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The Legacy of Pius XI

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The Legacy of Pius XI The Legacy of Pius XI Josef Metzler, O.M.!. ope Pius XI was born Achille Ratti, May 31, 1857, in Lateran Pact and the concordat with Italy, whereby after nearly P Desio near Milan. Growing up in the milieu of the sixty years the "Roman Question" was finally solved, clarified aspiring industrial middle class of Lombardi, he felt the impact and underlined the church's spiritual role. The religious and of the modern rush for social and economic prosperity.' After pastoral tasks of the papacy manifestly came to the foreground, excelling in his course in the humanities at Milan's state college its temporal and political interests faded into the background, and completing two years in the Milan seminary, at twenty-two and the roman Curia enjoyed as never before a universal moral years of age he entered the Lombard College in Rome. For three esteem.' years he studied church history, theology, and philosophy and received his degree in all three. On December 20, 1879, he was Pius XI and Mission Science ordained priest in the Lateran Basilica. Modern scholarly study of missions owes its foundations to Early Years in Parish and Academic Ministry GustavWarneck(1834-1910), who in 1874founded the Allgemeine Missionszeitschrift and in 1896 became the first professor of mis­ In 1882he returned to Milan. After serving for a short time as the sions in Halle. His activities and publications in mission studies administrator of a parish, he was assigned to teach "sacred wielded their influence and became the norm for the founding of eloquence" (homiletics) and a dogma course in the major semi­ a Catholic science of missions. In his 1919 encyclical Maximum nary. After teaching for five years, he joined the staff of the illud, Benedict XV had outlined a concept of missionary forma­ Ambrosian Library and from that time onward was engaged in tion in sacred and profane sciences, and he asked that a center of intensive academic research and writing. He published Guida mission studies be established in the Collegio Urbano in Rome." sommaria perilvisitatore della Biblioteca Ambrosiana edelle collezioni Cardinal Willem van Rossum, prefect of the Sacred Congrega­ annesse [Brief Visitor's Guide to the Ambrosian Library and Its tion "de Propaganda Fide" (1918-32),immediately went to work Related Collections] (Milan, 1907) and numerous works on the to establish an academic chair for mission studies. historyof the churchin Milanas well as on CharlesBorromeoand Pius XI took up these ideas right from the outset of his othersubjects.'In 1907he was appointeddirectorofthe Ambrosian pontificate. Adopting the motto "Pax Christi in Regno Christi," Library and also papal domestic prelate. the pope proclaimed 1925,1929,and 1933Holy Years. His lively When Franz Ehrle, S.J.,resigned his postin 1911as prefect of concern for missions, and his bent for speedy execution, became the Vatican Library, Pius X appointed Achille Ratti as vice­ evident when he gave orders that a missions exhibit, featuring a prefect; and, in 1914, as prefect. Monsignor Ratti was uprooted missions library, be organized in the Vatican for the 1925 Holy from his scholarlylibraryroutineon April25,1918,whenBenedict Year." He selected a splendid location for the exhibit, the great XV appointed him apostolic visitor to Poland.' This new courtyard of the Pigna, adjacent to the newwing of the museums. ecclesiastico-political and diplomatic task he performed skill­ Vicars and prefects apostolic were asked to send mission books fully and tactfully. Because of his knowledge of languages (Ger­ and maps to the exhibit? man, French, Spanish, English) and his repeated journeys into Close to 30,000 volumes, in all languages, arrived in Rome Germany, Switzerland, and England, he was well prepared for for the Vatican Missionary Exhibition, and experts from all over this new assignment. His apostolic travels and visits took him the world were invited to Rome to assist in its preparation. through the whole of Poland and the Baltic States. After Poland Among them was Father Robert Streit, O.M.I., already known in achieved politicalindependencein 1919,the popeappointedhim Rome for the publication of the first volumes of the monumental apostolic nuncio and titular archbishop. However, his additional Bibliotheca Missionum. No one seemed better prepared to orga­ appointment as head commissioner for Silesia, East and West nize the library section, which was meant to display the literary Prussia put him into diplomatic conflict both with Poland and and scholarly work of Catholic missionaries and missiologists. with Germany. The pope freed him from this delicate situation The pope followed Streit's work with special interest. When he by appointing him archbishop of Milan, and he raised him to visited the exhibition for the first time, he went directly to the membership in the College of Cardinals on June 13, 1921. His library, where he paused to examine the collections grouped tenure as chief shepherd in Milan