Quibus Quantisque Malis ~ Allocution to the Consistory of Cardinals

Whilst this allocution does not specifically mention Freemasonry, the Catholic Encyclopedia, lists it among the condemnations of Freemasonry as equating Freemasonry with socialism and communism.

Blessed Pope Pius IX

1849

No one, surely, is ignorant, Venerable Brethren, of the nature and multitude of the calamitous tempests, by which are miserably agitated and devastated, to the greatest sorrow of Our spirit, Our Pontifical State and almost all of Italy. God wills that men, taught by these most grievous events, may finally understand that nothing is more harmful to them than to deviate from the path of truth, justice, honesty, and Religion, to be satisfied with the most wicked counsels of the impious and to permit themselves to be deceived and entangled by their snares, deceptions and errors! Certainly, the whole world knows and testifies to the great care and solicitude of Our paternal and most loving spirit, in procuring the true and solid welfare, tranquility and prosperity of the peoples of Our Pontifical State, and to the fruit of Our great leniency and love. With such words, We condemn only the most cunning artificers of such great evils, without wanting to attribute any guilt to the greater part of the people. But we are forced to deplore the fact that many, even among the people, have been so miserably deceived that, closing their ears to Our words and Our warnings, they have then opened them to the fallacious doctrines of certain masters who, abandoning "the right way and tracing dark paths” (Pr. 2.13) intend only to lead, and to cast fully into deception and error, the spirits and minds of the inexperienced, with magnificent and mendacious promises. All certainly know the praises, with which was celebrated everywhere, that memorable and most abundant pardon granted by Us for peace, for tranquility and for the happiness of families. And it escapes no one that many who had been generously given that pardon not only did not change their thoughts at all, as We were hoping, but instead, as they persisted each day more bitterly in their designs and machinations, there was nothing that they left undone, nothing that they did not dare, nothing that they did not try, to shake and overthrow the civil Principate of the Roman Pontiff and his government, as they had already been planning for a long time, and at the same time, they brought a most bitter war against Our Most Holy Religion. To attain this goal more easily, they sought nothing but to unite the mass of the people, to inflame them and keep them constantly in great agitation, which they strove, with every effort, to foment and to increase daily, under the pretext of Our own concessions. So those generous acts, spontaneously and voluntarily granted, at the beginning of Our Pontificate, not only did not produce the desired fruit, but were never even able to take root, as the most expert artificers of fraud abused these very concessions to arouse new disturbances. And in this, your assembly, Venerable Brethren, We have thought to touch upon, albeit slightly, and to recall, in summary, the facts themselves, precisely to this end: that all men of good will may know, clearly and openly, what the enemies of God and the human race pretend, what they desire, and what has always been their fixed and determined purpose. 

Because of Our singular affection for Our subjects, We grieved and were vehemently anxious, Venerable Brethren, when We saw those continual popular disturbances, so averse to public tranquility and order, as well as private tranquility and the peace of families; nor could We tolerate those frequent collections of money, that under various pretexts, not without trouble and expense to the citizens, were being carried out. Therefore, in the month of April of the year 1847, by the public edict of Our Cardinal Secretary of State, We did not fail to warn everyone to abstain from such popular meetings and donations, to attend to their own affairs again, to place in Us every trust, to hold for certain, that Our paternal care and and Our thoughts were only aimed at procuring the public good, as we had already given proof of, with many and most splendid proofs. But these, Our salutary warnings, with which We strove to restrain such great popular movements, and to recall Our subjects themselves to the love of peace and tranquility, were greatly opposed to the the wicked desires and machinations of certain men. Therefore, the tireless authors of the turmoil, who had already opposed another ordinance issued by Our command by the same Cardinal Secretary of State, intended to promote an upright and useful education of the people, as soon as they knew of those warnings of Ours, did not desist from clamoring against them everywhere, and stirring up, always with greater effort, the incautious mass of the people, and insinuating themselves among them with great cunning, and persuading them never to accept that peace, so desired by Us, since they said that the purpose concealed in it was that the people would fall asleep and so more easily be oppressed by the hard yoke of slavery. And from that moment, many letters were sent to Us, and even printed, full of the most bitter insults, jeers and threats, which We covered in eternal oblivion and consigned to the flames. Now, the agitators, in order to render credible, in some manner, the false dangers that, they were clamoring, hung over the people, felt no dread in spreading rumors and fears of a certain supposed conspiracy, deliberately invented by these very men, and in spreading a frenzy, with the most base lie, that a conspiracy was underway to ruin the city of Rome with civil war, with massacres and slaughter, to remove and destroy the new institutions and to revive the ancient form of government. But under the pretext of this most fictitious conspiracy, hostile men had the design to stir and excite the people wickedly to contempt, hatred, and fury, against certain persons, mirrors of virtue, distinguished by Religion, and by ecclesiastical dignity. You know very well that the institution of the