The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1921-06-18
PAPAL ENCYCLICAL ON DANTE

POPE BENEDICT XIV IN ENcYcLi,
CAL TO CATHOLIC TEACHERS
AND PUPILS LAUDS DANTE AS
POET WHO EXPRESSED CHRIS.
TIAN IDEALS FOR ALL AGES
HIS HOLINESS POINTS OUT HOW
CATHOLIC DOCTRINE INSPIRED
AUTHOR OF DIVINE COMEDY.
The following is the text of the En-.
cyclical Letter on Dante, addressed
by the Pope Ito our beloved sons, pro
fessors and pupils of all Catholic insti
tutions of learning on the occasion OF
the sixth centenary of the death OF
Dante Alighieri'':
Beloved Sons: Greetings and Apos
tolic Benediction.
Among the many and illustrious
and talented men who are the pride OF
the Catholic faith and who, besides in
other fields, left particularly in that of
literature and art the immortal fruits
of their genius we'll deserving of recog-
milton by religion and civilization, SUI
preme arises Dante Alighieri, of whose
death the sixth centenary is on the eve
of being celebrated. His singular
greatness never was put in so strong
a light as it is today when not only
Italy, justly proud to have given birth
to him, but all civilized nations, by
means of special committees of learn
ed men, prepare themselves to solem-
nize his memory, so that this sublime
figure, the honor and glory of human
ity, may be exalted by the whole
world.
I'VE, therefore, in this universal
concert of good men, must absolutely
not fail to take part, but rather pre-
side over it, because to the church
especially belongs the right to call Ali
ghieri her own. =
Disciple of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Living in an age, which, collecting
as an heritage from the ancients the
most splendid fruits of doctrine and
Of philosophical and theological specu-
alton, handed them down to poster
.ty with the impression of the rigorous
,.cholastic method, Dante, amidst the
many currents of thought, which even
tlen were diffused among the learned,
tecame the disciple of that Prime of
the Schools, so illustrious for the an
elic temper of his intellect, st.
'homas of Aquino. From him he Grew
lmost all his philosophical and theo-
ogical opinions, and while he ne
elected no branch of human knowl-
,dge, he drank eagerly at the sources
Il Holy Scripture and of the Fathers.
Having thus learned almost all the
;cience of his time and being particu-
edge, when he prepared to write he
took from the very field of religion
The immense and vital theme which he
wanted to sing in verse. In this, If
one must admire the prodigious scope
and acuteness of his intellect, one
:lust also recognize that he received
rom the divine faith the strong inn
pulse of inspiration, and that he could
thus embellish his immortal poem
with many gems of revealed truth,
10 less than with all the splendors of
art. In fact, his Comedy, which de-
~ervedly was called Divine, even in it's
various symbolic f1ctions and in the
remembrances of the life of mortals
on earth, has the sole object of glori-
Iying the justice and the providence
OF God who rules the world in time
and in eternity, and chastises and re-
wards the actions of individuals and
of human society.
The Defender Of Dogma
"M is wonder, the way in which.
in all the three canticles, he knows
low to intertwine these and other
ogmas with sapient design. And if
the progress of astronomic sciences
showed afterwards that his conception
tf the world had no foundation, and
that the spheres supposed by the
;ncients did not exist, since the ma
ture, the number and the course of the
.tars and heavenly bodies are quite
different from what they thought, the
fundamental principle never failed,
hat the universe, whichever may be
he order that sustains it in it's parts,
) work of the creating and pre-
irving action of God Almighty, Who
owes and rules everything, and whose
ory shines in one place more and
SIS elsewhere; and this earth that
inhabit, although it is not the
inter of the universe, as once 1t was
elieved, nevertheless was the theater
the primitive happiness of our fore
theirs, and witness of the fatal fall
we'll as of the human redemption,
iected by the passion and death of
ssus Christ.
Therefore, the Divine Poet ex-
lained the three-formed life of the
uls imagined by him, SO as to illus
ate, before the final judgement, the
mnation of the wicked, the purga-
on of the good spirits, as well as the
hit that was derived from the
arna1 happiness of the blessed, with
Aith.
Thus among the truths illustrated
" Alighieri in the three books of his
.oem, as well as in his other works,
! We believe there are many that may
erve as teaching to the men Of the
resent time That Christians owe the
reatest reverence to the Sacred Scrip
nre and that they must accept what