CARITATE CHRISTI COMPULSI. - Encyclical of Pius XI, of 3 May 1932, on the painful calamities that continued to press upon the human family (AAS, 24 [1932], pp. 177-94). Shortly before (encyclical Nova impendet, 2 Oct. 1931) he had invited all men of good will to join in a crusade of love to alleviate the harsh consequences of the raging economic crisis. The appeal had been heard, but it had proved insufficient to prevent the worsening of the crisis.
Pius XI pointed out its causes: 1) in the insatiable hunger for gold, source of egoisms, distrust, imbalances, hatreds; 2) in the activity of militant atheism, which, taking advantage of circumstances, was organizing itself socially and sought to hold everyone in a steel vice. And against that infernal campaign, capable of bringing with it the most disastrous consequences even for the economy itself, he invited people to put into practice the supernatural means, and therefore the more effective ones, with which Christianity is rich: 1) a crusade of prayers, which bring hearts closer together; 2) expiation and reparation, means suited to restoring the balance, overturned by the substitution of violence for law and morality.