Civic Guard was proposed at this boiling point, and it was called together with such speed that it was not at all possible to provide for its proper establishment and discipline. When We first considered it opportune, in order to provide even more for the prosperity of the public administration, to establish the Council of State, the enemies immediately seized this opportunity to inflict new wounds on the Government and to make sure that this institution, which had the ability to bring great benefit to the public interest of the people, would redound to their harm and ruin. And since their opinion had already been established with impunity, that with this institution, the character and nature of the Pontifical Government were changing, and that Our authority was subject to the judgment of the Councillors, so on the very day of the inauguration of this Council, We did not fail to admonish, with grave and severe words, the many turbulent men, with whom the Councillors were accompanied, and to manifest to them, clearly and openly, the true end of this institution. As to the rest, the agitators did not desist from ue Malis | apostlesoftheendtimes.com Because of Our singular affection for Our subjects, We grieved and were vehemently anxious, Venerable Brethren, when We saw those continual popular disturbances, so averse to public tranquility and order, as well as private tranquility and the peace of families; nor could We tolerate those frequent collections of money, that under various pretexts, not without trouble and expense to the citizens, were being carried out. Therefore, in the month of April of the year 1847, by the public edict of Our Cardinal Secretary of State, We did not fail to warn everyone to abstain from such popular meetings and donations, to attend to their own affairs again, to place in Us every trust, to hold for certain, that Our paternal care and and Our thoughts were only aimed at procuring the public good, as we had already given proof of, with many and most splendid proofs. But these, Our salutary warnings, with which We strove to restrain such great popular movements, and to recall Our subjects themselves to the love of peace and tranquility, were greatly opposed to the the wicked desires and machinations of certain men. Therefore, the tireless authors of the turmoil, who had already opposed another ordinance issued by Our command by the same Cardinal Secretary of State, intended to promote an upright and useful education of the people, as soon as they knew of those warnings of Ours, did not desist from clamoring against them everywhere, and stirring up, always with greater effort, the incautious mass of the people, and insinuating themselves among them with great cunning, and persuading them never to accept that peace, so desired by Us, since they said that the purpose concealed in it was that the people would fall asleep and so more easily be oppressed by the hard yoke of slavery. And from that moment, many letters were sent to Us, and even printed, full of the most bitter insults, jeers and threats, which We covered in eternal oblivion and consigned to the flames. Now, the agitators, in order to render credible, in some manner, the false dangers that, they were clamoring, hung over the people, felt no dread in spreading rumors and fears of a certain supposed conspiracy, deliberately invented by these very men, and in spreading a frenzy, with the most base lie, that a conspiracy was underway to ruin the city of Rome with civil war, with massacres and slaughter, to remove and destroy the new institutions and to revive the ancient form of government. But under the pretext of this most fictitious conspiracy, hostile men had the design to stir and excite the people wickedly to contempt, hatred, and fury, against certain persons, mirrors of virtue, distinguished by Religion, and by ecclesiastical dignity. You know very well that the institution of the Civic Guard was proposed at this boiling point, and it was called together with such speed that it was not at all possible to provide for its proper establishment and discipline. When We first considered it opportune, in order to provide even more for the prosperity of the public administration, to establish the Council of State, the enemies immediately seized this opportunity to inflict new wounds on the Government and to make sure that this institution, which had the ability to bring great benefit to the public interest of the people, would redound to their harm and ruin. And since their opinion had already been established with impunity, that with this institution, the character and nature of the Pontifical Government were changing, and that Our authority was subject to the judgment of the Councillors, so on the very day of the inauguration of this Council, We did not fail to admonish, with grave and severe words, the many turbulent men, with whom the Councillors were accompanied, and to manifest to them, clearly and openly, the true end of this institution. As to the rest, the agitators did not desist from 3 Pope Pius IX, Quibus Quantisque Malis | apostlesoftheendtimes.com soliciting and urging on the deluded part of the people with ever new impetus, and, to more easily win a greater number of followers, with their classic shamelessness and boldness, they were insinuating in Our State, and among foreign nations, that We were in perfect agreement with their opinions and their distinctions. Remember, Venerable Brethren, the words, with which, in Our Allocution given in the Consistory of October 4, 1847, We did not omit to admonish gravely and to urge all peoples most zealously to beware of the arts of such veteran deceivers. In the meantime, the stubborn authors of the plots and agitations, to keep alive and active the turmoil and fear, in January of last year, terrified the spirits of those not on their guard with the false rumor of an external war, and spread among the people the idea that the war itself was fomented and would be supported by internal conspiracies and by the malicious inertia of the rulers. To calm spirits and to combat the designs of the traitors, without delay, on 10 February