The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-10-13
ENCYCLlCAL OF POPE BENEDICT
XIV ON PREACHING.

1t was the desire of Jesus Christ,
once He had wrought the Redemption
OF the human race, by His death on
the altar of the Cross, to lead men to
OBEY His commands and thus win
eternal life. To attain this end, He
used no other means than the voice
OF His heralds whose work it was to
announce to all mankind what they
had to believe and do in order to be
saved. 1T pleased God, by the fool
Jshness of our preaching, to save them
that believed" Il Cor. i:2D, He
chose therefore His Apostles, and after
Tnfusing into their minds by the
power of the Holy Ghost, the gifts in
harmony with their calling, Go We
INTO the World" He told them, "and
preach the Gospel Mark xvi:15).
.Their preaching renewed the face of
ahe earth. For if the religion of Christ
has withdrawn the minds of men
from errors of every kind to the truth,
and won their hearts from the deg
radiation of vice to the excellence and
beauty of every virtue, assuredly it
has done so by means of that very
preaching. Faith then cometh by
hearing; and hearing by the word OF
Christ (Rom. KID. Wherefore.
since by Gods good pleasure, things
are preserved through the same
causes by which they were brought
into being, it is evident that the
preaching of the wisdom taught us by
the Christian religion is the means
d1Vinely employed to continue the
work Of eternal salvation, and that it
must with just reason be looked upon
as matter of the greatest and most
momentous concern. That preaching,
therefore, must form the object of Our
special care and attention, particularly
So IL in any way, it may have lost
perhaps some of it's original perfec-
ton or its efficacy may have been i'm
paired.
Here then, Venerable Brethren. is
burden added to the other misfor-
tunes of these times, with which, more
than any one else, We are tried For
II We look around us and count those
who are engaged in preaching the
Word of God, We shall find them
more numerous perhaps than they
have ever been before. If on the
other hand We examine the state of
public and private morals, the con-
stitutions and laws of nations. We
shall find that there is a general dis
regard and forgetfulness of the super
natural, a gradual falling away from
the strict standard of Christian virtue,
and that men are slipping back more
and more into the shameful practices
of paganism.
The Way of God.
The causes of these evils are varied
and manifold: no one, however, will
gainsay the deplorable fact that the
ministers of the Word do not apply
thereto an adequate remedy. Has the
Word of God then ceased to be what
it was described by the Apostle, living
and effectual and more piercing than
any two-edged sword? Has long-con-
tinued use blunted the edge of that
sword? If that weapon does not every
where produce its effect, the blame
certainly must be laid on those min
listers of the Gospel who do not handle
it as they should For no one can
maintain that the Apostles were living
in better times than ours, that they
found minds more readily disposed
towards the Gospel or that they met
with less opposition to the law of God.
In view, therefore, of the gravity
of the subject, alive to the response
bilities of the apostolic Office and
warned by them, animated, moreover,
by the example of Our two immediate
Predecessors, we realize that it must
be Our earnest endeayor everywhere
to bring back the preaching of the
Word of God to the norm and ideal
to which it must be directed accord
ing to the command of Christ Our
Lord, and the laws of the Church
In the first place, Venerable Breth-
rem, We must look for the causes of
our deviations from the right path in
this matter They may be reduced to
three: for either the one chosen to
preach is not the right person, or his
office is not performed with the right
intention, or in the right way.
For the duty OF preaching, as the
Council of Trent teaches, "is the para
mount duty of Bishops" (Sess., xiv,
De- Ref, c. iv). And the Apostles,
whose successors the Bishops are,
looked upon it as something peculiar
ly theirs. ST. Paul writes: For
Christ sent us not to baptize, but to
preach the Gospel q Cor. i:-D. And
the other Apostles were of the opinion
that: ct is not reason that we should
leave the Word of God, and serve
tables" (Acts yi:2). But although
preaching is properly the duty of Bish-
ops, nevertheless, since it is impossi-
BILE that they should always or every
where be able to discharge it in per-
son, distracted as they are by the many
cares which they meet in the govern
ment of their churches, they must of
necessity comply with this obligation
through others. Wherefore it cannot
be doubted that all those who in ad-
dition to the Bishops are thus engag-
ed, are employed in the performance
of an nniscopal dutN Let this then