Quanta Cura

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QUANTA CURA

An encyclical of pius ix published Dec. 8, 1864, in conjunction with the syllabus of errors, which announced the Jubilee of 1865 and treated of the current errors of liberalism. The opening words recall the care exercised by the papacy in nourishing the faithful with true doctrine and preserving them from error. The document deplores the attempts being made to destroy the foundations of the Catholic religion and of civil society by corrupting the minds of men, especially the young, with a false doctrine of liberty and naturalism and the teaching that civil society must be governed without reference to religion, or at least making no distinction between true and false religions. Pius IX appeals to the authority of the Fathers of the Church and to human reason in combating these errors.

Bibliography: pius IX, "Quanta cura" (encyclical, Dec. 8,1864) Pii IX pontificis maximi acta 3:687700. h. denzinger, Enchiridion symbolorum, ed. a. schÖnmetzer (Freiburg 1963) 289096. j. c. fenton, "Humani Generis and its Predecessors," American Ecclesiastical Review 123 (Dec. 1950) 452458.

[w. f. hogan]