of the same year, with Our well-known words, We declared these rumors to be completely false and absurd. And on that occasion, We proclaimed to Our most beloved subjects, what will happen now, with the help of God, namely, that countless children would come to defend the house of the common Father of the faithful, that is, the State of the Church, whenever those tight bonds of gratitude should be dissolved, with which the Italian princes and peoples should have been intimately linked to each other, and whenever the peoples themselves should neglect to respect the wisdom of their Princes and the holiness of their rights, and to preserve and defend them with all their strength. Though then Our words had restored calm, for a brief time, to all those whose will was opposed to the continual agitation, they were worth nothing to the fiercest enemies of the Church and human society, who had already stirred up new upheavals and new tumults. By insisting upon the slanders already made by them and their counterparts against Religious consecrated to the divine ministry and men of the Church worthy of respect, with great violence, they roused and inflamed against them, the fury of the people. Nor are you unaware, Venerable Brethren, that our words addressed to the people on March 10 of last year, with which We energetically attempted to preserve that Religious Family from exile and dispersal, came to nothing. As these events in Italy, and those notorious upheavals in Europe, took place, We again, on March 30 of the same year, raising Our apostolic voice, did not fail to warn and exhort all peoples to respect the freedom of the Catholic Church, to maintain the order of civil society, to defend the rights of everyone, to perform the precepts of our sacred Religion, and especially to make every effort to exercise Christian charity toward everyone; otherwise, if they neglected to do so, they could be certain that God would show that He alone is the ruler of peoples. Now every one of you knows, how the form of a constitutional government was introduced in Italy, and how the Statute We granted to our subjects was published on March 14 last year. But since the implacable enemies of order and tranquility did not long for anything else but to make every effort against the Pontifical Government, and to excite the people unceasingly, with constant and suspicious riots, by means of printing presses, circles, committees and other artifices of all sorts, they never tired of atrociously calumniating the Government, calling it inert, deceiving, fraudulent, though the Government itself with all due care and zeal had worked to publish the much desired Statute as fast as possible. And here We want to manifest to the whole world that at the same time those men, fixed in their purpose of upsetting the Pontifical State and all of Italy, proposed to proclaim not a Constitution, but a Republic, as the only refuge and defense both for Ourselves, and for the State of the Church. We still have in memory that night, and We still have before Our eyes some who, miserably deluded and fascinated by the contrivers of deception, did not hesitate to patronize their cause and propose to Us the very proclamation of the Republic. This, in addition to countless other serious matters, proves more and more that the demands for new institutions and the progress so preached by these men aim only to keep the agitations alive, to eliminate every principle of justice, virtue, honesty, religion; and to introduce, propagate, and cause to dominate everywhere, with the gravest harm and ruin to all human society, the horrendous and fatal system of Socialism, or even Communism, as it is called, which is most contrary to natural reason and natural law itself. But although this blackest conspiracy, or rather this long series of conspiracies, appeared clear and manifest, yet, God permitted it to remain unknown to many of those who, for so many reasons, must have had common tranquillity at heart. And though the tireless directors of the agitation gave cause for severe suspicion of themselves, there was no lack of men of good will to extend them a friendly hand, perhaps trusting in the hope of bringing them back to the path of moderation and justice. Meanwhile, a cry of war suddenly ran across Italy, so a portion of Our Subjects, moved and carried away, flew to arms, and resisting Our will, wanted to go beyond the borders of Our State. You know, Venerable Brothers, that, fulfilling the office of the Supreme Pontiff and of the Sovereign, We opposed the unjust desires of those who wanted to drag us to embark on that war, and who demanded that We should send to battle, that is, to certain slaughter, inexperienced youth, gathered in a flash, never taught in the art and discipline of war, without skilled commanders or equipment for war. And this was demanded of Us, who, though unduly elevated by an inscrutable decree of divine providence to the summit of Apostolic Dignity, bearing the office of Vicar of Jesus Christ here, received from God, author of peace and charity, the mission to love, with paternal affection, all peoples, races, and nations, and to procure their salvation, as far as lies in Us, not to urge them on to massacres and death. If every Prince is forbidden without just cause to embark on a war, who will ever be so devoid of counsel and judgment, as not to see clearly that the Catholic world rightly demands of the Roman Pontiff a far greater and more serious cause to order and to bring a war upon others? Therefore, with Our Allocution, on 29 April of last year, pronounced in front of you, We declared to the whole world that We were strangers to that war, and that at the same time We refused and rejected a surely treacherous offer made to Us both orally and in writing: an offer not only highly insulting to Us, but also most fatal to Italy, that is, to preside over the government of a certain Italian Republic. And indeed, by singular divine mercy, We succeeded in fulfilling the most grave charge imposed on Us by God to speak, to admonish, to exhort, and therefore, We trust that We cannot be reproved with the saying of