Humani generis unitas
Encyclopedia
Humani generis unitas was a planned encyclical
of Pope Pius XI
before his death on February 10, 1939, which condemned antisemitism, racism
and the persecution of Jews
. Because it was never promulgated, it is sometimes referred to as "The Hidden Encyclical" or "The Lost Encyclical."
Jesuit
John LaFarge
, who began to prepare a draft of Humani Generis Unitas, which LaFarge and two other Jesuits—Gustav Gundlach and Gustave Desbuquois—worked on in Paris; the draft was approximately 100 pages long. Another Jesuit translated the draft encyclical into Latin, presenting it to Vladimir Ledochowski, then the General of the Society of Jesus—who had chosen Gundlach and Desbuquois for the project. The draft encyclical was delivered to the Vatican in September 1938.
Some secondary sources—as well as Cardinal Tisserant
the Dean of the College of Cardinals
—claim that Humani Generis Unitas was literally on Pius XI's desk when he died of a heart attack on February 10, 1939.
Pope Pius XII
, who succeeded Pius XI, did not promulgate the encyclical in the exact form of the draft left by Pius XI. Critics of Pius XII—notably John Cornwell
in his controversial work Hitler's Pope
—have cited his failure to promulgate the encyclical as evidence of his alleged silence toward anti-Semitism and The Holocaust
, though a revised form of the encyclical was actually issued by Pius XII in October 1939 and analysis of the encyclical figures prominently in most comparisons of the policies of Pius XII and his predecessor.
Pope Benedict XVI
decreed in June, 2006 that all documents from the reign of Pius XI in the Vatican Secret Archives
should be opened, and on September 18, 2006 over 30,000 documents were made available to researchers.
, unorthodox re-interpretation of Sacred Scripture, nationalism
, and racism
; the remaining 108, likely authored by all three Jesuits, contextualized the first part of the encyclical with the social role of Catholic educational institutions and anti-Semitism.
Although the draft encyclical clearly condemned racism and anti-Semitism, the document is deeply grounded in anti-Judaism
. The draft encyclical criticizes the majority of post-Messianic Jews for not acknowledging Jesus Christ as the true Jewish Messiah.
is a denial of the unity of human society. , a denial of the human personality and a denial of the true values of religion There is no relation between race and religion last not least because racism is destructive to any society The text points out that racism is destructive not only for social relations within a society but also for international relations and relations between different races.
as well. “These persecutions have been censured by the Holy See on more than one occasion, but especially when they have worn the mantle of Christianity". “This unjust and pitiless campaign against the Jews has at least this advantage”, according to the “encyclical”, because the true nature, the authentic basis of the social separation of the Jews from the rest of humanity … is religious in character. …Essentially, the so-called Jewish question … is a question of religion and, since the coming of Christ, a question of Christianity. The encyclical blames the Jews of the time of Christ for having brought their own Messiah
Jesus Christ to death: "The very act by which the Jewish people put to death their Savior and King was, in the strong language of Saint Paul, the salvation of the world". The draft encyclical continues by accusing Jews of blind materialism.
, who according to the authors, was not aware of the text before the death of his predecessor, chose not to publish this encyclical. However, his first encyclical Summi Pontificatus
(October 12, 1939), published after the beginning of WWII, has the identical title On the Unity of Human Society and uses many of the arguments of the text, avoiding most of the negative characterisation of the Jewish people and rabbinic religion still contained in the text of the original encyclical, planned and written before the invasion of Poland and the start of the Second World War.
Summi Pontificatus
sees Christianity
being universalized and opposed to every form of racial hostility and against racial superiority. There are no real racial differences, because the human race
forms a unity, because "one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth".
This divine law of solidarity and charity
assures that all men are truly brethren, without excluding the rich variety of persons, cultures and societies.
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
of Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
before his death on February 10, 1939, which condemned antisemitism, racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and the persecution of Jews
Persecution of Jews
Persecution of Jews has occurred on numerous occasions and at widely different geographical locations. As well as being a major component in Jewish history, it has significantly affected the general history and social development of the countries and societies in which the persecuted Jews...
