Mystici Corporis

MYSTICI CORPORIS. - Opening words of the encyclical of Pius XII, dated 29 June 1943 (AAS, 36 [1943], pp. 193-248), in which the doctrine of the Mystical Body is set forth. The Pontiff was led to promulgate the solemn document by the memorandum sent by Msgr. Conrad Gröber, Archbishop of Freiburg (Brisgau), to the Holy See and to the German bishops, concerning the errors spread in Germany on the subject (cf. J. Froger, L'encyclique Mediator Dei, in La pensée catholique. Cahiers de synthèse, 7 [1949], pp. 56-76, especially pp. 65-66 where no. 11 of Gröber's letter is reported, in which the doctrinal exaggerations concerning the Mystical Body are clearly indicated). The encyclical is a precise and detailed answer to the individual points called into question, but it is generally given in implicit form, as an aside within a broader discourse: indeed, in the serene development of the imposing doctrinal complex, the answer acquires a particular persuasive force for those who have erred and a special probative vigor for those who have remained within the bounds of orthodoxy.

The encyclical starts from the concept of the Church as a body, of which it highlights the prerogative: one, undivided, visible, organically and hierarchically compact, furnished with means of sanctification (the Sacraments) and constituted of determinate members (sinners not excluded); it then demonstrates that this body is Christ's, « corpus Christi », because Jesus Christ is a) its founder: through the preaching of the Gospel, the redemption of the Cross, the promulgation on the day of Pentecost; b) its head: by reason of his excellent dignity, his invisible and visible direction (through the pope and the bishops), the mutual interdependence, the conformity of nature and of Grace with the body, the fullness of supernatural charisms, his influence upon the whole organism through ontological (sanctifying) and psychological (enlightening) channels; c) its sustainer, through his ministers, who build from without, and the Holy Spirit, who as the soul of the Mystical Body is its inner principle of cohesion and the regulator of all its vital currents; d) its savior, since he acquired all the members of the Church sanguine suo (part 1). From these relations of Christ with the Church there emerges the intimate mysterious union of all the faithful with Jesus, whose juridical, social, psychological, ontological and sacramental bonds, especially eucharistic ones, are illustrated (part 2). As a corollary of the matter set forth, the Pope condemns false mysticism and quietism and certain errors concerning confession and prayer, to end with a warm appeal to love the Church (part 3). A suggestive epilogue on Mary, as Mother of the Mystical Body, closes the great document.

In the encyclical there often stand out affirmations of extraordinary theological importance, almost pronuntiata maiora of the Magisterium in modern ecclesiology, e.g.: the identity of the Mystical Body with the Roman Catholic Church, the conditions for being members of the Church (v.), the condemned vivisection between « Rechtskirche » (Ecclesia iuris) and « Liebeskirche » (Ecclesia amoris), the Holy Spirit as soul of the Mystical Body, the close relations between the internal and external government of the same organism, ecclesiological theandrism, the condemnation of any form of panchristism (against Pelz), Mary Mater Ecclesiae.

The distinguished document is the glorious epilogue of that movement which, having taken shape in Germany through the work of J. A. Möhler (v.), influenced the whole ecclesiology of the nineteenth century (C. Passaglia, Cl. Schrader, J. B. Franzelin, M. J. Scheeben), as an implicit answer to the materialistic conception of human solidarity. When, after the war of 1914-18, throughout Europe the two conceptions, Catholic and Marxist, found themselves face to face, almost an ideological and chronological coincidentia oppositorum, the theme of the Mystical Body was again particularly felt: works of wide erudition arose, tending toward a constructive synthesis (J. Anger, F. Jürgersmeier, Feckes, Wikenhauser, Grivec, E. Mura, Koster, E. Mersch, L. Malevez, S. Tromp, Congar). In such fervor of studies, enthusiasms and excesses of form and substance are explained. The encyclical gathers and enhances the best data of this theology in fieri, does not crush the movement, but strengthens it by eliminating its principles of dissolution; it concludes an epoch of ecclesiological theology, in order to begin another more secure and more fruitful one.

Antonio Piolanti