Mit Brennender Sorge continued p3 The plenitude of Revelation and The Old Testament

http://http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge_en.html

Inclusion and banishment of texts is a form of blasphemy . I have never heard blasphemy put into this specific frame of reference. I would not say the testaments are exclusively the word of God,though, but the word of God they are. Note the process of the description of the slow process of revelation and the term :subdued light which accords with the realization by God that revelation must be slow due to humanity's slow grasp of the ineffable at the right time and season . This is why revelation evolves in the context of linear time. Revelation must be subdued lest man be overtaken . The still small voice of God is a necessity and a kindness vouchsafed to man. Hence the age of miracles in the mighty sense are past and we have the phrase in Judaism, "G-d turned his face away from us".

In Jesus Christ, Son of God made Man, there shone the plentitude of divine
revelation. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times
past
to the fathers by the prophets last of all, in these days hath spoken
to us by
His Son" (Heb. i. 1). The sacred books of the Old Testament are
exclusively the
word of God, and constitute a substantial part of his
revelation; they are
penetrated by a subdued light,
harmonizing with the slow development of
revelation, the dawn of the bright
day of the redemption. As should be expected
in
historical and didactic books, they reflect in many particulars the
imperfection, the weakness and sinfulness of man. But
side by side with
innumerable touches of greatness and nobleness, they also
record the story of
the chosen people, bearers of the Revelation and
the Promise, repeatedly
straying from God and turning to the world. Eyes not blinded by prejudice or
passion will see in this
prevarication, as reported by the Biblical history, the
luminous splendor of
the divine light revealing the saving plan which finally
triumphs over every
fault and sin. It is precisely in the twilight of this
background
that one perceives the striking perspective of the divine tutorship
of
salvation, as it warms, admonishes, strikes, raises and beautifies its elect.
Nothing but ignorance and pride could blind one to the treasures hoarded in
the
Old Testament.
16. Whoever wishes to see banished from church and
school the
Biblical history and the wise doctrines of the Old Testament,
blasphemes the
name of God, blasphemes the Almighty's plan of salvation, and
makes limited and
narrow human thought the judge of God's designs over the
history of the world:
he denies his faith in the true Christ, such as He
appeared in the flesh, the
Christ who took His human nature from a people
that was to crucify Him; and he
understands nothing of that universal
tragedy of the Son of God who to His
torturer's sacrilege opposed the divine and priestly
sacrifice of His redeeming
death, and made the new alliance the goal of the
old alliance, its realization
and its crown.

Mit Brennender Sorge continued

http://http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge_en.html

Note the under referenced lines which speak volumes. The dark destiny alluded to as pre Christian is contrasted to the light of the wisdom of God quoted in an apocryphal work accepted by the Catholic church as canonical text. We can "divinize" any man made creed to an idolatrous level and make it an idol thereby. He defines here the nature and attributes of God in contradistinction to an erroneous depiction of God in the pagan context. It's so much about purposefully erroneous ideology. There shall be no rival Gods beside me. Do nations stumble into concepts of a national God or are they purposefully created? These errors of an aggressive paganism are deemed pernicious and not accidental ,they are never such and are equivalent or tantamount to blasphemy. This papal bull is worded in the strongest language possible and is the most excoriating attack on Nazism ever produced to that time, and the author is Pius XII(then Cardinal Pacelli) commissioned by and in the name of Pius XI.

Whoever follows that so-called pre-Christian Germanic conception of
substituting a dark and impersonal destiny for the personal God, denies thereby
the Wisdom and Providence of God who "Reacheth from end to end mightily, and
ordereth all things sweetly" (Wisdom viii. 1). Neither is he a believer in God.
8. Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of
State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human
community - however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things
- whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to
an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and
created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of
life which that faith upholds.

Beware, Venerable Brethren, of that growing abuse, in speech as in writing, of
the name of God as though it were a meaningless label, to be affixed to any
creation, more or less arbitrary, of human speculation. Use your influence on
the Faithful, that they refuse to yield to this aberration. Our God is the
Personal God, supernatural, omnipotent, infinitely perfect, one in the Trinity
of Persons, tri-personal in the unity of divine essence, the Creator of all
existence. Lord, King and ultimate Consummator of the history of the world, who
will not, and cannot, tolerate a rival God by His side.

None but superficial minds could stumble into concepts of a national God, of a national religion; or attempt to lock within the frontiers of a single people, within the narrow limits of a single race, God, the Creator of the universe, King and Legislator of all nations before whose immensity they are "as a drop of a bucket" (Isaiah xI, 15).
12. The Bishops of the Church of Christ, "ordained in the things that appertain to God (Heb. v, 1) must watch that pernicious errors of this sort, and consequent practices more pernicious still, shall not gain a footing among their flock. It is part of their sacred obligations to do whatever is in their power to enforce respect for, and obedience to, the commandments of God, as these are the necessary foundation of all private life and public morality; to see that the rights of His Divine Majesty, His name and His word be not profaned; to put a stop to the blasphemies, which, in words and pictures, are multiplying like the sands of the desert; to encounter the obstinacy and provocations of those who deny, despise and hate God, by the never-failing reparatory prayers of the Faithful, hourly rising like incense to the All-Highest and staying His vengeance.

