SUMMA QUAE (On the Church in
Pope
Clement XIII
Encyclical of
Pope Clement XIII promulgated on 6 January 1768.
To Our Venerable Brothers, the Archbishops, and
Bishops of the
Venerable Brothers, Greeting and the Apostolic
Blessing.
We are greatly concerned with the protection of
the entire Christian flock and with the needs of Our brothers who tend it; we
feel we must either instruct or exhort and admonish them. Indeed, We have often
done this with you, Venerable Brothers, especially after We foresaw the storms
arising which sought to undermine religion in your country. The well-being of
religion in
2. However, the calamity which We feared is now
upon us and has weighed more heavily on Our mind than usual; therefore, We are
moved with a more intense zeal for your nation. Our concern for your will-being
requires fuller and more vehement expression in order to rekindle the heavenly
grace with which you were endowed from on high at your episcopal
consecration. This is particularly important since God now seeks and even
demands from you the due and necessary fruits of His gifts.
3. With extreme distress We have learned that
impious compacts have been entered into in your country. This is because truth
is put together with falsehood, and the splendor of light with squalor and
darkness. Because of this, your faithful people might be easily drawn to
destruction by the conjunction of dissimilar things. The abomination of
desolation might even be brought into the holy place. Truly Our spiritual
anguish would significantly increase if in so great a disturbance of affairs,
the voices of the bishops were to be silent, and if We were to see none of them
distinguish himself in calling back from contagion the minds of the people and
confirming them in the doctrinal truth. All the more so, if anyone, acting out
of fear or a base desire to please men more than God, should pervert and thus
suppress the dignity and authority given to each of you for the defense and
embellishment of the Church.
4. We cannot believe that lips once consecrated
to preaching the divine word would lack the force and ability to put the lie to
flight when it dares to demand for itself a place of victory in the very temple
of God; that hands ennobled by handling the body of Christ would be employed in
writing for the propagation of the rashness and license of error; that ears
accustomed only to the most sweet voice of the Church would harken
to the delusions and snares of the devil. Nevertheless, We have seen the
machinations of the enemy of human nature progress so far that practically
everything must be feared.
5. We hope that no one would allow himself to
be so carried away by error and fraud that, because he recognizes himself to be
incapable of warding off overwhelming attacks, he would thereby believe himself
also freed from the laws of his pastoral office; that having abandoned the role
imposed on him by the Church, while retaining that other given by the state and
public authority, he would willingly consent to the losses inflicted on him.
That would indicate that these twin features of his function could be separated
and disjoined, and that he should not constantly reckon the former preferable
to the latter.
6. Wherefore, in the name of almighty God,
whose vicarious authority We, however unworthy, bear,
We declare to you that he who allows himself to be drawn into this deceit and
error is totally blind and permits himself to be led by the blind. Furthermore
he cannot be excused by any of the pretexts he employs. By neglecting his episcopal office, he has been condemned by God in the words
of the prophet Hosea (4.6-10): "Because you have rejected knowledge, I
reject you from being a priest to me, and since you have forgotten the law of
your God, I will also forget your children." Wherefore, Venerable
Brothers, do not let ignorance, error, fear, or human considerations prevent
you from zealously carrying out your episcopal
duties. The powers and forces of this world may gather violently for the
destruction of the Church; nevertheless, the actions and plans of holy pastors
must conform to the gospel, tradition and ecclesiastical discipline.
7. Let them realize that the first role of
their ministry is to act as a firm wall of defense for the house of
8. These, Venerable Brothers, are Our words of
warning for you in a most serious matter that is most necessary for your own
salvation and that of your flock. May Our Lord Jesus Christ, by the assistance
of His grace, confirm and strengthen in you those sentiments which are
consonant with your vocation. May He likewise grant to you the eager
willingness and fortitude to live up to it. In
imploring the richness of these divine gifts for you, We grant you most
lovingly the apostolic blessing as a presage of the same.
Given in