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Humani Generis: Some False Opinions Which Threaten To Undermine Catholic Doctrine
This is Pius XII comments to enlighten people to the various attacks on the Church especially through philosophical or theological error.
23 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
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About the author
Pope Pius XII
170 books27 followersThe Venerable Pope Pius XII (Latin: Pius PP. XII; Italian: Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, reigned as Pope, head of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958.
Before election to the papacy, Pacelli served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio and Cardinal Secretary of State, in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties with European and Latin American nations, most notably the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany. His leadership of the Catholic Church during World War II remains the subject of continued historical controversy.
After the war, Pius XII contributed to the rebuilding of Europe, and advocated peace and reconciliation, including lenient policies toward vanquished nations and the unification of Europe. The Church, flourishing in the West, experienced severe persecution and mass deportations of Catholic clergy in the East. In light of his protests, and his involvement in the Italian elections of 1948, he became known as a staunch opponent of communism.
Pius XII explicitly invoked ex cathedra papal infallibility with the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in his 1950 Apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus. His magisterium includes almost 1,000 addresses and radio broadcasts. His forty-one encyclicals include Mystici Corporis, the Church as the Body of Christ; Mediator Dei on liturgy reform; Humani Generis on the Church's position on theology and evolution. He eliminated the Italian majority in the College of Cardinals in 1946.
Before election to the papacy, Pacelli served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio and Cardinal Secretary of State, in which capacity he worked to conclude treaties with European and Latin American nations, most notably the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany. His leadership of the Catholic Church during World War II remains the subject of continued historical controversy.
After the war, Pius XII contributed to the rebuilding of Europe, and advocated peace and reconciliation, including lenient policies toward vanquished nations and the unification of Europe. The Church, flourishing in the West, experienced severe persecution and mass deportations of Catholic clergy in the East. In light of his protests, and his involvement in the Italian elections of 1948, he became known as a staunch opponent of communism.
Pius XII explicitly invoked ex cathedra papal infallibility with the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in his 1950 Apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus. His magisterium includes almost 1,000 addresses and radio broadcasts. His forty-one encyclicals include Mystici Corporis, the Church as the Body of Christ; Mediator Dei on liturgy reform; Humani Generis on the Church's position on theology and evolution. He eliminated the Italian majority in the College of Cardinals in 1946.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 16, 2014
“[The] creed remained in the shape of a miracle; a river still flowing through the sea. And the proof of the miracle was practical… it was merely that while all that sea was salt and bitter with the savor of death, of this one stream in the midst of it a man could drink.
Now that purity was preserved by dogmatic definitions and exclusions. It could not possibly have been preserved by anything else…. The condemnation of…heretics is itself condemned as something crabbed and narrow; but it was in truth the very proof that the Church meant to be brotherly and broad…. Nothing else except…anethemas could possibly have made it clear, amid a confusion which still confuses [her] with [her] mortal enemies. Nothing else but dogma could have resisted the riot of imaginative invention with which…pessimists were waging their war against nature…”
– Chesterton, G.K., The Everlasting Man (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993), 224.
Now that purity was preserved by dogmatic definitions and exclusions. It could not possibly have been preserved by anything else…. The condemnation of…heretics is itself condemned as something crabbed and narrow; but it was in truth the very proof that the Church meant to be brotherly and broad…. Nothing else except…anethemas could possibly have made it clear, amid a confusion which still confuses [her] with [her] mortal enemies. Nothing else but dogma could have resisted the riot of imaginative invention with which…pessimists were waging their war against nature…”
– Chesterton, G.K., The Everlasting Man (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1993), 224.
Want to read
June 26, 2025Algunos obispos siguen dando margen al evolucionismo https://youtu.be/xUEOsMdLXQY (minuto 9) Esta encíclica deja clara la posición de la Iglesia católica.
May 5, 2015
Read as a follow-up to Stephen J. Gould's disappointing "NOMA" essay, to which it is an excellent philosophical antidote.