Isaiah, "Woe to me because I am silent.” And God willed that Our paternal voice, Our warnings, and Our exhortations be heard by all of Our children. Remember, Venerable Brethren, the clamor and tumults that were stirred up by the men of the most turbulent faction, after the Allocution now referred to by Us, and that there was imposed upon Us, a civil ministry totally contrary to Our maxims and Our views and the rights of Our Apostolic See. Certainly, from that time onwards, We anticipated the unhappy outcome of the Italian war, while one of those ministers did not doubt that the war would continue, against Our will, and without the Pontifical Blessing. The same minister, with utter contempt for the Apostolic See, did not have any repugnance in proposing that the civil principality of the Roman Pontiff should be separated from his spiritual power. The same man, not long after, speaking of Us, dared publicly to assert such things, with which he barred, in a certain way, and segregated the Pontiff himself from the consortium of men. The righteous and merciful Lord wanted to humiliate Us under His mighty hand, permitting, for the space of several months, the truth on the one hand, and lies on the other, to contend with each other, in a most fierce battle, which was ended by the formation of another ministry, which then surrendered its place to another, which paired with ingenuity, a particular zeal to defend public order and maintain the laws. But the unbridled license and audacity of the wicked passions, rearing their heads higher every day, expanded their dominion, and the enemies of God and men, inflamed by the long and proud thirst to dominate, to depredate, and to destroy, yearned for nothing so much as to to overthrow all divine and human laws, and thus satiate their cravings. So the machinations that had been prepared for so long were made openly manifest; we saw the streets stained with human blood, and sacrileges were committed that could never be deplorable enough, and acts of violence never before endured were inflicted upon Us with indescribable boldness, in Our own residence at the Quirinal. So, oppressed by so much anguish, being unable to exercise freely not only the office of the Sovereign, but even of the Pontiff, not without the utmost bitterness of spirit, We were forced to leave Our See. Let us now pass over in silence those most sorrowful events narrated by Us in the public protests, so as not to exacerbate our common pain in remembering them. As soon as the seditious knew of Our protests, in fury, and with greater audacity, and threatening everyone with everything, they did not spare any kind of fraud, deceit, and violence to hurl more and more terror upon the good, who were already prostrate with fear. And after they introduced the new form of government they called the State Council, and removed the two councils We set up, from there, they made an effort to convene a new assembly they called the Roman Constituent. The mind is certainly revolted to recall the many frauds used to succeed in that intent. Here, we cannot afford to omit to pay tribute to the great majority of the Magistrates of the Pontifical State, who, remembering their honor and duty, preferred to withdraw from office, rather than cooperate in any way with a enterprise that tended to divest their sovereign and most loving Father of his legitimate civil principality. Finally, that Assembly was brought together, and a certain Roman lawyer, at the beginning of his first speech to the congregates, solemnly declared that which he and all his other companions, authors of the horrible movement, felt, wanted, and aimed at. “The law of moral progress,” he said, “is imperious and inexorable,” and he added that he and the others had for a long time been determined to cast down from their foundations the temporal rule and the government of the Apostolic See, no matter what We might have done to accommodate their desires. We wanted to remind you of this statement in this your assembly, so that everyone will realize that this perverse will was not attributed by Us to the authors of the sedition only by conjecture or moved by some suspicion, but that it was clearly and publicly manifested to the whole world by those same men, whom shame alone should have held back from making such a statement. Such men therefore did not aim to have more liberal institutions, or reforms that were more useful to the public administration, nor any measure of any kind, but they wanted to invade, shake and destroy the temporal dominion of the Apostolic See. And their purpose, as far as they could, they achieved, with the decree issued by the so-called Roman Constituent, on 9 February of the current year, with which they declared the Roman Pontiffs to have fallen in law and in fact from temporal government: so that we do not know whether the injury to the rights of the Roman Church and the freedom joined to them in the exercise of the Apostolic office has been graver, or whether the harm and calamity to all the pontifical Subjects has been greater. At these regrettable facts, our affliction was certainly not slight, Venerable Brethren, and what pains Us most is that the city of Rome, the center of unity and Catholic truth, the teacher of virtue and holiness, by the work of impious men, who rush there in crowds every day, appears in the presence of all peoples, races, and nations of the world, to be the author of so many evils. But in such a deep anguish of Our heart, it is still sweet to be able to affirm that the greater part of the people of Rome, as well as of all of Our Pontifical State, constantly affectionate and devoted to Us and to the Holy See, has held in horror those accursed machinations, although a spectator of so many sorrowful events. Also of great consolation to Us was the solicitude of the Bishops and of the Clergy of Our State who, fulfilling the duties of their ministry in the midst of dangers and every kind of obstacle, did not fail, by voice and example, to keep the people away from those uprisings and the evil insinuations of the factious. In so great a conflict, and in such a disaster, we