor Leo the Great be deeply
engraven on our minds, that by Baptism we are made flesh of the Crucified;212 and that beautiful prayer
of St. Ambrose; “Carry me, Christ, on the Cross, which is salvation to the wanderers, sole rest for the
wearied, wherein alone is life for those who die.”213

109. Before concluding, We cannot refrain from again and again exhorting all to love holy Mother Church
with a devoted and active love. If we have really at heart the salvation of the whole human family,
purchased by the precious Blood, we must offer every day to the Eternal Father our prayers, works and
sufferings for her safety and for her continued and ever more fruitful increase. And while the skies are
heavy with storm clouds, and exceeding great dangers threaten the whole of human Society and the
Church herself, let us commit ourselves and all that we have to the Father of mercies, crying out: “Look
down, we beseech Thee Lord, on this Thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ did not hesitate to be
betrayed into the hands of evil men and to undergo the torment of the Cross.”214

110. Venerable Brethren, may the Virgin Mother of God hear the prayers of Our paternal heart — which
are yours also — and obtain for all a true love of the Church — she whose sinless soul was filled with the
divine Spirit of Jesus Christ above all other created souls, and who “in the name of the whole human
race” gave her consent “for a spiritual marriage between the Son of God and human nature.”215 Within
her virginal womb Christ our Lord already bore the exalted title of Head of the Church; in a marvelous
birth she brought Him forth as the source of all supernatural life, and presented Him, newly born, as
Prophet, King, and Priest to those who, from among Jews and Gentiles, were the first to come to adore
Him. Furthermore, her only Son, condescending to His mother’s prayer in “Cana of Galilee,” performed
the miracle by which “his disciples believed in him.”216 It was she, the second Eve, who, free from all
sin, original or personal, and always most intimately united with her Son, offered Him on Golgotha to the
Eternal Father for all the children of Adam, sin-stained by his unhappy fall, and her mother’s rights and
mother’s love were included in the holocaust. Thus she who, according to the flesh, was the mother of
our Head, through the added title of pain and glory became, according to the Spirit, the mother of all His
members. She it was who through her powerful prayers obtained that the Spirit of our Divine Redeemer,
already given on the Cross, should be bestowed, accompanied by miraculous gifts, on the newly founded
Church at Pentecost; and finally bearing with courage and confidence the tremendous burden of her
sorrows and desolation, she, truly the Queen of Martyrs, more than all the faithful “filled up those things
that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ . . . for His Body, which is the Church”;217 and she continues
to have for the Mystical Body of Christ, born of the pierced Heart of the Saviour, 218 the same motherly
care and ardent love with which she cherished and fed the Infant Jesus in the crib.

111. May she, then, the most holy Mother of all the members of Christ, 219 to whose Immaculate Heart
We have trustfully consecrated all mankind, and who now reigns in heaven with her Son, her body and
soul refulgent with heavenly glory — may she never cease to beg from Him that copious streams of grace
may flow from its exalted Head into all the members of the Mystical Body. May she throw about the
Church today, as in times gone by, the mantle of her protection and obtain from God that now at last the
Church and all mankind may enjoy more peaceful days.

112. Confiding in this sublime hope, from an overflowing heart We impart to you, one and all, Venerable
Brethren, and to the flocks entrusted to your care, as a pledge of heavenly graces and a token of Our
special affection, the Apostolic Benediction.

113. Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, on the twenty-ninth day of June, the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter
and Paul, in the year 1943, the fifth of Our Pontificate.

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A.S.S.., XXIX, p. 650.

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St. Thos., De Veritate, q. 29, a. 4, ad 9.

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Col., I, 13.

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Philipp., II, 8.

John, XX, 22.

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Luke, X, 16.

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D Cor., IV, 13.

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Tit., II, 13.

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I John, IV, 16.

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I John, IV, 20-21.

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Mal., I. 11.
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Ps. LXXXIII, 12.

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Gal., II, 20.

I Cor., XV, 10.

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I Tim.II, 5.

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John, XIV, 14.

Apoc., V, 13.

Ps., CXXXVI, 5-6.

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I Cor.XII, 2223.

Cf. Decree of Holy Office, 2 Dec. 1940: A.A.S., 1940, p.553.

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Cf. l Cor., XII, 26.

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Cf. Eph., III, 18.

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John, XVII, 21.

Cf. Litt. enc. Summi Pontificatus: A.A.S., 1939, p. 419.

Iren., Adv. Haer., IV, 33, 7: Migne, P.G., VII, 1076.

Cf. Pius IX, Iam Vos Omnes, 13 Sept. 1868: Act. Conc. Vat., C. L. VII, 10.

Cf. Gelas. I, Epist. XIV: Migne, P.L., LIX, 89.

Cf. August. In loann. Ev. tract., XXVI, 2: Migne, P.L., XXX,1607.

Cf. August., Ibidem.

Hebr., XI, 6.

Vat. Council, Const. de fide Cath., Cap. 3.

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Cf. August., Ibidem.

15., XXXII, 17.

Cf. I Tim., II, 2.

Cf. Wis., VI, 23.

Ibidem, VI, 4-10.

John, XIII, 1.

Cf. Acts, XX, 28.

Rom., VI, 5.

II Tim. II, 11.

Cf. Col., 1, 24.

Cf. Serm., LXIII, 6; LXVI, 3: Migne, P.L., LIV, 357 and 366.

In P [5] ., 118, XXII, 30: Migne, P.L., XV, 1521.

Office for Holy Week.

St. Thos., III, q. 30, a. 1, c.

John, II, 11.

Cf. Vesper hymn of Office of the Sacred Heart.

Cf. Pius X, Ad Diem Illum: A.S.S., XXXVI, p. 453.