Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/562



556 REVIEW OF HIS PONTIFICATE.

We would wish, Venerable Brothers, to entertain you with subjects less sad and more in harmony with the great and auspicious occasion which induces Us to address you. But nothing suggests such tenor of discourse â€” neither the grievous trials of the Church which call with instance for prompt remedies; nor the conditions of con- temporary society which, already undermined from a moral and material point of view, tend toward a yet more gloomy future by the abandonment of the great Christian traditions; a law of Providence, confirmed by history, proving that the great religious principles cannot be re- nounced without shaking at the same time the founda- tions of order and social prosperity. In those circum- stances, in order to allow souls to recover, to furnish them with a new provision of faith and courage, it appears to Us opportune and useful to weigh attentively, in its origin, causes, and various forms, the implacable war that is waged against the Church; and in denouncing its pernicious con- sequences to indicate a remedy. May Our words, there- fore, resound loudly, though they but recall truths already asserted ; may they be hearkened to, not only by the chil- dren of Catholic unity, but also by those who differ from Us, and even by the unhappy souls who have no longer any faith; for they are all children of one Father, all des- tined for the same supreme good : may Our words, finally, be received as the testament which, at the short distance that separates Us from eternity. We would wish to leave to the people as a presage of the salvation which We desire for all.

During the whole course of her history the Church of Christ has had to combat and suffer for truth and justice. Instituted by the divine Redeemer Himself to establish throughout the world the kingdom of God, she must, by the light of the Gospel law, lead fallen humanity to its immortal destinies; that is, to make it enter upon the pos- session of the blessings without end which God has prom- ised us, and to which our unaided natural power could