did not leave anything undone to provide for order and public tranquility. In fact, even before the most sorrowful events of November, We made every effort to recall to Rome the Swiss Regiments dedicated to the service of the Holy See and stationed in Our provinces; this, however, against Our will, did not take effect, due to the work of those who, in May, held the office of Ministers. Not only this, but also before then, as in the following period, in order to defend public order, especially in Rome, and to restrain the audacity of the subversive party, We turned our attention to procure the aid of other troops, who, with the permission of God, given the circumstances, proved lacking. Finally, after the most sorrowful events of November, We did not omit in any way, with our letter of January 5, to inculcate in all Our indigenous troops that, remembering religion and military honor, they should maintain their sworn allegiance to their Prince, and zealously strive to maintain public peace and due obedience and devotion to the legitimate government everywhere. In addition to that, We ordered the transfer of the Swiss Regiments to Rome, but they did not obey Our will, especially as the conduct of their General, in this affair, was not upright or honorable. In the meantime, the leaders of the faction, carrying on their enterprise with greater impetus and boldness, did not leave off casting horrendous calumnies and insults of all sorts against Our person and against those at Our side; they also dared, with the utmost wickedness, to abuse the very words and sentences of the Holy Gospel to seduce, with the garment of lambs (while they are not within themselves anything but ravening wolves), the inexperienced multitude, to their own designs and plots, and to poison with false doctrines the minds of the incautious. Our Subjects, then faithfully attached and devoted to Us and to the temporal domination of the Holy See, desperately and rightfully requested from Us, to be freed from so many grave sufferings, dangers, calamities, and disasters, with which they were oppressed wherever they were. And since some of them see Us as the cause, though innocent, of so many disturbances, We want them to reflect that We, in fact, as soon as We were raised to the pontifical throne, directed Our paternal care and designs, as stated above, precisely to improve with every effort the condition of the peoples of our Pontifical State; but because of hostile and turbulent men it happened that those designs of Ours proved to be useless, while, on the contrary, it happened, as God permitted, that the same factious men succeeded in effecting what they had long since never ceased plotting and attempting with every kind of malice. So here again, We repeat what we have already made clear at other times, that in such a severe and sorrowful tempest, by which almost the whole world is so horribly assailed, we must acknowledge the hand of God and hear His voice, which with such scourges punishes the sins and the iniquities of men, that they may speedily return to the ways of justice. Let them therefore hear this voice, those who have departed from the truth, and abandoning the path they have undertaken, let them convert to the Lord. Let them listen to this voice, those who in the present most sad state of affairs are much more attentive to their private interests than to the good of the Church and to the prosperity of the Catholic Religion, and let them remember that it avails nothing for man "to possess the whole world if then he has to lose his soul”; and let the pious children of the Church listen to this voice, and patiently waiting for God's help, and with ever greater effort, cleansing their consciences of every stain of sin, let them implore the mercies of heaven, and strive to be ever more pleasing in the eyes of God, and to serve Him continually. Among these most ardent desires, We cannot omit especially to warn and reprove those who applaud the decree by which the Roman Pontiff is stripped of all the honor and dignity of his Civil Principality and who claim that the decree is very beneficial in procuring the freedom and happiness of the Church herself. Here, then, openly and in the presence of all, We declare that in saying this, We are not moved by any cupidity for dominion or any desire for temporal power, as Our character, Our spirit are, in truth, alien from any domination. In addition, Our duty requires that in defending the civil principality of the Apostolic See, We defend with all the power the rights and possessions of the Holy Roman Church, and the freedom of the See itself, which is intimately associated with the freedom and welfare of the whole Church. Indeed, those who, applauding the foretold decree, assert so many falsehoods and absurdities, are ignorant, or pretend to be ignorant, that it was by the singular disposition of divine providence that, after the Roman Empire was divided into several kingdoms and different states, the Roman Pontiff, to whom Christ the Lord had entrusted the care and government of the whole Church, had a civil principality, for this purpose, that in ruling the Church herself and in guarding her unity, he would enjoy the full freedom required for the exercise of the supreme apostolic ministry. Indeed, nobody is unaware that the faithful, the peoples, the nations, and the kingdoms would never fully trust and respect the Roman Pontiff, if they saw him subject to the rule of some Prince or Government, and not yet fully free. Indeed, the faithful, peoples and kingdoms would never cease to suspect and fear that the Pope himself might be conforming his acts to the will of the Prince or Government in whose state he was, and therefore, on that pretext, often would not scruple to oppose the same acts. Indeed, let them say, the same enemies of the civil principality of the Apostolic See, who now dominate Rome, with what confidence and respect they would receive the exhortations, orders, and dispositions of the Supreme Pontiff, knowing him subject to the empire of any Prince or Government, especially if one of these and the Roman State had long been in open war.