July 8, 2021
Clearly condemns the errors of the “new theology” that spread its influence in the Second Vatican Council through liberal modernist theologians and “experts”.
January 9, 2024
"But we know also that such new opinions can entice the incautious; and therefore we prefer to withstand the very beginnings rather than to administer the medicine after the disease has grown inveterate."
We should have listened...
We should have listened...
Read
March 8, 2025i read it cause i really liked someone’s son
August 4, 2016
Interesting. Written in 1950, the pope is careful not to get in bed with any of the passing intellectual fashions of the time. Thomas Aquinas of the 1200s still rocks. Reading the Bible in light of Church teachings is the only sure road to truth, surer than Biblical scholarship, surer than science. Evolution can help us to understand the body, but not the soul.
January 26, 2025
Against the insidious and seemingly innocuous heresy of religious indifferentism in the name of "unity:"
"Another danger is perceived which is all the more serious because it is more concealed beneath the mask of virtue. There are many who, deploring disagreement among men and intellectual confusion, through an imprudent zeal for souls, are urged by a great and ardent desire to do away with the barrier that divides good and honest men; these advocate an 'eirenicism' setting aside the questions which divide men, they aim not only at joining forces to repel the attacks of atheism, but also at reconciling things opposed to one another in the field of dogma."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art.11
Against JPII's renewal of the Church, as though this sudden increase in participation and unity were itself meritorious or virtuous, without regard to what or who they are united to:
"But some through enthusiasm for an imprudent 'eirenicism' seem to consider as an obstacle to the restoration of fraternal union, things founded on the laws and principles given by Christ and likewise on institutions founded by Him, or which are the defense and support of the integrity of the faith, and the removal of which would bring about the union of all, but only to their destruction."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 12
"And although this sacred Office of Teacher in matters of faith and morals must be the proximate and universal criterion of truth for all theologians, since to it has been entrusted by Christ Our Lord the whole deposit of faith -- Sacred Scripture and Divine Tradition -- to be preserved, guarded and interpreted, still the duty that is incumbent on the faithful to flee also those errors which more or less approach heresy, and accordingly 'to keep also the constitutions and decrees by which such evil opinions are proscribed and forbidden by the Holy See,' is sometimes as little known as if it did not exist."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 18
Against the notion the infallibility only applies to the Pope's supreme solemn declarations, and not in his ordinary magisterial authority:
"Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent, since in writing such Letters the Popes do not exercise the supreme power of their Teaching Authority. For these matters are taught with the ordinary teaching authority, of which it is true to say: 'He who hears you, hears me'; and generally what is expounded and inculcated in Encyclical Letters already for other reasons appertains to Catholic doctrine."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 20
Against modernism:
"Let no Christian, therefore, whether philosopher or theologian, embrace eagerly and lightly whatever novelty happens to be thought up from day to day, but rather let him weigh it with painstaking care and a balanced judgment, lest he lose or corrupt the truth he already has, with grave danger and damage to his faith."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 30
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone forth into the world." 1 John 4:1
Of the preeminence of St. Thomas Aquinas in particular:
"If one considers all this well, he will easily see why the Church demands that future priests be instructed in philosophy 'according to the method, doctrine, and principles of the Angelic Doctor,' since, as we well know from the experience of centuries, the method of Aquinas is singularly preeminent both of teaching students and for bringing truth to light; his doctrine is in harmony with Divine Revelation, and is most effective both for safeguarding the foundation of the faith and for reaping, safely and usefully, the fruits of sound progress."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 31
Against the notion that evil and error are totally unrelated, or that a man may be evil with no danger of an admixture of error:
"Never has Christian philosophy denied the usefulness and efficacy of good dispositions of soul for perceiving and embracing moral and religious truths. In fact, it has always taught that the lack of these dispositions of good will can be the reason why the intellect, influenced by the passions and evil inclinations, can be so obscured that it cannot see clearly. Indeed, St. Thomas holds that the intellect can in some way perceive higher goods of the moral order, whether natural or supernatural, inasmuch as it experiences a certain "connaturality" with these goods, whether this "connaturality" be purely natural, or the result of grace;[15] and it is clear how much even this somewhat obscure perception can help the reason in its investigations."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 33