No faith in God can for long survive pure and unalloyed without the support of faith in Christ. "No one knoweth who the Son is, but the Father: and who the Father is, but the Son and to whom the Son will reveal Him" (Luke x. 22). "Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent" (John xvii. 3). Nobody, therefore, can say: "I believe in God, and that is enough religion for me," for the Savior's words brook no evasion: "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that confesseth the Son hath the Father also" (1 John ii. 23).

Mit Brennender Sorge

Amazing is the way certain documents and writings innocuously penetrate our history in ways we cannot fathom .Little do we realize their momentous impact at the tim e of their appearance, not until generations later. Such is the papal encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge where Pius XI denounces the Nazi state and also anti semitism with the phrase "Spiritual Semites" as a term of honor, I should say.

Note this quote and elsewhere Pius XI condemns anti semitism. This profoundly affected the stance of Pius XII and his entrance and exit on the stage of world history was decisive . His beloved mentor Pius XI set the tone . He took his name and that sent a message to the world that Pius XII was to carry on in his mentor's footsteps:

^ Vidmar, The Catholic Church Through the Ages (2005), pp. 327–33, quote: "Mark well that in the Catholic Mass, Abraham is our Patriarch and forefather. Anti-Semitism is incompatible with the lofty thought which that fact expresses. It is a movement with which we Christians can have nothing to do. No, no, I say to you it is impossible for a Christian to take part in anti-Semitism. It is inadmissible. Through Christ and in Christ we are the spiritual progeny of Abraham. Spiritually, we are all Semites."

Mit brennender Sorge (German for "With burning concern") is a Roman Catholic Church encyclical of Pope Pius XI, published on March 10, 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, March 14). The encyclical criticized Nazism, listed breaches of an agreement signed with the Church and condemned antisemitism. Drafted by the future Pope Pius XII, who was in Munich at the time of Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch[1], it warned Catholics that the growing Nazi ideology, which exalted one race over all others, was incompatible with Christianity. Pius XI himself had elsewhere condemned anti-semitism in more explicit terms.[2]

It was the only encyclical in German and had to be kept secret as the following quote makes explicit:

http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mit_brennender_Sorge#cite_note-Vidmar327-1

The encyclical was written in German and not the usual Latin of official Roman Catholic Church documents. It was addressed to German bishops and was read in all parish churches of Germany. Pope Pius XI credited its creation and writing to the Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII. There was no pre-announcement of the encyclical, and its distribution was kept secret in an attempt to ensure the unhindered public reading of its

contents in all the Catholic Churches of Germany.

The next paragraphs condemn event the notion of national gods as idolatrous and out of sync with divine order.:

8. Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community—however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things—whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds...10. This God, this Sovereign Master, has issued commandments whose value is independent of time and space, country and race. As God's sun shines on every human face so His law knows neither privilege nor exception. Rulers and subjects, crowned and uncrowned, rich and poor are equally subject to His word. From the fullness of the Creators' right there naturally arises the fullness of His right to be obeyed by individuals and communities, whoever they are. This obedience permeates all branches of activity in which moral values claim harmony with the law of God, and pervades all integration of the ever-changing laws of man into the immutable laws of God.11. None but superficial minds could stumble into concepts of a national God, of a national religion; or attempt to lock within the frontiers of a single people, within the narrow limits of a single race, God, the Creator of the universe, King and Legislator of all nations before whose immensity they are "as a drop of a bucket" (Isaiah xl, 15).

Note the Nazi reaction and reprisal due to the reading of this document:

^ Chadwick, A History of Christianity (1995), pp. 254–5

After Mit Brennender Sorge was disseminated throughout German Catholic parishes, Nazi persecution of the Church in Germany began by "outright repression" and "staged prosecutions" of monks for homosexuality, with the maximum of publicity. In Poland, the Nazis murdered over 2500 monks and priests while scores more were sent to concentration camps.

http://http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_14031937_mit-brennender-sorge_en.html

Note this text from Mit Brennender Sorge and the clear implication of unmistakable references to the juggernaut of ongoing Nazi tyranny.

If, then, the tree of peace, which we planted on German soil with the purest intention, has not brought forth the fruit, which in the interest of your people, We had fondly hoped, no one in the world who has eyes to see and ears to hear will be able to lay the blame on the Church and on her Head. The experiences of these last years have fixed responsibilities and laid bare intrigues, which from the outset only aimed at a war of extermination. In the furrows, where We tried to sow the seed of a sincere peace, other men - the "enemy" of Holy Scripture - oversowed the cockle of distrust, unrest, hatred, defamation, of a determined hostility overt or veiled, fed from many sources and wielding many tools, against Christ and His Church. They, and they alone with their accomplices, silent or vociferous, are today responsible, should the storm of religious war, instead of the rainbow of peace, blacken the German skies.

synch-ro-ni-zing: inches & finches: another layer of winter . . .

synch-ro-ni-zing: inches & finches: another layer of winter . . .