To return to the Introduction and Table of Contents, click here.
This unit corresponds to pp. 119-128 in our textbook.
World War I occurred between the years of 1914-1918. Pope Benedict XV (who reigned from 1914-1922) is remembered for his efforts to promote peaceful means of seeking justice as an alternative to the war. He declared the Holy See neutral in the conflict. During and after the war, he focused much attention on helping with humanitarian efforts that were needed partly as a result of the war.
Benedict XV also brought to completion the project of creating an organized, formal code of canon law. The 1917 Code of Canon Law was the first fully organized edition of Church canon law. Before that time, from the early Church throughout the Middle Ages and early modern times, the Church had had formal rules, but they had been scattered all over the place in lots of different documents and were generally a disorganized mess. Pope Pius X ordered the mess to be cleaned up, and, during the time of Benedict XV, the job was completed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XV
Back in Unit 5, we looked at the Catholic Church's relationship to the natural sciences, and particularly to the (then) new idea of Copernicanism. In the nineteenth century, an even more radical idea emerged from the work of the natural sciences--the theory of evolution. It is interesting to compare the Church's response to evolution to her earlier response to Copernicanism. It wasn't until 1950 that the Church actually made any clear, explicit statement about the theory of evolution. Before that time, officially, there had been no word, although at the end of the nineteenth century a few individual books were apparently privately censured by authorities in connection with some statements in them related in some way to evolutionary theory. Although the highest authority of the Church was silent, individual bishops and groups of bishops sometimes made statements on evolution. My sense is that the general feeling during this time was that the Church was watching evolutionary theory very closely, but without feeling ready to come to any authoritative conclusion regarding it. This changed in 1950 when Pope Pius XII published the encyclical Humani Generis. In this encyclical, Pope Pius XII explicitly (though cautiously) allowed Catholics to entertain the idea of evolution, even the evolution of humans, within certain boundaries:
Since the nineteenth century, some groups of Christians had opposed the direction of thought of the mainstream scientific community regarding issues such as the age of the earth, the Flood of Noah, evolution in general, and human evolution in particular. The Catholic Church, however, has avoided entering into these controversies, not finding any clear basis in divine revelation to oppose mainstream scientific conclusions in these areas.
http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html - Pope Pius XII's 1950 encyclical, Humani Generis.
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/scripture/oldtestament/commission.htm - Throughout much of the twentieth century, the Church had a special committee invested with authority to deliver rulings on matters of biblical interpretation--the Pontifical Biblical Commission. This Commission delivered several rulings which represented the Church's official positions at the times they were given (though not necessarily her definitive positions for all time) on various biblical interpretative questions, especially relating to challenges to traditional interpretations coming from modern science and biblical scholarship. The Commission was attached to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1971 and became a consultative rather than a doctrinally authoritative body. This link provides an English translation of the various rulings and statements of the Commission through the years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_and_the_Catholic_Church
https://humanorigins.si.edu/sites/default/files/MESSAGE%20TO%20THE%20PONTIFICAL%20ACADEMY%20OF%20SCIENCES%20(Pope%20John%20Paul%20II).pdf - In 1996, Pope St. John Paul II gave a message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (a Church-founded and Church-promoted academy in Vatican City dedicated to the promotion of the sciences) on evolution, in which he reiterated what Pius XII had said in Humani Generis but also indicated that, in his view, the evidence had grown in favor of the theory of evolution since 1950.
In 1917, three children in Fatima, Portugal--Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto--claimed to have experienced appearances of the Virgin Mary, who delivered messages to them. Eventually, the Church approved these private revelations as worthy of belief, and the stories as well as the content of what Mary communicated to the children have greatly inspired Catholics ever since.
There have been many "private revelations" given to individuals in the Church throughout the centuries. These differ from "public revelation." Public revelation refers to the fundamental revelation God has given to the Church and to humanity--transmitted in the Scriptures and in the Tradition of the Church. Private revelations do not add to this, but they are unique messages--from Christ, from his mother Mary, from one or more of the saints, etc.--given to the Church or to people in the Church at certain times in order to help them live the gospel more faithfully. Here is how the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith describes the difference between public revelation and private revelations:
Read in Class - https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/our-lady-of-fatima-485 - A brief account of the Fatima revelations.
