While the beginning of the nineteenth century was still dominated by the Restoration, the restoration of the European regimes to the state they were in before Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew them, the second half of this period was dominated by the unification of Italy . As in previous centuries, the Roman Catholic Church also had to deal with two movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that exerted a great deal of influence. The beginning of the twentieth century was dominated by the rising fascism in Germany and the resulting Second World War.
Contents
- Neo-Thomism
- Integralism
- The Lateran Treaty
- The second World War
- Acts of resistance
Neo-Thomism
Pope Leo He was also the pope who founded neo-Thomism; a philosophical and theological system of doctrine officially recommended by the Church.
Renewed interest
When Pope Leo Due to its strict systematic approach, the Summa offered a good counterbalance to the overly emotional approach to theology that was popular at that time and practiced in European universities. Soon after the recommendation of Pope Leo
Pontifical University
The Jesuit and Cardinal Dean of Sant’Agata dei Goti in Rome, Giuseppe Pecci, SJ (1807-1890), became the first Prefect of the Pontifical Academy, having helped Pope Leo patris’. In his encyclical, Pope Leo And who better to express this Christian philosophy than the person who helped put it on paper? In his role as Prefect, Cardinal Dean Pecci also participated in various committees concerned with organizing the First Vatican Council and was a member of the Commission of Cardinals for the Study of History.
Spread of neo-Thomism
Neo-Thomism began to spread from Italy to Germany, after which it gained a foothold in Belgium. In Belgium, Cardinal Bishop Désiré Félicien François Joseph Mercier (1851-1926) took the lead by founding the Higher Institute of Philosophy (HIW) at the Catholic University of Leuven. In the Netherlands, neo-Thomism became popular at a time when Catholic emancipation was also taking place; a process in which Catholics – ultimately – received the same rights as Protestants in political, social and cultural areas. An important representative of neo-Thomism in the Netherlands was ecclesiastical professor of Thomistic philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, Reinier Rosarius Welschen, OP (1877-1941). Neo-Thomism was eventually replaced after the Second World War by a new movement called Nouvelle Théologie.
Integralism
Throughout the nineteenth century, Europe had been under the spell of modernism; a movement that wanted to reconcile the church message with the developments that were going on at that time in philosophy and science. But at the dawn of the twentieth century, an anti-modernist trend emerged within the Church.
The integralists
The anti-modernist tendency was soon expressed in a conservation movement called intergralism. In contrast to the modernists, the integralists wanted to solve life’s questions through faith – and not through science – and therefore strictly respected church traditions. They were strongly against the application of scientific (textual) criticism of the Bible and could not agree with the ecumenical (the pursuit of unity among all Christians) tendency that prevailed in the early twentieth century. In various countries they defended clericalism – an ideology that granted the clergy more power than it was legally entitled to – and were therefore against a separation between church and state.
Sodalitium Pianum
An important figurehead of integralism was the Italian cleric and Curian prelate, Umberto Benigni (1862-1934). In 1906 he founded the ‘Sodalitium Pianum’ (brotherhood of Pius); an unofficial church committee whose purpose is to track down and publicly condemn modernists. When it turned out that Benigni had built up an entire network of European spies to track down the modernists, the brotherhood lost the favor of several cardinals. And Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1865-1930) even prevented the brotherhood from being canonically recognized by the Church. In 1921, the then Pope, Benedict
Condemnation
In contrast to theological integralism, social integralism was rejected several times by the Church. This is because social integralism mainly focused on a political worldview and pushed the theological vision into the background. The followers of social integralism also believed that the Church, in addition to a salvific mission, also had an inherent political mission. Until the Second World War, integralism continued to preoccupy minds and various popes warned the faithful to beware of new errors. Despite the rejection of the Church, integralism has never completely disappeared and can still be found in the Pius X brotherhood.
The Lateran Treaty
In the early twentieth century, the Church was not only at odds with the modernists, but its relationship with the Italian government had also been poor since the capture of Rome in 1870. In 1929, both parties put an end to the past by signing the Lateran Treaty.
Peace
Since the Papal State was overthrown by the Italians and Rome had become part of the Italian unitary state, the popes felt – in their own words – ‘prisoners of the Vatican’. In the years that followed, both parties made several attempts to come closer to each other, but it was not until 1929 that they reached an agreement. It was then Pope Pius By concluding the Treaty, the fascist dictator Mussolini hoped to gain sympathy in predominantly Catholic Italy.