Meanwhile, everyone sees the many grave wounds with which the immaculate Bride of Christ is transfixed in the same Pontifical State, the strains, the vilest slavery, with which She is increasingly oppressed, and the great anguish with which her visible Head is afflicted. And who does not know that We have been prevented from communicating with Rome, and with that Clergy most dear to Us, and with the whole Episcopate, and with the other faithful of the entire Pontifical State, so much so that We are not even allowed to send and freely receive letters, even if they refer to ecclesiastical and spiritual affairs? Who does not know that the city of Rome, the principal seat of the Catholic Church, has now become, ahi! a forest of wild beasts, overflowing with men of every nation, who are either apostates, or heretics, or masters, as it is said, of Communism or Socialism, and animated by the most terrible hatred of Catholic truth, both in speeches, in writings and in any other way possible, they are striving with every effort to teach and disseminate pestilential errors of all kinds, and to corrupt the hearts and minds of all, so that in Rome itself, if possible, the sanctity of the Catholic religion may fail, and the irreformable rule of faith? Who does not know, who has not heard, in the Pontifical State, how with daring and sacrilegious boldness, the goods, the rents, the properties of the Church have been seized; the most august temples have been stripped of their ornaments; religious houses have been converted to profane uses; the sacred virgins have been maltreated; most excellent religious and ecclesiastics of the utmost integrity, have been cruelly persecuted, imprisoned and killed; venerable illustrious bishops, distinguished even by the dignity of cardinal, have been barbarously torn from their flocks and thrown into prison? And as these many great crimes against the Church and its rights and freedom are committed in the Pontifical State, so it is in other places, where those men or their counterparts dominate, at the very time that they themselves proclaim freedom everywhere, and give us to understand that among their desires, is that the supreme power of the Supreme Pontiff, liberated from any bond, may possess and enjoy full freedom. Further, no one does not know the terrible and regrettable condition in which Our most beloved Subjects find themselves, because of those same men who commit so many excesses against the Church: the public treasury has been dissipated, exhausted, trade has been interrupted and almost extinguished, the heaviest contributions of money have been imposed on nobles and others; the goods of private persons have been robbed by those calling themselves the leaders of the people and the heads of unbridled militias; the personal liberty of all good people is threatened, and their peace is placed in extreme danger; life itself is subjected to the assassin’s dagger, and other immense and serious misfortunes and calamities, with which the citizens are severely tormented and terrified. These are precisely the beginnings of that prosperity that the enemies of the Supreme Pontificate announce and promise to the peoples of the Pontifical State! In the midst, then, of the grave and incredible pain, with which We were intimately tormented, because of the many calamities suffered by both the Church and Our subjects, knowing that the reason of Our duty absolutely required Us to do everything to remove and relieve them, from December 4 of last year, We did not cease requesting and imploring help and rescue from the Princes and Nations. And We cannot hold back from communicating to you now, Venerable Brethren, the particular consolation We experienced in learning that the same Princes and peoples, even those not bound to Us by the bond of Catholic unity, attested and declared with lively expressions their spontaneous sympathy for Us. This, while admirably relieving Our most  grievous sorrow and comforting Us, demonstrates even more how propitiously God always helps His holy Church. We nourish hope that everyone may be persuaded, that from the contempt of our most holy Religion, are derived those most serious evils by which, in such difficult times, peoples and kingdoms are shaken, and that no relief or remedy can be sought except in the divine doctrine of Christ and His Holy Church, the fertile mother and nurse of all virtues, and the enemy of vices, who as She educates men to every truth and justice and joins them in mutual charity, wonderfully provides for the public good and the order of civil society. After invoking the help of all the Princes, We asked much more willingly for rescue from Austria, neighboring Our State to the north, for not only has she always excelled in outstanding work in defense of the temporal dominion of the Apostolic See, but We now surely hope that, according to Our most ardent desires and just demands, certain principles repeatedly reproved by the Apostolic See may be eliminated from that Empire and therefore, to the good and the benefit of those faithful, the Church there may recover her freedom. We are most pleased to announce this to you, and We are certain that it will be of no little consolation to you. We asked for similar help from France, for which We have a singular affection and good will, since the clergy and the faithful of that nation have made every effort to soothe and relieve Our bitter sufferings and anguish with most ample demonstrations of filial devotion and respect. We further asked for help from Spain, which, with great care and solicitude for Our afflictions, was the first to urge the other Catholic nations to establish a filial alliance to ensure that the common Father of the faithful, the Church's