. Because it was never promulgated, it is sometimes referred to as "The Hidden Encyclical" or "The Lost Encyclical."
History
In June 1938, Pius XI summoned AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
John LaFarge
John LaFarge, Jr.
John LaFarge, Jr. was an American Jesuit priest and a strong supporter of anti-racist policies.Born in Newport, Rhode Island, he was the son of John LaFarge, an American painter, muralist, stained glass window maker, decorator, and writer.He wrote several books and articles before World War II...
, who began to prepare a draft of Humani Generis Unitas, which LaFarge and two other Jesuits—Gustav Gundlach and Gustave Desbuquois—worked on in Paris; the draft was approximately 100 pages long. Another Jesuit translated the draft encyclical into Latin, presenting it to Vladimir Ledochowski, then the General of the Society of Jesus—who had chosen Gundlach and Desbuquois for the project. The draft encyclical was delivered to the Vatican in September 1938.
Some secondary sources—as well as Cardinal Tisserant
Eugène-Gabriel-Gervais-Laurent Tisserant
Eugène Tisserant was a French Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Elevated to the cardinalate in 1936, Tisserant was a prominent and long-time member of the Roman Curia. He was also, for a time, Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre...
the Dean of the College of Cardinals
Dean of the College of Cardinals
The Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals is the president of the College of Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church, and as such always holds the rank of Cardinal Bishop. The Dean is not necessarily the longest-serving member of the whole College...
—claim that Humani Generis Unitas was literally on Pius XI's desk when he died of a heart attack on February 10, 1939.
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
, who succeeded Pius XI, did not promulgate the encyclical in the exact form of the draft left by Pius XI. Critics of Pius XII—notably John Cornwell
John Cornwell (writer)
John Cornwell is an English journalist and author, and a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. He is best known for various books on the papacy, most notably Hitler's Pope; investigative journalism; memoir; and the public understanding of science and philosophy. More recently he has been concerned...
in his controversial work Hitler's Pope
Hitler's Pope
Hitler's Pope is a book published in 1999 by the British journalist and author John Cornwell that examines the actions of Pope Pius XII during the Nazi era, and explores the charge that he assisted in the legitimization of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany, through the pursuit of a...
—have cited his failure to promulgate the encyclical as evidence of his alleged silence toward anti-Semitism and The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, though a revised form of the encyclical was actually issued by Pius XII in October 1939 and analysis of the encyclical figures prominently in most comparisons of the policies of Pius XII and his predecessor.
Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
decreed in June, 2006 that all documents from the reign of Pius XI in the Vatican Secret Archives
Vatican Secret Archives
The Vatican Secret Archives , located in Vatican City, is the central repository for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, having primal incumbency until death, owns the archives until the next appointed Papal successor...
should be opened, and on September 18, 2006 over 30,000 documents were made available to researchers.
Content
The first 70 paragraphs, probably authored by Gundlach, are a critique of theological modernismModernism (Roman Catholicism)
Modernism refers to theological opinions expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but with influence reaching into the 21st century, which are characterized by a break with the past. Catholic modernists form an amorphous group. The term "modernist" appears in Pope Pius X's 1907...
, unorthodox re-interpretation of Sacred Scripture, nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
, and racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
; the remaining 108, likely authored by all three Jesuits, contextualized the first part of the encyclical with the social role of Catholic educational institutions and anti-Semitism.
Although the draft encyclical clearly condemned racism and anti-Semitism, the document is deeply grounded in anti-Judaism
Anti-Judaism
Religious antisemitism is a form of antisemitism, which is the prejudice against, or hostility toward, the Jewish people based on hostility to Judaism and to Jews as a religious group...
. The draft encyclical criticizes the majority of post-Messianic Jews for not acknowledging Jesus Christ as the true Jewish Messiah.
Racism
The “encyclical” clearly condemns American racial segregation and Racism and Nazi German anti-Semitism RacismRacism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
is a denial of the unity of human society. , a denial of the human personality and a denial of the true values of religion There is no relation between race and religion last not least because racism is destructive to any society The text points out that racism is destructive not only for social relations within a society but also for international relations and relations between different races.