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html - Discussion by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding the Fatima revelations.
In our previous unit, we discussed the attempt to unify all parts of Italy under one government, and how this resulted in the abolition of the Papal States and the eventual capture of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy in 1870. For the next sixty years or so, the Popes refused to accept this situation. They refused to recognize the Italian government's rights over the papacy's previous territories. Finally, in 1929, Pope Pius XI and the Italian government (whose Prime Minister at that time was Benito Mussolini) reached an agreement. They both signed the Lateran Treaty, in which the Italian government kept most of the territory of the former Papal States and most of Rome but allowed the Pope to retain a very small, independent nation within the city of Rome, which came to be called Vatican City. The Popes considered it important to maintain themselves in independent territory so that the papacy would not be tied in allegiance to any particular government. The Papal States had come into existence back in the 8th century precisely out of concern to preserve papal independence. (The reasoning here is similar to why Americans decided that the capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C., should not exist within any particular state.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Question - Helpful discussion of the history that led from the Capture of Rome to the formation of Vatican City.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
In December of 1927, Dorothy Day joined the Catholic Church. She had been a social activist and a colleague of Socialists and Communists, but after her conversion her Catholic faith gave her new inspiration in her quest for justice in society. In 1933, she helped to found what has become known as the Catholic Worker Movement, which was (and still is) dedicated to a real application of Catholic social teaching to the realities of work, property, and poverty in society. Her cause for sainthood is currently under investigation by the Church, although Day herself is said to have said, "Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily." In other words, when we say someone is a saint, we sometimes draw the practical conclusion that this person is so high above us that of course they did all those great things I could not possibly do! This, of course, misses the whole point of having canonized saints. The saints are important to us as role models because they show us what we should all be striving to be. We are not all called to the kinds of dramatic, or publicly noticeable, things that canonized saints often get canonized for, but we are all called to live lives of total dedication to God in whatever way he calls us to do that.
https://www.catholicworker.org/cornell-history.html - Brief introduction to the Catholic Worker Movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Day
Pope Benedict XV
World War I occurred between the years of 1914-1918. Pope Benedict XV (who reigned from 1914-1922) is remembered for his efforts to promote peaceful means of seeking justice as an alternative to the war. He declared the Holy See neutral in the conflict. During and after the war, he focused much attention on helping with humanitarian efforts that were needed partly as a result of the war.
Benedict XV also brought to completion the project of creating an organized, formal code of canon law. The 1917 Code of Canon Law was the first fully organized edition of Church canon law. Before that time, from the early Church throughout the Middle Ages and early modern times, the Church had had formal rules, but they had been scattered all over the place in lots of different documents and were generally a disorganized mess. Pope Pius X ordered the mess to be cleaned up, and, during the time of Benedict XV, the job was completed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XV
Evolution
Back in Unit 5, we looked at the Catholic Church's relationship to the natural sciences, and particularly to the (then) new idea of Copernicanism. In the nineteenth century, an even more radical idea emerged from the work of the natural sciences--the theory of evolution. It is interesting to compare the Church's response to evolution to her earlier response to Copernicanism. It wasn't until 1950 that the Church actually made any clear, explicit statement about the theory of evolution. Before that time, officially, there had been no word, although at the end of the nineteenth century a few individual books were apparently privately censured by authorities in connection with some statements in them related in some way to evolutionary theory. Although the highest authority of the Church was silent, individual bishops and groups of bishops sometimes made statements on evolution. My sense is that the general feeling during this time was that the Church was watching evolutionary theory very closely, but without feeling ready to come to any authoritative conclusion regarding it. This changed in 1950 when Pope Pius XII published the encyclical Humani Generis. In this encyclical, Pope Pius XII explicitly (though cautiously) allowed Catholics to entertain the idea of evolution, even the evolution of humans, within certain boundaries:
35. It remains for Us now to speak about those questions which, although they pertain to the positive sciences, are nevertheless more or less connected with the truths of the Christian faith. In fact, not a few insistently demand that the Catholic religion take these sciences into account as much as possible. This certainly would be praiseworthy in the case of clearly proved facts; but caution must be used when there is rather question of hypotheses, having some sort of scientific foundation, in which the doctrine contained in Sacred Scripture or in Tradition is involved. If such conjectural opinions are directly or indirectly opposed to the doctrine revealed by God, then the demand that they be recognized can in no way be admitted.