supreme pastor, was returned to his See. Finally, We asked for such help from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, where we are guests of the King, who, devoting all his strength to promoting the true and solid happiness of his peoples, is so resplendent with religion and piety as to serve as an example to his own subjects. Though We cannot express enough in words, the care and diligence with which that Prince himself aspires in every way and with clear proofs to testify to us and to continually confirm his extraordinary filial devotion to Us, his illustrious merits in regard to Us will never be forgotten. Neither can We in any way pass over in silence the testimonies of piety, love, and obeisance that the clergy and the people of the same Kingdom, ever since We arrived here, have never ceased to bear towards Us. Therefore, we hope that with the help of God those Catholic powers, bearing in mind the cause of the Church and of its Supreme Pontiff, the common Father of all the faithful, will hasten to come as soon as possible to defend, to vindicate the civil principate of the Apostolic See and to restore to Our subjects peace and tranquility; we trust that the enemies of our most holy Religion and of civil Society will be removed from Rome and the entire Pontifical State. As soon as this happens, it will be Our care, with every vigilance, solicitude and effort, to eradicate all those errors and most grave scandals that, with all good men, We had so much cause to lament. At first, it will be necessary to make great efforts to illuminate, with the light of eternal truth, the spirits and inclinations miserably deluded by the fallacies, the snares and the frauds of the wicked, so that men may know the fatal fruits of errors and vices and are spurred on and animated to follow the ways of virtue, justice and Religion. In fact, you know very well, Venerable Brethren, those horrendous and monstrous opinions, that arising from the depth of the abyss for ruin and desolation, have already prevailed and are raging to the immense harm of Religion and Society. Those perverted and pestilential doctrines, the enemies never tire of spreading among the people, in words and writings, and in public spectacles, to increase and propagate more every day the unbridled license of every impiety, every cupidity and lust. Hence come the calamities and misfortunes and disasters, that have so devastated, and continue to devastate, the human race, and almost the whole world. You are not ignorant of the war waged even in Italy herself upon our most holy Religion, and of the frauds and artifices, with which the terrible enemies of Religion and of Society strive to distance minds, especially those of the inexperienced, from the holiness of faith and sound doctrine, and to submerge them in the swirling waves of unbelief, and urge them to the most serious crimes. In order to facilitate the success of their designs, and to excite and promote seditions and tumults with the examples of heretics, completely despising the supreme authority of the Church, they dare to invoke, interpret, change, twist to their private and perverse meaning, the words, testimonies, and sentiments of the divine scriptures and, with the fullness of impiety, they have no horror of abusing wickedly the very holy name of Jesus Christ. Nor does shame restrain them from publicly asserting that even the violation of the most sacred oath, and any base and criminal action, even one repugnant to the very eternal law of nature, not only is not to be reproved, but is even fully legitimate and worthy of every praise, when committed, as they say, for love of country. With such a wicked and twisted way of arguing, these men take away any idea of honesty and justice; with unheard of shamelessness, they are defending and praising the wicked manner of acting of the thief and the assassin. To the other innumerable deceptions, which the enemies of the Catholic Church continually use to tear away and snatch from Her bosom, principally the imprudent and the inexperienced, are added the most dreadful and shameful slanders, which they do not blush to invent and hurl against Our Person. We certainly, who although unworthy, stand, here on earth, in place of Him who "while he was cursed did not curse, while he was suffering did not threaten,” We endured with all patience and in silence the most bitter outrages, and never failed to pray for Our calumniators and persecutors. But being in debt to the learned and to the ignorant, and bound, with every care, to provide for the salvation of all, especially in order to prevent the scandal of the weak, We cannot fail to repudiate, in this your assembly, that most false and blackest of all calumnies published against the Person of Our humility by some of the most recent papers. In truth, We were struck by incredible horror when We read that invention, with which Our enemies strive to inflict a deep wound upon Us and the Apostolic See, but we cannot in any way think that these most impudent lies can even slightly touch that supreme Chair of Truth, and Us who, without any merit, find Ourselves in it. And certainly, by singular celestial mercy, We can use those words of our divine Redeemer: "I have spoken openly to the world ... and in secret I have said nothing." Here, Venerable Brethren, We would like to repeat and inculcate what we specifically stated in Our Allocation of December 17, 1847, namely that the wicked, more easily to harm the true and genuine doctrine of the Catholic Religion, and to deceive and induce others to err, do not fail to use inventions, machinations, and efforts of every kind, so that the Holy See itself, in a certain way, appears to be part of, and an advocate for, their folly.