Contents
of the Treaty The Lateran Treaty consisted of three parts, each containing their own agreements. The first part was the Treaty, the second the Concordat and the third part consisted of a financial section:
Agreement
In the treaty, the Italian state recognized the independence and sovereignty of the Holy See and agreed to the creation of the Vatican City State. The borders between Vatican City and Italy were established and it was decided which assets belonged to the Holy See. On the other hand, the Church would, implicitly, agree to the loss of the remaining church territory.
Concordat
The concordat regulated the relations and privileges between the Roman Catholic Church and the Italian state. For example, the state promised to appoint Catholicism as the state religion and the Pope promised to ask the state for permission when appointing Italian bishops and archbishops. These bishops also had to make a declaration of loyalty to the state and refrain from political activities.
Financial section
This paragraph noted the agreements that had been made regarding the compensation that the Italian state would pay to the Church. This was because the cataract had seized various Vatican assets in 1870. The Church was also given the right to appoint official positions, with the state taking over the salary payment.
The second World War
It is difficult to give a clear picture of the Church during the Second World War. Opinions were divided within the Church. On the one hand, many forms of protest and resistance arose within the Church, but on the other hand, there were also clergy (and laity) who sincerely believed that fascism could stop the advancing Bolsheviks.
Proponents and opponents
In an attempt to express the nationalist sentiment of the time, the Bishop of Trier, Franz Rudolf Bornewasser (1866-1951), told the Catholic youth in his church in 1939 : ,We have entered the new Reich with our heads held high and our steps firm. and we are prepared to serve it with all the might of our body and soul.” Following the example of the Bishop of Trier, many German clergymen made the same statement. But when the murderous nature of the Nazi regime came to light, many (German) clergy openly distanced themselves from Nazism. The attitude of the pope elected in 1939, Pius XII (1876-1958), was (and is) also a reason for discussion. For example, some accused him of not speaking out clearly enough against the persecution of the Jews, but others praised him for opening the monasteries to the many (Jewish) refugees.
Pope Pius XII
Despite the criticism the Pope received, Pope Pius XII did not sit idle both before and during the Second World War. For example, he had written the first draft of the encyclical ‘Mit Brenner Sorge’, which was published by his predecessor, Pope Pius Also in a homily the Pope gave on April 9, 1939, he expressed his concerns about the impending threat when he said that ,enmity between people, and ,the infiltration of a corrupt doctrine, were both threats to world peace. In his Christmas speech of 1942, the Pope went even further when he referred – in veiled terms – to the deportation of Jews, something that angered many German and Italian fascists. The Pope had nothing good to say about Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) because he called him an ‘unreliable villain’ and a ‘fundamentally bad person’. Hitler, in turn, could not appreciate Pope Pius XII and therefore contemptuously called him a ‘friend of the Jews’.
Acts of resistance
Pope Pius
Martyr Kolbe
Noteworthy were the actions of the Polish priest, Maximilian Kolbe (1894-1941), who not only opened his monastery to many hundreds of (Jewish) refugees, but also encouraged his fellow brothers to spread anti-Nazi messages through the printing press and radio. . Priest Kolbe’s resistance soon became known and in 1941 he was deported to Auschwitz I concentration camp. After a prisoner from Kolbe’s barracks attempted to escape, ten men from the barracks were sentenced to starvation. Kolbe offered himself as a substitute for a father of two children and was immediately executed. He died on August 14, 1941, six months after entering Auschwitz I. In 1982, Maximilian Kolbe received his due posthumous honor when the then Pope decided to canonize him.
Catholic resistance in the Netherlands
The Church also rebelled in the Netherlands, in this case in the form of Cardinal Johannes de Jong (1885-1955). Cardinal de Jong had already asked his cardinals before the outbreak of the Second World War to deny NSB members the church sacraments and during the war he went one step further. For example, Cardinal De Jong, together with his Protestant colleague Reverend Koeno Gravemeijer (1883-1970), took charge of the church resistance in the Netherlands and banned Roman Catholic newspapers from placing NSB advertisements. Unfortunately, this resistance did have consequences; the Jewish designer who had created the NSB advertising ban was arrested by the Germans and transferred to Dachau.