36. For these reasons the Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter - for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God. However, this must be done in such a way that the reasons for both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation and measure, and provided that all are prepared to submit to the judgment of the Church, to whom Christ has given the mission of interpreting authentically the Sacred Scriptures and of defending the dogmas of faith. Some however, rashly transgress this liberty of discussion, when they act as if the origin of the human body from pre-existing and living matter were already completely certain and proved by the facts which have been discovered up to now and by reasoning on those facts, and as if there were nothing in the sources of divine revelation which demands the greatest moderation and caution in this question.
37. When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains that either after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents. Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own. (footnotes removed)
Since the nineteenth century, some groups of Christians had opposed the direction of thought of the mainstream scientific community regarding issues such as the age of the earth, the Flood of Noah, evolution in general, and human evolution in particular. The Catholic Church, however, has avoided entering into these controversies, not finding any clear basis in divine revelation to oppose mainstream scientific conclusions in these areas.
http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html - Pope Pius XII's 1950 encyclical, Humani Generis.
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/scripture/oldtestament/commission.htm - Throughout much of the twentieth century, the Church had a special committee invested with authority to deliver rulings on matters of biblical interpretation--the Pontifical Biblical Commission. This Commission delivered several rulings which represented the Church's official positions at the times they were given (though not necessarily her definitive positions for all time) on various biblical interpretative questions, especially relating to challenges to traditional interpretations coming from modern science and biblical scholarship. The Commission was attached to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1971 and became a consultative rather than a doctrinally authoritative body. This link provides an English translation of the various rulings and statements of the Commission through the years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_and_the_Catholic_Church
https://humanorigins.si.edu/sites/default/files/MESSAGE%20TO%20THE%20PONTIFICAL%20ACADEMY%20OF%20SCIENCES%20(Pope%20John%20Paul%20II).pdf - In 1996, Pope St. John Paul II gave a message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (a Church-founded and Church-promoted academy in Vatican City dedicated to the promotion of the sciences) on evolution, in which he reiterated what Pius XII had said in Humani Generis but also indicated that, in his view, the evidence had grown in favor of the theory of evolution since 1950.
Our Lady of Fatima
In 1917, three children in Fatima, Portugal--Lúcia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto--claimed to have experienced appearances of the Virgin Mary, who delivered messages to them. Eventually, the Church approved these private revelations as worthy of belief, and the stories as well as the content of what Mary communicated to the children have greatly inspired Catholics ever since.
There have been many "private revelations" given to individuals in the Church throughout the centuries. These differ from "public revelation." Public revelation refers to the fundamental revelation God has given to the Church and to humanity--transmitted in the Scriptures and in the Tradition of the Church. Private revelations do not add to this, but they are unique messages--from Christ, from his mother Mary, from one or more of the saints, etc.--given to the Church or to people in the Church at certain times in order to help them live the gospel more faithfully. Here is how the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith describes the difference between public revelation and private revelations:
1. The authority of private revelations is essentially different from that of the definitive public Revelation. The latter demands faith; in it in fact God himself speaks to us through human words and the mediation of the living community of the Church. Faith in God and in his word is different from any other human faith, trust or opinion. The certainty that it is God who is speaking gives me the assurance that I am in touch with truth itself. It gives me a certitude which is beyond verification by any human way of knowing. It is the certitude upon which I build my life and to which I entrust myself in dying.
