Hidden Encyclical of Pope Pius Xi

Hidden Encyclical of Pope Pius XI

All he needed was one more day. The encyclical Pope Pius XI commissioned John Lafarge S.J. to author, titled “Humani Generis Unitas”, was placed upon and sat on his desk the morning of February 10, 1939. That too unfortunately was the day that Pope Pius XI would call his last as our Father had decided to bring him home and enter the gates of heaven. That encyclical was then seen and examined by his successor, Pope Pius XII, Pope Pius XI’s secretary, and it was determined by Pius XII to not promulgate the encyclical and make no mention to the Catholic Church of what Pius XI spent the last year of his life working upon. There are many historians who argue that had this encyclical been released there could have been a major change in history, I believe and am going to argue that even had this encyclical been released were sent around the world to all Catholics, it would have had an impact on the mindset many Catholics held but would have had little impact on the overall history of the world.

The encyclical written by Lafarge starts off by describing how “The unity of the human race has been forgotten” due to the changes that have recently evolved in contemporary social life. It tells us how people today have lost their “true spiritual unity” and how in existence there are now “cruel barriers between members of human society”. The true unity of humanity as it later describes is “by a common nature” and “by space and time”. Due to this common nature that all of us humans share, the encyclical aims to denounce racism and states that “men of good will should do everything they can to put an end to all unmistakably defamatory and discriminatory distinctions” . We as humans of this world need to understand that there is only one race and that is the human race which we must all work to protect.

The encyclical then goes on to condemn totalitarian governments and describe to the reader the effects that totalitarian governments have on...