This week in Christian history: Pope bashes French Revolution; ‘Heaven is for Real’ movie debuts
Pope denounces French Revolution – April 13, 1791
This week marks the anniversary of when Pope Pius VI released an encyclical denouncing the French Revolution, echoing earlier comments about the new regime.
Titled “Charitas,” or charity in English, the encyclical denounced what it called “the war against the Catholic religion which has been started by the revolutionary thinkers” in France.
“Charitas” came in response to the secularization policies of the revolution, especially the requirement that clergy take a civil oath placing them under state authority.
Pius VI denounced the oath and declared that any Catholic clergy who took it “is suspended from the exercise of his office and will act irregularly if he exercises his office unless he abjures his oath within forty days from this date.”
“We hope in the Lord that the consecrators, the intruders in cathedral and parochial churches, and all the authors and supporters of the published Constitution will recognize their error and return repentant to the fold from which they were seduced by treacherous deceit,” the pope stated.
“At length We beseech you all, beloved Catholic children, in the kingdom of France; as you recall the religion and faith of your fathers, We urge you lovingly not to abandon it.”
