For many years, it has been our custom to mark today’s feast with an excerpt from one of Pope Leo XIII’s eleven encyclicals on the Holy Rosary, but this year, I happened to come across the only one on the same subject by Pope Pius XI (1922-39). Ingravescentibus malis was issued on the feast of St Michael the Archangel in 1937, and would be Pius’ very last encyclical, even though he lived for almost a year and a half longer after it was issued. The opening words, “As evils grow heavy”, unmistakably reflect the darkness then gathering in Europe; the outbreak of World War II was then less than two years away. I hope that our readers will not be discouraged by how much of this is still extremely pertinent, but find in it encouragement to entrust the difficulties of our own times to the prayers and intercession of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, as the wise supreme pontiff urges herein.
“More than once have We asserted … that there is no remedy for the ever-growing evils of our times except a return to Our Lord Jesus Christ and to His most holy precepts. Truly, only He “hath the words of eternal life”, and individuals and society can only fall into immediate and miserable ruin if they ignore the majesty of God and repudiate His Law. However, anyone who studies with diligence the records of the Catholic Church will easily recognize that the true patronage of the Virgin Mother of God is linked with all the annals of the Christian name. When, in fact, errors everywhere diffused were bent upon rending the seamless robe of the Church and upon throwing the Catholic world into confusion, our fathers turned with a spirit of confidence soul to her “who alone who destroys all heresies throughout the world” (Roman Breviary), and the victory won through her brought the return of happier times. |
| The Battle of Lepanto, by Paolo Veronese, ca. 1572, now in the Academy Gallery in Venice |
When the impiety of Mohammedanism, trusting in its powerful fleet and great armies, threatened the peoples of Europe with ruin and slavery, at the urging of the Supreme, the protection of the heavenly Mother was fervently implored and the enemy was defeated and his ships sunk. Thus the faithful of every age, both in public misfortune and in private need, turn in humble supplication to Mary, so that she may mostly kindly come to their aid, and grant help and remedy against sorrows of body and soul. And never was her most powerful aid hoped for in vain by those who besought it with pious and trustful prayer.
But also in our day, dangers no less grave than in the past beset civil and religious society. In fact, because the supreme and eternal authority of God, which commands and forbids, is neglected, or even completely repudiated by many, the result is that the consciousness of Christian duty is weakened, and that faith becomes tepid in souls or entirely extinguished, and at last, the very foundations of human society are shaken and fall to ruin.
Thus on the one hand are seen citizens intent on an atrocious struggle among themselves because some are provided with abundant riches and others must gain bread for themselves and their families by the sweat of their brows. And in some regions, as all know, the evil has reached such a pitch that all private right of property is destroyed, and all things are reduced to common property. On the other hand, there are not lacking men who declare that they honor and exalt the power of the State above all, and say they must use every means to assure civil order and enforce authority, and pretend that only thus are they able totally to repulse the execrable ideas of the Communists. However, they despise the light of Gospel’s wisdom, and endeavor to revive the errors of the pagans and their way of life.
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| Religious liberty in the workers’ paradise: agents of the Soviet state steal one of the bells of the cathedral of St Volodomyr in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 5, 1930, the day before Christmas Eve on the Julian Calendar. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
To this is added the most cunning and lamentable sect of those who, denying and hating God, declare themselves the enemies of the Eternal, and who insinuate themselves everywhere, who discredit and uproot all religious belief from souls, and finally, trample on every human and divine right. And while they cast scorn on the hope of heavenly reward, they incite men to seek, even by illicit means, false earthly happiness, and therefore drive them with brazen temerity to the dissolution of the social order, causing disorder, cruel rebellions and even the conflagration of civil war.
Nevertheless, Venerable Brethren, though such great and numerous evils hang over us, and others still greater are to be feared for the future, we must not lose heart nor let the confident hope that rests solely on God become fainter. He who “made the nations of the earth for health” (Wis. 1, 14) without doubt will not let those perish whom He has redeemed with His Precious Blood, nor will He abandon His Church. But rather, as We said in the beginning, shall We beseech God through the prayers and patronage of the Blessed Virgin, so acceptable to Him, since, to use the words of St. Bernard: “Such is the will of God, who has wished that we should have all things through Mary.” (Sermon on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.)
Among the various supplications with which we successfully appeal to the Virgin Mother of God, the Holy Rosary without doubt occupies a special and distinct place. This prayer, which some call the Psalter of the Virgin or Breviary of the Gospel and of Christian life, was described and recommended by Our Predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII, with these vigorous passages: “Very admirable is this crown interwoven with the angelic salutation, which is interposed with the Lord’s prayer, and unites with it the obligation of interior meditation. It is an excellent manner of prayer . . . and very useful for the attainment of immortal life.” ...
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Therefore why should We not hope for all things, if We supplicate Our Heavenly Mother in this manner with due disposition and holiness? We desire very earnestly, Venerable Brethren, that the Holy Rosary should be recited in a special manner in the month of October and with increased devotion both in the churches and in homes. And so much the more must it be done since the enemies of the Divine Name - that is, those who have rebelled against and denied and scorned the Eternal God - spread snares for the Catholic Faith and the liberty due to the Church, and finally rebel with insane efforts against divine and human rights, to send mankind to ruin and perdition. Through efficacious recourse to the Virgin Mother of God, they may be finally humbled and led to penance and return to the straight path, trusting to the care and protection of Mary.
The Holy Virgin who once victoriously drove the terrible sect of the Albigensians from Christian countries, now humbly invoked by us, will turn aside the new errors, especially those of the Communists, who in more than one way remind us of those crimes and errors of the past. And as in the times of the Crusades, in all Europe there was raised one voice of the people, one supplication; so today, in all the world, in the cities, and even the smallest villages, united with courage and strength, with filial and constant insistence, the people seek to obtain from the great Mother of God the defeat of the enemies of Christian and human civilization, to the end that true peace may shine again over tired and erring men.
If, then, all will do this with due disposition, with great faith and with fervent piety, it is to be hoped that as in the past, so in our day, the Blessed Virgin will obtain from her divine Son that the waves of the present tempests be calmed, and that a brilliant victory crown this striving of the Christian faithful in prayer.”
