Encyclical: Quanta Cura and Syllabus of Errors

by Pope Pius IX, Martin John Spalding (Translator)

In the encyclical " Quanta Cura " (1864), Pope Pius IX denounced a series of errors that afflict the modern era. In the subsequent appendix " The Syllabus of Errors ," 80 errors condemned by Pius IX are enumerated, such as Pantheism, Rationalism, or Laicism.

Those errors that were denounced at the time have been exacerbated and normalized in our contemporary era, granting these documents greatet validity than ever before.

This bilingual English-Latin version allows for a deeper study of the original text.

English translation by Archbishop Martin John Spalding (1810-1872).

Genres: Religion, Catholic, Theology, Church History, Nonfiction, 19th Century

79 pages, Paperback

First published May 13, 1874

About the author

Blessed Pope Pius IX, born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, reigned as Pope from 16 June 1846 to his death in 1878. He was the longest-reigning elected pope in the history of the Catholic Church – over 31 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council (1869–70), which decreed papal infallibility, but the council was cut short due to the loss of the Papal States.

Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, meaning that Mary was conceived without original sin. Pius IX also conferred the title Our Mother of Perpetual Help on a famous Byzantine icon from Crete entrusted to the Redemptorists.

He was also the last pope to rule as the Sovereign of the Papal States, which fell completely to the Italian army in 1870 and were incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. After this, he was referred to – chiefly by himself – as the "Prisoner of the Vatican".

After his death in 1878, his canonization process was opened on 11 February 1907 by Pope Pius X and it drew considerable controversy over the years. It was closed on several occasions during the pontificates of Pope Benedict XV and Pope Pius XI. On 7 December 1954, Pope Pius XII re-opened the cause and Pope John Paul II proclaimed him Venerable on 6 July 1985. Together with Pope John XXIII he was beatified on 3 September 2000 after the recognition of a miracle and was assigned the liturgical feast day of February 7 which is the date of his death.

Reviews

[Eric Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This document raises an interesting question: if the people currently running the Vatican (or any of the dioceses) had lived in the time of Pius IX, how many would have to be condemned based on the teachings in Quanta Cura?

[Thibaud Haas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très belle encyclique mais pas appris grand-chose de nouveau

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

DEUS VULT!

...except for (62) against noninterventionism.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pope Pius IX was a "boss". Lots of good resources here. Good reference work!!

[Paul Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great little text that has so much to say about modernism; despite being written over 150 years ago, it's rational critiques of the errors of the modern, secular world ring true today, and it's forewarned effects of irrational atheism are all too evident in 2024.

Best quotes:

-On the danger of absolute free exchange of thought: "From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to foster that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, called by Our Predecessor, Gregory XVI, an “insanity,”2 viz., that “liberty of conscience and worship is each man’s personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every rightly constituted society; and that a right resides in the citizens to an absolute liberty, which should be restrained by no authority whether ecclesiastical or civil, whereby they may be able openly and publicly to manifest and declare any of their ideas whatever, either by word of mouth, by the press, or in any other way.”"

-On populism: "[some] dare to proclaim that “the people’s will, manifested by what is called public opinion or in some other way, constitutes a supreme law, free from all divine and human control; and that in the political order accomplished facts, from the very circumstance that they are accomplished, have the force of right.” But who, does not see and clearly perceive that human society, when set loose from the bonds of religion and true justice, can have, in truth, no other end than the purpose of obtaining and amassing wealth, and that (society under such circumstances) follows no other law in its actions, except the unchastened desire of ministering to its own pleasure and interests?"

-On the family unit: "For, teaching and professing the most fatal error of “Communism and Socialism,” they assert that “domestic society or the family derives the whole principle of its existence from the civil law alone; and, consequently, that on civil law alone depend all rights of parents over their children, and especially that of providing for education.”"

-On the benefits of the Church to the world: "[addressing clerics] Never cease also to inculcate on the said faithful that all true felicity flows abundantly upon man from our august religion and its doctrine and practice; and that happy is the people whose God is their Lord. Teach that “kingdoms rest on the foundation of the Catholic Faith; and that nothing is so deadly, so hastening to a fall, so exposed to all danger, (as that which exists) if, believing this alone to be sufficient for us that we receive free will at our birth, we seek nothing further from the Lord; that is, if forgetting our Creator we abjure his power that we may display our freedom.”