2. Private revelation is a help to this faith, and shows its credibility precisely by leading me back to the definitive public Revelation. In this regard, Cardinal Prospero Lambertini, the future Pope Benedict XIV, says in his classic treatise, which later became normative for beatifications and canonizations: “An assent of Catholic faith is not due to revelations approved in this way; it is not even possible. These revelations seek rather an assent of human faith in keeping with the requirements of prudence, which puts them before us as probable and credible to piety”. The Flemish theologian E. Dhanis, an eminent scholar in this field, states succinctly that ecclesiastical approval of a private revelation has three elements: the message contains nothing contrary to faith or morals; it is lawful to make it public; and the faithful are authorized to accept it with prudence (E. Dhanis,Sguardo su Fatima e bilancio di una discussione, in La Civiltà Cattolica 104 [1953], II, 392-406, in particular 397). Such a message can be a genuine help in understanding the Gospel and living it better at a particular moment in time; therefore it should not be disregarded. It is a help which is offered, but which one is not obliged to use.
Read in Class - https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/our-lady-of-fatima-485 - A brief account of the Fatima revelations.
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000626_message-fatima_en.html - Discussion by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding the Fatima revelations.
Vatican City
In our previous unit, we discussed the attempt to unify all parts of Italy under one government, and how this resulted in the abolition of the Papal States and the eventual capture of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy in 1870. For the next sixty years or so, the Popes refused to accept this situation. They refused to recognize the Italian government's rights over the papacy's previous territories. Finally, in 1929, Pope Pius XI and the Italian government (whose Prime Minister at that time was Benito Mussolini) reached an agreement. They both signed the Lateran Treaty, in which the Italian government kept most of the territory of the former Papal States and most of Rome but allowed the Pope to retain a very small, independent nation within the city of Rome, which came to be called Vatican City. The Popes considered it important to maintain themselves in independent territory so that the papacy would not be tied in allegiance to any particular government. The Papal States had come into existence back in the 8th century precisely out of concern to preserve papal independence. (The reasoning here is similar to why Americans decided that the capital city of the United States, Washington, D.C., should not exist within any particular state.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Question - Helpful discussion of the history that led from the Capture of Rome to the formation of Vatican City.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City
Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement
In December of 1927, Dorothy Day joined the Catholic Church. She had been a social activist and a colleague of Socialists and Communists, but after her conversion her Catholic faith gave her new inspiration in her quest for justice in society. In 1933, she helped to found what has become known as the Catholic Worker Movement, which was (and still is) dedicated to a real application of Catholic social teaching to the realities of work, property, and poverty in society. Her cause for sainthood is currently under investigation by the Church, although Day herself is said to have said, "Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed that easily." In other words, when we say someone is a saint, we sometimes draw the practical conclusion that this person is so high above us that of course they did all those great things I could not possibly do! This, of course, misses the whole point of having canonized saints. The saints are important to us as role models because they show us what we should all be striving to be. We are not all called to the kinds of dramatic, or publicly noticeable, things that canonized saints often get canonized for, but we are all called to live lives of total dedication to God in whatever way he calls us to do that.
https://www.catholicworker.org/cornell-history.html - Brief introduction to the Catholic Worker Movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Day
Talk a bit more about Dorothy Day and her work and that of the Catholic Worker Movement.
https://www.amazon.com/Entertaining-Angels-Dorothy-Day-Story/dp/B008RKKLG8 - I haven't seen this yet myself, but I'd like to.
https://freethoughtforchrist.blogspot.com/2016/06/some-thoughts-on-saints-as-role-models.html - Some thoughts of mine on the saints as role models.
During World War II, as is well known, the Jews (and many others) suffered horribly at the hands of the Nazis. How did the Catholic Church respond to the things going on during those times? The Church strongly opposed Nazi ideology at a number of points, including its emphasis on the power of the state, its German ethnocentrism, and its attacks on "non-Aryan" peoples, especially Jews.
