Summi Pontificatus is an encyclical

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 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....

 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 of 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 cultural superiority and the totalitarian state. It also sets the theological framework for future encyclical letters, such as Mystici Corporis Christi

Mystici Corporis Christi

Mystici Corporis Christi is a papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII during World War II, on the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. It is one of the more important encyclicals of Pope Pius XII, because of its topic, the Church, and because its Church concept was fully included in Lumen...

(1943). The encylical laments the destruction of Poland

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...

, denounces the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...

, and calls for a restoration of independent Poland

History of Poland

The History of Poland is rooted in the arrival of the Slavs, who gave rise to permanent settlement and historic development on Polish lands. During the Piast dynasty Christianity was adopted in 966 and medieval monarchy established...

.

The Unity of Human Society

Summi Pontificatus 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 racial hostility and superiority. There are no 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 [Adam] 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.

Human and cultural diversity

Summi Pontificatus teaches, that superior and inferior cultures do not exist and that different levels of development within and between nations are source for enrichment of the human race.

• The nations, despite a difference of development due to diverse conditions of life and of culture, are not destined to break the unity of the human race, but rather to enrich and embellish it by the sharing of their own peculiar gifts and by that reciprocal interchange of goods.

Solidarity and charity

Because of the common origin and the ensuing equality, solidarity and charity are mandatory for all people. The principle of solidarity, which can be articulated in terms of "friendship" or "social charity," is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood.

• An error, "today abundantly widespread, is disregard for the law of human solidarity and charity, dictated and imposed both by our common origin and by the equality in rational nature of all men, whatever nation they belong to. This law is sealed by the sacrifice of redemption offered by Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross to his heavenly Father, on behalf of sinful humanity.

Forgetfulness of the law of universal charity—may lead to conflict and war. Because that charity alone can create and consolidate peace by extinguishing hatred and softening envies and dissensions in the relations between nations.

The totalitarian state

In what most saw as a rejection of totalitarianism, Summi Pontificatus rejected the idea of the state as "something ultimate to which everything else should be subordinated":

• But there is yet another error no less pernicious to the well-being of the nations and to the prosperity of that great human society which gathers together and embraces within its confines all races. It is the error contained in those ideas which do not hesitate to divorce civil authority from every kind of dependence upon the Supreme Being--First Source and absolute Master of man and of society--and from every restraint of a Higher Law derived from God as from its First Source. Thus they accord the civil authority an unrestricted field of action that is at the mercy of the changeful tide of human will, or of the dictates of casual historical claims, and of the interests of a few.

A threat to its families, education

Summi Pontificatus goes on to show that unlimited state authority is a menace to the prosperity of nations, to the family and to education.

Further, there would be danger to the primary and essential cell of society, the family

Family

In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...

, which in a totalitarian system would be viewed from the narrow standpoint of national power. That is contrary to Church teaching, that family has priority before the state:

• However, and lest it be forgotten that man and the family are by nature anterior to the State, and that the Creator has given to both of them powers and rights and has assigned them a mission and a charge that correspond to undeniable natural requirements.

Summi Pontificatus holds also that education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 would not aim at the balanced and harmonious development of the physical powers and of all the intellectual and moral qualities, but at a one-sided formation of those civic virtues that are considered necessary for attaining political success, while the virtues which give society the fragrance of nobility, humanity and reverence would be inculcated less, for fear they should detract from the pride of the citizen.

A danger to World peace

The principles of natural and international law are not an option but indispensable, because the totalitarian state is a threat to peace:

• The idea which credits the State with unlimited authority is not simply an error harmful to the internal life of nations, to their prosperity, and to the larger and well-ordered increase in their well-being, but likewise it injures the relations between peoples, for it breaks the unity of supra-national society, robs the law of nations of its foundation and vigor, leads to violation of others' rights and impedes agreement and peaceful intercourse.

The German/Russian attack on Poland

Summi Pontificatus, in line with the theological and non-political nature of Papal encyclicals of the past, does not mention explicitly definite names or countries, as many of his accusations against racism, racial segregation superiority and exploitation are far-reaching and of a moral nature. An exception is the fate of occupied

Occupation of Poland

Occupation of Poland may refer to:* Partitions of Poland * The German Government General of Warsaw and the Austrian Military Government of Lublin during World War I* Occupation of Poland during World War II...

 Poland

Second Polish Republic

The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...

. For its specific criticism of the attack and occupation of Poland the encyclical was lauded by the western Allies, and Polish refugees outside Nazi and Soviet control likewise approved of the pope's call for restoration of an independent Polish state.

• "The blood of countless human beings, even noncombatants, raises a piteous dirge over a nation such as Our dear Poland, which, for its fidelity to the Church, for its services in the defense of Christian civilization, written in indelible characters in the annals of history, has a right to the generous and brotherly sympathy of the whole world, while it awaits, relying on the powerful intercession of Mary, Help of Christians, the hour of a resurrection in harmony with the principles of justice and true peace."

Consequences

Summi Pontificatus incorporates elements of the never published encyclical "Humani Generis Unitas

Humani generis unitas

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...

" against 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 anti-semitism, prepared by several Jesuits for their Father General. 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...

 choose not to publish it in 1938, possibly in light of strong anti-Judaic

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...

 or anti-rabbinic language in parts of it, which could be misunderstood by the faithful or perverted by pro-Axis media. Some 50 years later, this created some controversy, as to whether the new Pope should have published the encyclical letter of his predecessor without changes or additions.

International reactions

The reactions to Summi Pontificatus were strong at the time. While some Nazis played it down, the German ambassador to the Vatican, Von Bergen called it a direct attack on the Third Reich. Pope Pius wanted to hit with this encyclical primarily the Third Reich. The Catholic League

Catholic League (U.S.)

The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, often shortened to the Catholic League, is an American Catholic anti-defamation and civil rights organization...

 (U.S.) states that the Gestapo considered the encyclical an attack. The British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 authorities at war with Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 welcomed it and the French had copies printed and dropped by air over Germany.[3] The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

 front-page caption on 28 October 1939 stated, "Pope Condemns Dictators, Treaty Violators, Racism; Urges Restoring of Poland".

The American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

media, without grasping potential implications for domestic race relations, welcomed the decisive positions of the new Pope. More important, devout Catholic that he (Pope Pius XII) was, he knew which side he was for, and, unlike his predecessors during War I, said so.

It certainly did the Allies no harm when 61,000,000 German and Polish Catholics were told by their Supreme Ruler that "the idea which credits the State with unlimited authority" was abhorrent to him. "To consider the State as something ultimate to which everything else should be subordinated and directed cannot fail to harm the true and lasting prosperity of nations," read the Encyclical. Again, the Pontiff wrote that the totalitarian system of government was an idea which "robs the law of nations of its foundation and vigor, leads to violation of others' rights and impedes agreement and peaceful intercourse".

A conclusion

The encyclical letter certainly did not stop or shorten World War Two. It seemed to have little or no political impact at the time. But Summi Pontificatus also predicted an ultimate victory against the enemies of the Church. "Her adversary can never prevail: The gates of hell shall not prevail, nor can they ever weaken her" In this, Summi Pontificatus turned out to be correct.

Theologically, the often quoted rationale about the unity of human society and diversity of cultures, is a part of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and quoted in numerous Church documents. Summi Pontificatus, despite of its lack of "political success" remains thus one of the more influential theological encyclicals of Pope Pius XII.

Source

• Encyclical Summi Pontificatus on the Vatican website