Against Vatican II directly, and every post-conciliar 'pope's' promulgation of false ecumenism, most recently evidenced by Francis' acknowledgment of the authority of the schismatic Greeks (specifically, a Metropolitan Polycarp of the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople)
"... finally, let them not think, indulging in a false 'eirenicism,' that the dissident and the erring can happily be brought back to the bosom of the Church, if the whole truth found in the Church is not sincerely taught to all without corruption or diminution."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 43
"Another danger is perceived which is all the more serious because it is more concealed beneath the mask of virtue. There are many who, deploring disagreement among men and intellectual confusion, through an imprudent zeal for souls, are urged by a great and ardent desire to do away with the barrier that divides good and honest men; these advocate an 'eirenicism' setting aside the questions which divide men, they aim not only at joining forces to repel the attacks of atheism, but also at reconciling things opposed to one another in the field of dogma."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art.11
Against JPII's renewal of the Church, as though this sudden increase in participation and unity were itself meritorious or virtuous, without regard to what or who they are united to:
"But some through enthusiasm for an imprudent 'eirenicism' seem to consider as an obstacle to the restoration of fraternal union, things founded on the laws and principles given by Christ and likewise on institutions founded by Him, or which are the defense and support of the integrity of the faith, and the removal of which would bring about the union of all, but only to their destruction."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 12
"And although this sacred Office of Teacher in matters of faith and morals must be the proximate and universal criterion of truth for all theologians, since to it has been entrusted by Christ Our Lord the whole deposit of faith -- Sacred Scripture and Divine Tradition -- to be preserved, guarded and interpreted, still the duty that is incumbent on the faithful to flee also those errors which more or less approach heresy, and accordingly 'to keep also the constitutions and decrees by which such evil opinions are proscribed and forbidden by the Holy See,' is sometimes as little known as if it did not exist."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 18
Against the notion the infallibility only applies to the Pope's supreme solemn declarations, and not in his ordinary magisterial authority:
"Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent, since in writing such Letters the Popes do not exercise the supreme power of their Teaching Authority. For these matters are taught with the ordinary teaching authority, of which it is true to say: 'He who hears you, hears me'; and generally what is expounded and inculcated in Encyclical Letters already for other reasons appertains to Catholic doctrine."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 20
Against modernism:
"Let no Christian, therefore, whether philosopher or theologian, embrace eagerly and lightly whatever novelty happens to be thought up from day to day, but rather let him weigh it with painstaking care and a balanced judgment, lest he lose or corrupt the truth he already has, with grave danger and damage to his faith."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 30
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone forth into the world." 1 John 4:1
Of the preeminence of St. Thomas Aquinas in particular:
"If one considers all this well, he will easily see why the Church demands that future priests be instructed in philosophy 'according to the method, doctrine, and principles of the Angelic Doctor,' since, as we well know from the experience of centuries, the method of Aquinas is singularly preeminent both of teaching students and for bringing truth to light; his doctrine is in harmony with Divine Revelation, and is most effective both for safeguarding the foundation of the faith and for reaping, safely and usefully, the fruits of sound progress."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 31
Against the notion that evil and error are totally unrelated, or that a man may be evil with no danger of an admixture of error:
"Never has Christian philosophy denied the usefulness and efficacy of good dispositions of soul for perceiving and embracing moral and religious truths. In fact, it has always taught that the lack of these dispositions of good will can be the reason why the intellect, influenced by the passions and evil inclinations, can be so obscured that it cannot see clearly. Indeed, St. Thomas holds that the intellect can in some way perceive higher goods of the moral order, whether natural or supernatural, inasmuch as it experiences a certain "connaturality" with these goods, whether this "connaturality" be purely natural, or the result of grace;[15] and it is clear how much even this somewhat obscure perception can help the reason in its investigations."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 33
Against Vatican II directly, and every post-conciliar 'pope's' promulgation of false ecumenism, most recently evidenced by Francis' acknowledgment of the authority of the schismatic Greeks (specifically, a Metropolitan Polycarp of the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople)
"... finally, let them not think, indulging in a false 'eirenicism,' that the dissident and the erring can happily be brought back to the bosom of the Church, if the whole truth found in the Church is not sincerely taught to all without corruption or diminution."
