« CARITATE CHRISTI COMPULSI ». - Encyclical of Pius XI, dated 3 May 1932, on the painful calamities that continued to afflict suffering humanity (AAS, 24 [1932], pp. 177-94). Not long before (encycl. Nova impendet, 2 Oct. 1931) he had summoned all men of good will to rally in a crusade of love to alleviate the harsh consequences of the raging economic crisis. The appeal had been heeded, but proved insufficient to prevent the crisis from worsening.
Pius XI traced the causes of this state of affairs to: 1) the insatiable hunger for gold, source of selfishness, distrust, imbalances, and hatred; 2) the activity of militant atheism, which, taking advantage of the circumstances, was organizing itself socially and sought to bind all men in a vise of steel. Against this infernal campaign, which threatened to bring even more disastrous consequences for the economy itself, he urged the use of supernatural—and therefore more effective—means with which Christianity abounds: 1) a crusade of prayer, which draws hearts together; 2) expiation and reparation, means suited to restore the balance overturned by the substitution of violence for law and morality.