Non abbiamo bisogno (Italian for "We do not need"[1]) is a Roman Catholic encyclical published on 29 June 1931 by Pope Pius XI.

Non abbiamo bisogno
Italian for 'We do not need'
Encyclical of Pope Pius XI
Coat of arms of Pope Pius XI
Signature date 29 June 1931
SubjectOn Catholic action in Italy
Number20 of 31 of the pontificate
Original language Italian
Text
AAS23 (8): 285-312

Context

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The encyclical condemned what it perceived as Italian fascism's “pagan worship of the State” (statolatry) and “revolution which snatches the young from the Church and from Jesus Christ, and which inculcates in its own young people hatred, violence and irreverence.”[2]

The encyclical begins with the Pope's protest against Mussolini's closing of Italian Catholic Action and Catholic Youth organizations in that same year. Pius XI made protests not just about the closing of these Catholic associations, but also against false and defamatory reports ordered to be published in the Italian press by Mussolini. Pius also wrote that Mussolini's regime was anti-Catholic.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Cardinal Secretary of State under Popes Benedict XVI and Francis, asserts that the encyclical was "strongly polemic" against Mussolini who ordered that Catholic youth associations be dissolved.[3]

The encyclical states, presumably meaning Mussolini, that:

55. Therefore We must say, and do hereby say, that he is a Catholic only in name and by baptism (in contradiction to the obligations of that name and to the baptismal promises) who adopts and develops a programme with doctrines and maxims so opposed to the rights of the Church of Jesus Christ and of souls, and who also misrepresents, combats and persecutes Catholic Action which, as is universally known, the Church and its Head regard as very dear and precious.[4]

Regarding the National Fascist Party, the encyclical states that:

62. In everything that We have said up to the present, We have not said that We wished to condemn the [Fascist] party as such. Our aim has been to point out and to condemn all those things in the programme and in the activities of the party which have been found to be contrary to Catholic doctrine and Catholic practice, and therefore irreconcilable with the Catholic name and profession.

See also

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  • Mit brennender Sorge, another encyclical written by Pope Pius XI in the vernacular, this time concerning Nazi Germany

References

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  1. ^ English text on Vatican.va
  2. ^ "Fascism - identification with Christianity". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
  3. ^ "Hitler's Pope? A Judgment Historically Unsustainable", Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, S.D.B. Secretary of State, L'Osservatore Romano – Weekly Edition in English 19 November 2008, page 11
  4. ^ https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_29061931_non-abbiamo-bisogno.html, 55
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