- Pius XII, Humani Generis, Art. 43
February 18, 2022
Crisp and clear
January 7, 2025
“Whatever new truth the sincere human mind is able to find, certainly cannot be opposed to truth already acquired, since God, the highest Truth, has created and guides the human intellect, not that it may daily oppose new truths to rightly established ones, but rather that, having eliminated errors which may have crept in, it may build truth upon truth in the same order and structure that exist in reality, the source of truth. Let no Christian therefore, whether philosopher or theologian, embrace eagerly and lightly whatever novelty happens to be thought up from day to day, but rather let him weigh it with painstaking care and a balanced judgment, lest he lose or corrupt the truth he already has, with grave danger and damage to his faith.”
This is a great letter. In some sense for my whole life, I’ve been interested in the differences between the pre- and post-conciliar Church. Recently, I’ve also seen that partly as the difference between scholastics and the Nouvelle Theologiae. This letter speaks to the heart of that conflict.
Basically, we can’t abandon the Scholastic framework, because it’s a framework developed over centuries and backed by the Teaching Authority of the Church as true. You can’t bracket it to do something else; you must work within it. To bracket scholasticism is almost identical and quickly leads to bracketing the Church itself. Aquinas is an ever-fresh source to return to in order to understand Theology, and while we may, with prudence, freshen Aquinas, scholasticism, the Tradition, for a modern audience in order to teach them, we actually can’t work outside of those things, because it would be to work outside the Church.
This is a direct repudiation of the Nouvelle Theologiae, especially in its manifestations of like, Rahner or Balthasar. While a St. JPII or a Pope Benedict XVI sought the Fathers, in conjunction with Thomism and the modern world, in order to foster a “hermeneutic of continuity” with the whole Tradition, others like Rahner seek to buck Tradition entirely for an entirely new Biblical exegesis, metaphysic, anthropology, etc. They bought into modern trends of philosophy, of eastern thinking, etc. The pope here warns that, while these small changes may seem innocuous, down the road they have unforeseen negative consequences. These new flowers of philosophy, he says, which seem so fresh and delightful now, will with all likelihood wither in a few decades, making the theology that jumped ship for them just as fruitless.
My looking into this was spurred on by an interview I heard recently between Bishop Barron and Larry Chapp. I don’t want to be just another person calling out Bishop Barron for this, and largely he wasn’t totally the problem in the interview. Chapp was incredibly, sarcastically dismissive of anyone who thought Hell had many souls, saying it doesn’t change evangelization at all to think so, mocking the attitude of people who feel that way, claiming they want hell to be full, clinging to Balthasar (who based some of his ideas in the principle that Christ more or less left His divinity with the Father, and so was not omniscient, omnipotent, etc). It seemed…terribly unwise, considering the great saints and many Councils and popes speak of Hell being well-populated, its dangers very present and real. This letter speaks to that sort of thing directly. In good faith perhaps Balthasar wrote about it, but when you step outside the Tradition (as careful as Balthasar was to seem within the Tradition), the fruits can only be rotten. Looking for the “new,” looking for something “fresh,” we often simply fall into error. If that’s true in art, where styles that seem like they are everything today seem ludicrous tomorrow, how much more true it is in the pursuit of Truth. To completely abandon or “bracket” Thomism/scholasticism is to abandon the Truth.
The letter also has really cool explanations of Genesis and Biblical exegesis, and thoughts on jumping too readily into things which come into conflict with Scripture. We should be in dialogue with things like evolution, but we should be wary to jump into them too quickly while they remain theories, especially when the consequences of accepting them can become so severely bad. Instead, moving forward in Tradition (remember, Divinely appointed to be a bastion of the Truth) is the way. We must also flat out reject theories that are in direct contradiction to scripture and tradition, like polygenism. There was one original man and one original woman, and they sinned.
