The record-union., 1896-06-30
AN ENCYCLICAL LETTER
FROM Pope LEO,
Replying to the Recent UtteranCeS CT
EX-Premier W. E. Gladstone.
A Document Addressed to Bishops
Throughout the World.
The Mission of Christ Was to Save
Not Some Nations or Peoples Only,
out Distinction of Time or Place.

out Distinction of Time or Place.
| BALTIMORE, June 29.-Cardinal
Gibbons gave to the press this evening
a copy of the summary of Pope Leo's
lencyclical letter. His holiness evident
| ly had in mind the recent letter of Will
lam E. Gladstone, the English states
man and churchman, and the letter may
be considered a reply thereto. His en-
inence received the advance sheets of
this very important document on Sat
urday, and personally directed it's
translation. The letter, at the Pope's
request, will be given publicity
throughout Europe and America to-
morrow.
The encyclical is addressed by his
holiness, Pope Leo Kill, to all Bish-
ops in communion with the Holy See.
| The abstract follows:
The holy father, intent upon the
work of bringing all to the one fold of
Christ, considers that it would conduce
! to that end were he to set before the
peoples of the Christian world the ideal
and eXemplar of the church as divinely
| constituted to which church all are
/ DOuIIt ny NOu cOluHlduu " DpIOIlS.
In accordance with His usual provi-
dence, God makes use of human instru-
ments to effect the santification and ele
walton of men. To this end not only did
| He take upon Himself human nature,
| but in order to perpetuate his mission,
the Son of God chose apostles and dis
ciples whom He had trained that they
might faithfully hand down His teach
ings and commands to those who de-
sired the blessings He had purchased
for mankind by His death.
I'm commanding the apostles and
their successors to the end of time to
teach and rule the nations, he ordered
the nations to accept and obey their
authority. In Scripture the church is
called a body and the body of Christ.
1t is visible as being a living and or
ganiZed society, and is animated by the
| invisible vital principle of supernatural
| life. Those, therefore, who either deny
| that Christs church is a visible body or
| refuse to allow that it has the peren-
NAL communication of the gifts of di-
vine grace are equally in a grevous
and pernicious error.
| THE connection and union of both
elements is as absolutely necessary to
the true church as the intimate union
of the soul and body is to human ma
| ture, and as this is the essential con-
stitution of the church according to
Gods WILL who also determined that
it was to last till the end of time, this
it must possess at the present day. 1t
is obviously of the first Importance to
determine what Christ wished His
church to be and what in fact He made
it.
| According to this criterion it is the
unity of the Christian church which
must necessarily be considered, for it
| Is certain that He who founded it
wished it to be one. The mission of
Christ was to save not some nations or
peoples only, but the whole human
race, without distinction of time or
| place. HencA. as the mission of His
church was to hand down through
every age the blessing of this salvation
by the will of its founder, it is neces-
sary that this church should be one in
all lands and at all times
| A church which should embrace all
men everywhere and at all times was
| clearly foretold by the Prophet Isaiah
and was typified by our Lords mystical
| bQdy-a body united to himself as head
mystical body, the members of which
| II separated one from the other cannot
be united with one and the same head
/ and so another head like the Christ
must be invented, If besides the one
church which is his body men wish to
set up another.
Furthermore, he who made this one
church also gave it unity; that is. he
made it such that all who are to belong
to it must be united by the closest bonds
so as to form one society, one kingdom
one body And he willed that this unity
amongst his followers should be so per-
feet that it might in some measure
shadow forth the union between himself
and his father
| AS necessary consequence in his
divine wisdom, he ordained in his
church unity of faith, virtue which is
the first of those bonds which unite man
to God and whence we receive the name
of the faithful. The nature of this unity
| of faith must and can be ascertained
| from the commands and teachings of
| Christ himself. The mere possession of
| the Scriptures is not sufficient to insure
unity of belief Not merely because of
the nature of the doctrine itself and the
| lfly SleTleS II lNVOlVeS, DuL also because
| of the divergent tendencies of the hu-
| man mind and the disturbing element
OF conflicting passions.
| 1T was necessary that there should be
another principle to insure union of
minds in the Christian Church, and it is
| consequently proper to inquire which
of the many means by which the Christ
our Lord could have secured this unity
| he in fact adopted. 1t is the duty of all
| followers of Christ, not merely to ac-
cept his doctrines generally, but to as
sent with their entire mind to all and
every point of it, since it is unlawful
to withhold faith from God, even in re-
gard to the one single point. Christ en-
dowed his Apostles with authority like
to his own, and promised that the spirit
of truth should direct them and remain
with them forever, and because of this
commission it is no more allowable to
repudiate one iota of the Apostles
teaching than to reject any point of the
doctrine of Christ himself
This apostolic mission was intended
| for the salvation of the whole human
race, and consequently must last to the
end of time. The magisterium insti-
tuted by Christ in his church was by
Gods will perpetuated in the successors
! appointed by the Apostles. and in like