In 1937, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. This was a very unique encyclical, written in German and not in Latin as papal encyclicals almost always are. Church leaders knew it would infuriate the Nazi government, so it was brought into the country secretly and then read from all the pulpits on Palm Sunday (which certainly didn't please the Nazis!). The encyclical focuses on reminding Catholics of the Church's teaching and principles and warns them against the perversions of Nazi philosophy in various areas. It attacks Nazi ideas about German paganism, having a National German Church which would follow Nazi ideology, what it calls the "myth of race and blood," the idea that some races are to be excluded as inferior, the idolizing and making supreme the State or a particular race, denigration of the Old Testament (the Jewish Scriptures), etc. The encyclical was delivered a year before the famous event of Kristallnacht, where rioters, without interference from the German government, smashed homes, businesses, and synagogues belonging to Jews.
Nazi attacks on Jews only grew in intensity as the years went by. During the worst days of the Holocaust, Pius XII was in the papal chair. Catholics in Germany and elsewhere did much to protect Jews from the Nazis. Pius XII opened up the Vatican for the protection of Jews when the Nazis came to Rome. He was very muted, however, in his public criticism of the Nazi persecutions. Part of the reason for this was his fear that the use of strong, explicit words would fail to be helpful but would only provoke retaliation against Catholics, Jews, and others from the Nazis. There has been much discussion of Pius XII's responses to the crisis of Nazi persecutions, with many defending him as a bold protector of the Jews, but many others criticizing him for his failure to speak out more clearly and loudly on behalf of the Jews and others.
We may learn more about Pius XII's actions, words, and motives soon in months and years to come, since in March 2020 the Vatican opened up previously inaccessible archives containing many documents pertaining to the reign of Pius XII.
http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge.html - Pius XI's encyclical (which the future Pius XII helped to draft), Mit brennender Sorge.
Read in Class - https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20684.pdf - A very helpful article from Yad Vashem--the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. The article attempts to paint a balanced picture of both the praises and the criticisms of Pius XII's handling of Nazi persecutions of Jews. A very objective look at the subject.
In 1922, Oregon passed an amendment to its laws that would outlaw private schools, including Catholic parochial schools. The motivation behind this was the idea that the State has an obligation to monitor and control the education of children and ensure that they are getting a proper "American" education, without being trained in beliefs and values that are inimical to American identity and culture. There was still a good deal of concern in society regarding the proper "Americanness" of Catholicism. The Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary sued the governor of Oregon and other leaders, alleging that the new Oregon law was a violation of fundamental rights of parents, children, and private schools. The Sisters won the case before the Oregon District Court, and the case was then appealed to the Supreme Court. In 1925, the Supreme Court sided with and upheld the decision of the Oregon District Court, thus striking down the law against private schools.
https://www.amazon.com/Entertaining-Angels-Dorothy-Day-Story/dp/B008RKKLG8 - I haven't seen this yet myself, but I'd like to.
https://freethoughtforchrist.blogspot.com/2016/06/some-thoughts-on-saints-as-role-models.html - Some thoughts of mine on the saints as role models.
Pope Pius XII and the Jews
During World War II, as is well known, the Jews (and many others) suffered horribly at the hands of the Nazis. How did the Catholic Church respond to the things going on during those times? The Church strongly opposed Nazi ideology at a number of points, including its emphasis on the power of the state, its German ethnocentrism, and its attacks on "non-Aryan" peoples, especially Jews.
In 1937, Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge. This was a very unique encyclical, written in German and not in Latin as papal encyclicals almost always are. Church leaders knew it would infuriate the Nazi government, so it was brought into the country secretly and then read from all the pulpits on Palm Sunday (which certainly didn't please the Nazis!). The encyclical focuses on reminding Catholics of the Church's teaching and principles and warns them against the perversions of Nazi philosophy in various areas. It attacks Nazi ideas about German paganism, having a National German Church which would follow Nazi ideology, what it calls the "myth of race and blood," the idea that some races are to be excluded as inferior, the idolizing and making supreme the State or a particular race, denigration of the Old Testament (the Jewish Scriptures), etc. The encyclical was delivered a year before the famous event of Kristallnacht, where rioters, without interference from the German government, smashed homes, businesses, and synagogues belonging to Jews.
