SUMMI PONTIFICATUS. - First encyclical of Pius XII (Oct. 20, 1939), in which the program of his pontificate is outlined.
Publishing it on the eve of the feast of Christ the King, in the 40th year of the Annum sacrum, with which Leo XIII consecrated the world to the Sacred Heart, the Pontiff begins by calling the faithful back to this supreme source of spiritual goods, and then expresses the joy he felt at the cordial and universal plebiscite of congratulations that reached him for his elevation to the throne, even from non-Catholics. Of particular satisfaction were the tributes of the heads of state, especially of Italy, where the Lateran Pacts marked the beginning of peaceful and fruitful relations.
Coming to outline his program, he proposes first of all «to bear witness to the truth with apostolic firmness», setting forth with impartiality and paternal charity the errors and faults that must be known in order to be cured. The root of modern errors is placed by the Pope in the denial of a universal morality, whose cause is Protestantism. The most serious consequences are: 1) the loss of the sense of the solidarity of men in Adam and in Christ; 2) the absolute authority of civil power, which does not respect the rights of the family and does not consider itself bound to fidelity to freely contracted international pacts. To the first error the Supreme Pontiff opposes the example of the Church in her missionary activity, open to the values of all civilizations; to the second he recalls the inviolable rights of the family and the obligation of conscience founded on human nature itself. There follows an exhortation to the collaboration of the laity in the apostolate, which begins in the Christian family, extends to the defense of Christian principles in civil society (especially of the rights of the Church to the education of youth) and into the political field for an effective work of peacemaking. The encyclical ends with a supreme appeal for common collaboration to alleviate the anguish of war where it has already begun and to avert it in other parts of the world.