lasted for only a few months. according to the origin of the volumes. When he came to open Benedict XV died on January 22, 1922, and on February 6, Ratti other pavilions, he stopped again in the libraryto inspect the new emerged from the conclave as Pius XI. collections and documents that had recently arrived. "Whenever Besides the traditional measures taken as pope for the pro­ he would come to the exhibition in the quiet hours," recalls motion of the Gospel, his international relationships with states Father Streit, "he would never fail to come to the library to see and peoples are of particular significance. The concluding of the how the work was progressing.liB "The importance," he said on the day of inauguration, "given to the scientific and literary section proclaims that even in holiness, hardships and sacrifices are not sufficient; neither is empiricism, but knowledge is necessary in order that fruit may JosefMetzler,aGerman Oblate ofMaryImmaculate, taughtmissionhistoryfor be gathered from these hardships and sacrifices. Just as today in more than thirty years at the Papal University Urbaniana, Rome,and was industry, commerce, and the more material occupations of life archivist of Propaganda Fide. Since 1984 he has been Prefect of the Vatican there is a search for scientific guidelines, so these must not be Archives. lacking in the missionary field."? 62 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH At the close of the Missionary Exhibition, which the pope number of catechists too ought to be increased. The encyclical compared to "a vast book," Pius XIexpressed the desire that this concludes with some practical advice concerning the external "book" might always be open in Rome, "where the real center of organizationof thechurchin missionlandsand the development propulsion and diffusion of all the missions is ... where it will be of schools of higher learning. everavailable to all." Thuswasfounded theMissionaryMuseum Pius Xl's missionary program thus embraced the whole at the Lateran (now in the Vatican Museum). With the same work of the evangelization of peoples, including the faithful of purpose in mind, he also decided that the literary section of the the established churches and the new churches. The pope re­ exhibition should remain in Rome as the Pontifical Missionary minded all the faithful, especially clergy and bishops, of their Library in order to make it a center for missiological research on duty to collaborate and cooperate effectively in the world's the very site of the offices of Propaganda Fide. Father Robert evangelization, for all are responsible for the missions. Pius XI Streit was named the first head librarian.'? especiallyinsisted thatbishops were responsible for the mission­ That was a decisive step on the way to carrying out the ary activity of the entire church. mission science plans of the pope. Because of the prodding of In spite of the centuries-old tradition of the church and Benedict XVfrom 1920onward,missionaryscience courseswere repeated reminders from the pontiffs and the decrees and in­ given in the theology faculty of the Athenaeum (today Univer­ structions of Propaganda Fide, the problem of native clergy was sity) Urbanianum of Propaganda Fide. Finally, in 1933 Pius XI far from solved. Pius XI tackled this problem and asked for an established in the same Athenaeum the Institutum Missionale energetic and radical solution. He was aware that the contempo­ Scientificum. The previous year the Jesuits had expanded their rary world was moving at a rapid pace and that if the church Gregorian University in Rome with a faculty of mission sciences. failed to solve the problem of native clergy, it would be left behind. From the very outset Propaganda Fide had struggled The Mission Program of Pius XI against the interference of the colonial powers in mission affairs and had done its best to encourage the development of autono­ The missionary encyclical Rerum Ecclesiae of February 28, 1926,11 mous local churches. Now, after the First World War, the era of is of the greatest importance in Pius Xl's missionary program. In political colonialismwas winding down, even though not all the it are expressed in all its fullness "his broad outlook, his creative powers were convinced of that. Pius XI, a far-seeing man, was energy, the nobility of his heart burning with love for Christ/"" preparingthe future of the church in the new countries thatwere In the modern missionary literature, Rerum Ecclesiae must be nearing their time of independence. numbered among the church's basic documents. "Converting the pagans is an obligation of charity toward God and neighbor Carrying Out the Mission Program and binds all the faithful, especially the clergy and ecclesiastical superiors.r" The pope thus strongly admonished the faithful to Alreadyin1926,theyearthemissionencyclicalappeared, PiusXI be more fruitful in their missionary activity. They were sum­ took the first steps to achieve the missionary aims he had set for moned to moreinsistentandconstantprayerfor missionsandfor himself.
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