Nazi attacks on Jews only grew in intensity as the years went by. During the worst days of the Holocaust, Pius XII was in the papal chair. Catholics in Germany and elsewhere did much to protect Jews from the Nazis. Pius XII opened up the Vatican for the protection of Jews when the Nazis came to Rome. He was very muted, however, in his public criticism of the Nazi persecutions. Part of the reason for this was his fear that the use of strong, explicit words would fail to be helpful but would only provoke retaliation against Catholics, Jews, and others from the Nazis. There has been much discussion of Pius XII's responses to the crisis of Nazi persecutions, with many defending him as a bold protector of the Jews, but many others criticizing him for his failure to speak out more clearly and loudly on behalf of the Jews and others.
We may learn more about Pius XII's actions, words, and motives soon in months and years to come, since in March 2020 the Vatican opened up previously inaccessible archives containing many documents pertaining to the reign of Pius XII.
http://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge.html - Pius XI's encyclical (which the future Pius XII helped to draft), Mit brennender Sorge.
Read in Class - https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20684.pdf - A very helpful article from Yad Vashem--the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. The article attempts to paint a balanced picture of both the praises and the criticisms of Pius XII's handling of Nazi persecutions of Jews. A very objective look at the subject.
Educational Liberty and Political Opportunity in the United States
In 1922, Oregon passed an amendment to its laws that would outlaw private schools, including Catholic parochial schools. The motivation behind this was the idea that the State has an obligation to monitor and control the education of children and ensure that they are getting a proper "American" education, without being trained in beliefs and values that are inimical to American identity and culture. There was still a good deal of concern in society regarding the proper "Americanness" of Catholicism. The Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary sued the governor of Oregon and other leaders, alleging that the new Oregon law was a violation of fundamental rights of parents, children, and private schools. The Sisters won the case before the Oregon District Court, and the case was then appealed to the Supreme Court. In 1925, the Supreme Court sided with and upheld the decision of the Oregon District Court, thus striking down the law against private schools.
In 1928, Al Smith, a Catholic who had been Governor of New York, ran for President of the United States as the Democratic Party's candidate. He lost by a landslide. His campaign, his successes, and his loss, all reflected in various ways the place of Catholics in political life in the first half of the twentieth century in America. His Catholicism was a major issue for many American voters considering his campaign. Later, in 1960, John F. Kennedy, another Catholic, also ran for president as the candidate for the Democratic Party. He also faced challenges and concerns due to his Catholicism, but he won the election.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy
In 1950, Pope Pius XII issued the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, in which he defined the doctrine of Mary's assumption into heaven to be a doctrine divinely revealed by God.
Assumption of Mary
In 1950, Pope Pius XII issued the apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus, in which he defined the doctrine of Mary's assumption into heaven to be a doctrine divinely revealed by God.
For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. (Munificentissimus Deus, #44, from the Vatican website)
The doctrine of the Assumption of Mary had been in the Church from its earliest days. It was a universal belief in both East and West, and its feast had been celebrated since the early centuries of the Church. But over the century leading up to 1950, there had been a great push among Catholics to have the doctrine formally defined as a divinely-revealed doctrine. Pope Pius XII wrote a letter to the bishops to get their opinions on whether they thought it was time to proceed with this, and the response was nearly unanimously positive. Therefore, in 1950, Pius XII made the definition.
http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-xii_apc_19501101_munificentissimus-deus.html - Munificentissimus Deus, in which Pope Pius XII both defines the doctrine and also discusses its history in the Church.
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/the-assumption-of-mary-in-history - A helpful article by Catholic Answers providing some historical evidence for the Assumption and responding to some attempts to argue against it from history.
Saints and Authors
Some saints from our time period include Maria Goretti, Marianne Cope, and the martyrs of the Cristero war in Mexico. This period also saw some great Catholic authors, including Flannery O'Connor, G.K. Chesterton, and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Discuss this war in class - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristero_War
Discuss O'Connor, Chesterton, and Tolkien.
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