To all, then, it is evident that these darkest and most destructive societies and sects have been founded at various times by fabricators of falsehood, followers of perverse doctrines, to instill in spirits their deliriums, systems and plots more deeply, to corrupt the hearts of the simple and to open a broad road to committing all sorts of wickedness with impunity. These abominable sects of perdition, most pernicious not only to the salvation of souls, but also to the good and the peace of society, which have always been detested by Us, and already condemned by Our Predecessors, We also condemned in the encyclical to the Bishops of the Catholic world given November 9, 1846, and now also, with supreme apostolic authority, We again condemn, forbid, and proscribe. It was not Our purpose in this Our Allocution to enumerate all the errors by which miserably deluded peoples are being goaded on to such serious disasters, or to expose all the machinations that seek the ruin of the Catholic Religion, and that seek to attack everywhere, and to invade, the rock of Sion. What we have so far remembered, with grief, sufficiently demonstrates that, from the depraved doctrines and contempt of righteousness and religion, derive those calamities and disasters from which nations and peoples are so tormented. Thus, to eliminate such serious harm, we must spare no care, counsel, effort, and vigilance so that, once so many perverse doctrines have been uprooted, everyone may understand that in exercising virtue, justice, and Religion lies true and solid happiness. So We, and you, and the other Venerable Brethren, Bishops of all the Catholic world, we must work with all care, solicitude and effort, to keep the faithful away from the poisoned pastures, and lead them to those that are healthful, and daily to feed them with the words of faith, so that they may know to avoid the deception and the cunning of those who lay traps, and, well understanding that the fear of God is the fountain of all good, and that sins and iniquities draw the scourges of God, they may strive with diligence to flee evil, and to work good. Therefore, in the midst of such great anguish, we certainly know no slight joy, knowing the firmness and constancy of spirit, with which the Venerable Brethren, Bishops of the Catholic word, closely faithful to Us and to the Chair of Peter, together with the clergy, strenuously work to defend the cause of the Church, and to sustain its freedom, and with what priestly care and diligence, they make every effort to confirm more and more the good in goodness, to bring the perverted into the path of righteousness, and, with their voice and writings, to reproach and put to shame the obstinate enemies of Religion. And while we are pleased to give the same Venerable Brethren the just and merited praises, we encourage them to continue with the divine help with increasing zeal to fulfill their ministry, to fight the Lord's battles, to raise their voice with wisdom and vigor to evangelize Jerusalem and to heal the wounds of Israel. Conforming to this, let them not cease to have recourse, with trust, to the throne of grace, redoubling both public and private prayers, and inculcating in the faithful, with insistence, the need to do penance, so that they may obtain mercy from the Lord, and find again the grace of opportune aid. Nor should they refrain from exhorting men of talent and sound doctrine, so that they, under the care of their shepherds and the Apostolic See, may strive to fill the minds of the people with light, and dispel the darkness of the creeping errors. Here, too, We exhort in the Lord Our most beloved sons in Jesus Christ, the Princes and the Governors, and We ask them, carefully and seriously, to consider the evils and the harms arising in society from a torrent of so many vices and errors, that they may desire, with every care, ingenuity and solicitude, that virtue, justice, and Religion may everywhere triumph and ever increase. And let all peoples, nations, nations and their rulers consider and meditate assiduously and attentively upon the fact that all goods lie in the practice of justice, that all evils arise from iniquity: for "righteousness raises nations, but sin renders peoples miserable.” (Pr 14,34). But before We can end Our speech, We cannot help but openly and publicly declare Our soul grateful to all those most beloved and affectionate children who, very solicitous for Our calamities, moved by a most singular feeling of affection towards us, wanted to send us their offerings. Though such pious donations bring Us considerable relief, however, We must confess that Our heart is very anguished, unfortunately fearing that, in the terrible state of public affairs, transported by an impulse of love, they may encounter in their generous sacrifices a true inconvenience and harm. Finally, Venerable Brethren, We fully resign ourselves to the impenetrable decrees of God's wisdom, with which He works His glory, while in the humility of Our heart, We give endless thanks to God for having made Us worthy to suffer insult for the name of Jesus, and for having conformed Us, in part, to the image of His Passion. We are ready, in faith, in hope, in patience, in gentleness, to suffer the most bitter toils and afflictions, and to give, for the Church, even Our life, if with Our blood, it is granted to Us to repair the calamities of the Church. Meanwhile, Venerable Brethren, let us never leave off humbly praying day and night to the Lord God, rich in mercy, and begging Him, by the merits of His Only Begotten Son, with His omnipotent right hand, to draw His Holy Church out of the many tempests with which She is tossed, and by the light of His divine grace, to illumine the minds of all those who are lost, and to conquer the hearts of the prevaricators, in His infinite mercy, so that, once errors have been banished everywhere, and all adversities have been removed, all may see and recognize the light of truth and justice, and run to the unity of faith and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let us never cease pleading, with supplication of Him who forms the peace in the heavens, and Who is our peace, that, completely removing all the evils by which Christianity is torn, He may deign to accord everywhere the much longed-for peace and tranquility. And that God may more easily yield to our prayers, let us avail ourselves of the intercessors close to Him, and in the first place, let us resort to the Most Holy Immaculate Virgin Mary, who is God’s mother and ours, and who, mother of mercy, obtains what She asks, and cannot fail to be heard. Let us further implore the suffrage of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and of the co-apostle Paul and of all the Saints, who have already become friends of God, and who reign with Him in the heavens, so that the most clement Lord, for the sake of their merits and their prayers, may free the faithful from the terrors of His wrath, and protect them always and delight them with the abundance of His divine benignity.