This is a great letter. In some sense for my whole life, I’ve been interested in the differences between the pre- and post-conciliar Church. Recently, I’ve also seen that partly as the difference between scholastics and the Nouvelle Theologiae. This letter speaks to the heart of that conflict.
Basically, we can’t abandon the Scholastic framework, because it’s a framework developed over centuries and backed by the Teaching Authority of the Church as true. You can’t bracket it to do something else; you must work within it. To bracket scholasticism is almost identical and quickly leads to bracketing the Church itself. Aquinas is an ever-fresh source to return to in order to understand Theology, and while we may, with prudence, freshen Aquinas, scholasticism, the Tradition, for a modern audience in order to teach them, we actually can’t work outside of those things, because it would be to work outside the Church.
This is a direct repudiation of the Nouvelle Theologiae, especially in its manifestations of like, Rahner or Balthasar. While a St. JPII or a Pope Benedict XVI sought the Fathers, in conjunction with Thomism and the modern world, in order to foster a “hermeneutic of continuity” with the whole Tradition, others like Rahner seek to buck Tradition entirely for an entirely new Biblical exegesis, metaphysic, anthropology, etc. They bought into modern trends of philosophy, of eastern thinking, etc. The pope here warns that, while these small changes may seem innocuous, down the road they have unforeseen negative consequences. These new flowers of philosophy, he says, which seem so fresh and delightful now, will with all likelihood wither in a few decades, making the theology that jumped ship for them just as fruitless.
My looking into this was spurred on by an interview I heard recently between Bishop Barron and Larry Chapp. I don’t want to be just another person calling out Bishop Barron for this, and largely he wasn’t totally the problem in the interview. Chapp was incredibly, sarcastically dismissive of anyone who thought Hell had many souls, saying it doesn’t change evangelization at all to think so, mocking the attitude of people who feel that way, claiming they want hell to be full, clinging to Balthasar (who based some of his ideas in the principle that Christ more or less left His divinity with the Father, and so was not omniscient, omnipotent, etc). It seemed…terribly unwise, considering the great saints and many Councils and popes speak of Hell being well-populated, its dangers very present and real. This letter speaks to that sort of thing directly. In good faith perhaps Balthasar wrote about it, but when you step outside the Tradition (as careful as Balthasar was to seem within the Tradition), the fruits can only be rotten. Looking for the “new,” looking for something “fresh,” we often simply fall into error. If that’s true in art, where styles that seem like they are everything today seem ludicrous tomorrow, how much more true it is in the pursuit of Truth. To completely abandon or “bracket” Thomism/scholasticism is to abandon the Truth.
The letter also has really cool explanations of Genesis and Biblical exegesis, and thoughts on jumping too readily into things which come into conflict with Scripture. We should be in dialogue with things like evolution, but we should be wary to jump into them too quickly while they remain theories, especially when the consequences of accepting them can become so severely bad. Instead, moving forward in Tradition (remember, Divinely appointed to be a bastion of the Truth) is the way. We must also flat out reject theories that are in direct contradiction to scripture and tradition, like polygenism. There was one original man and one original woman, and they sinned.
December 28, 2024
Great perspective on how modern science and our Holy Catholic Church can work together to uncover the truth.
September 7, 2025
Afraid of communism :"(. No balls
July 11, 2023
Medieval gobbledegook. TL;DR: Thomas Aquinas was right about everything. Adam was a real person and all humans are descended from him. There is not yet enough evidence for evolution or for textual criticism that identifies errors in the Old Testament.
Pius XII is justifiably worried about Catholic dogma crashing down around him in light of new evidence. His defense is pathetic by any standards.
Pius XII is justifiably worried about Catholic dogma crashing down around him in light of new evidence. His defense is pathetic by any standards.
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