Antisemitic accusations
The encyclical condemns the persecution of JewsJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
as well. “These persecutions have been censured by the Holy See on more than one occasion, but especially when they have worn the mantle of Christianity". “This unjust and pitiless campaign against the Jews has at least this advantage”, according to the “encyclical”, because the true nature, the authentic basis of the social separation of the Jews from the rest of humanity … is religious in character. …Essentially, the so-called Jewish question … is a question of religion and, since the coming of Christ, a question of Christianity. The encyclical blames the Jews of the time of Christ for having brought their own Messiah
Messiah
A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...
Jesus Christ to death: "The very act by which the Jewish people put to death their Savior and King was, in the strong language of Saint Paul, the salvation of the world". The draft encyclical continues by accusing Jews of blind materialism.
- Blinded by a vision of material domination and gain, the Israelites lost what they themselves had sought. A few chosen souls, among whom were the disciples and followers of Our Lord, the early Jewish Christians, and, through the centuries, a few members of the Jewish people, were an exception to this general rule. By their acceptance of Christ's teaching and their incorporation into His Church, they shared in the inheritance of His glory, but they remained and still remain an exception. "What Israel was seeking after, that it has not obtained; but the chosen have obtained it, and the rest have been blinded" (Romans 11:7). The planned encyclical argues, that
- By a mysterious Providence of God, this unhappy people, destroyers of their own nation, whose misguided leaders had called down upon their own heads a Divine malediction, doomed, as it were, to perpetually wander over the face of the earth, were nonetheless never allowed to perish, but have been preserved through the ages into our own time. No natural reason appears to be forthcoming to explain this age-long persistence, this indestructible coherence of the Jewish people.
Reaction of Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XIIPope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
, who according to the authors, was not aware of the text before the death of his predecessor, chose not to publish this encyclical. However, his first encyclical Summi Pontificatus
Summi Pontificatus
Summi Pontificatus is an encyclical of Pope Pius XII published on October 20, 1939. The encyclical is subtitled "On the Unity of Human Society." It was the first major encyclical of Pius XII so was seen as setting "a tone" for his papacy. It critiques major errors at the time, such as ideologies...
(October 12, 1939), published after the beginning of WWII, has the identical title On the Unity of Human Society and uses many of the arguments of the text, avoiding most of the negative characterisation of the Jewish people and rabbinic religion still contained in the text of the original encyclical, planned and written before the invasion of Poland and the start of the Second World War.
Summi Pontificatus
Summi Pontificatus
Summi Pontificatus is an encyclical of Pope Pius XII published on October 20, 1939. The encyclical is subtitled "On the Unity of Human Society." It was the first major encyclical of Pius XII so was seen as setting "a tone" for his papacy. It critiques major errors at the time, such as ideologies...
sees Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
being universalized and opposed to every form of racial hostility and against racial superiority. There are no real racial differences, because the human race
Human Race
Human Race refers to the Human species.Human race may also refer to:*The Human Race, 79th episode of YuYu Hakusho* Human Race Theatre Company of Dayton Ohio* Human Race Machine, a computer graphics device...
forms a unity, because "one ancestor [God] made all nations to inhabit the whole earth".
- What a wonderful vision, which makes us contemplate the human race in the unity of its origin in God. . . in the unity of its nature, composed equally in all men of a material body and a spiritual soul; in the unity of its immediate end and its mission in the world; in the unity of its dwelling, the earth, whose benefits all men, by right of nature, may use to sustain and develop life; in the unity of its supernatural end: God himself, to whom all ought to tend; in the unity of the means for attaining this end;. . . in the unity of the redemption wrought by Christ for all.
This divine law of solidarity and charity
Charity (virtue)
In Christian theology charity, or love , means an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.The term should not be confused with the more restricted modern use of the word charity to mean benevolent giving.- Caritas: altruistic love :...
assures that all men are truly brethren, without excluding the rich variety of persons, cultures and societies.
External links
- Humani Generis Unitas draft of a section as of 1938
- Pius XI and the mystery of the disapperead encyclical (YouTube video, original Italian, with English subtitles, duration 04:38)