Mirari vos (Latin: "That you wonder"; subtitled "On Liberalism and Religious Indifferentism"), sometimes referred to as Mirari vos arbitramur, was the fourth encyclical letter of Pope Gregory XVI and was issued in August 1832. Addressed to "All Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Catholic World", it is general in its audience and scope, whereas his three earlier encyclicals had been addressed to more specific audiences in the Papal States[1] and the Kingdom of Poland.[2]
Background
Felicité de Lamennais, Charles de Montalembert and Henri Lacordaire had started a newspaper, L'Avenir ("The Future") in October 1830.[3] While the paper was a strong proponent of ultramontanism, supporting the authority of the papacy in opposition to nationalist and secularist ideas, it also advocated an enlarged suffrage, separation of church and state, and universal freedom of conscience, instruction, assembly, and the press. Its editors saw no conflict between Catholicism and liberal reform. The conservative French hierarchy regarded such views as dangerous nonsense, many considering an established church, a Catholic near-monopoly in education, and an anointed monarch as the bedrock of a godly society. In November 1831, Lammennais and Montalembert traveled to Rome, seeking confirmation from Pope Gregory that views expressed in their newspaper were orthodox.
Although pressured by the French government and the French hierarchy, Gregory would have preferred not to make an official issue of the matter.[3] After much opposition, the pair gained an audience on March 15, 1832, on condition that their political views should not be mentioned. The meeting was apparently cordial and uneventful. The leading conservative statesman Klemens von Metternich, whose Austrian troops guaranteed the stability of the Papal States, pressed for a condemnation.[4]: 30
The Pope's advisors were convinced that if he said nothing, it would condone Lamennais's opinions. Mirari vos was issued the following August, criticizing Lamennais's views without mentioning him by name.[4]: 25
Content
Gregory opened the letter with an explanation regarding his delay in issuing a general encyclical.[5][a]
The encyclical voiced support for Christian freedom,[clarification needed] upheld the ecclesiastical supremacy of the papacy and raised concerns over too-close alliances between clergy and government. It denounced those who advocated a married clergy: "We ask that you strive with all your might to justify and to defend the law of clerical celibacy as prescribed by the sacred canons, against which the arrows of the lascivious are directed from every side."[6] He also denounced those who advocated divorce,[7] and secret societies that sought to overturn the legitimate governments of the Italian states.[4]: 24
The pope attacked religious indifferentism, defined as the opinion that one religion is as good as another, which he saw as the basis for the argument for liberty of conscience. He saw it as the state's duty to curtail false, immoral doctrines, and so denounced freedom to publish indiscriminately. Owen Chadwick explains Gregory's perspective: "To provide legally that writers or speakers shall be free to promote what is not true or to utter words that declare that racial prejudice, or paederasty, or pornography, or adultery, or murder not to be sins, cannot be what God demands of any State".[4]: 25
He stated,
"Some are so carried away that they contentiously assert that the flock of errors arising from them is sufficiently compensated by the publication of some book which defends religion and truth. Every law condemns deliberately doing evil simply because there is some hope that good may result. Is there any sane man who would say poison ought to be distributed, sold publicly, stored, and even drunk because some antidote is available and those who use it may be snatched from death again and again?[8]
The encyclical satisfied neither Lamennais's supporters nor his detractors.[4]: 25
^560 days had elapsed between Gregory's accession to the papacy and the publication of Mirari Vos. In contrast, his immediate predecessors, Pius VII, Leo XII and Pius VIII had issued their first encyclicals much sooner: Diu Satis (Pius VII) after 62 days, Ubi Primum (Leo XII) after 220 days and Traditi Humilitati (Pius VIII) after 54 days.
References
^Holy See, Quel Dio, (in Italian) dated 5 April 1831, accessed 18 February 2023
