Dilectissima Nobis
Encyclopedia
Dilectissima Nobis: On Oppression Of The Church Of Spain is an encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...

 issued by Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...

 on June 3, 1933 in which he decried persecution of the Church in Spain, specifically naming the expropriation of all Church buildings, episcopal residences, parish houses, seminaries and monasteries.

The Republican government which had come to power in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 in 1931 was strongly anti-Catholic, secularising education, prohibiting religious education in the schools, and expelling the Jesuits from the country. The Spanish Constitution of 1931
Spanish Constitution of 1931
The Spanish Constitution of 1931 meant the beginning of the Second Spanish Republic, the second period of Spanish history to date in which the election of both the positions of Head of State and Head of government were democratic. It was effective from 1931 until 1939...

 was marked by the deprivation of the rights of Catholics. By law, the Church's properties became property of the Spanish State, to which the Church had to pay rent and taxes in order to continuously use these properties. "Thus the Catholic Church is compelled to pay taxes on what was violently taken from her" The encyclical also denounced that religious vestments, liturgical instruments , statues, pictures, vases, gems and similar objects necessary for worship were expropriated as well. It condemned the expropriation of all private Catholic schools from Religious Orders and Congregations for the purpose of creating solely secular schools there instead.

Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...

, who faced similar persecutions in the USSR and Mexico
Terrible Triangle
Terrible Triangle was a term used by Pope Pius XI for the simultaneous persecution of Christians in general and the Catholic Church in particular in three countries: the Soviet Union, Mexico, and Spain. These events are said to have influenced his position on Communism throughout his pontificate...

, called on Spanish Catholics to defend themselves against the persecution with all legal means. He had previously condemned similar destructive forces in the encyclical Quas Primas
Quas Primas
Quas Primas was an encyclical of Pope Pius XI. Promulgated on December 11, 1925, it introduced the Feast of Christ the King.The encyclical summarizes both the Old Testament and the New Testament teaching on the kingship of Christ...

 (1925).

The encyclical pointed to greed as a motivation for the theft of the Church's artistic treasures and indicated that the government showed no regard for the dignity of country's faithful and their attachment to these religious works of art.

The Pope noted that religious communities and orders were unjustly persecuted, denounced and falsely accused
Red Terror (Spain)
The Red Terror in Spain is the name given by historians to various acts committed "by sections of nearly all the leftist groups" such as the killing of tens of thousands of people , as well as attacks on landowners, industrialists, and politicians, and the...

.

Although the government was heavily criticised, the Pope noted: "Universally known is the fact that the Catholic Church is never bound to one form of government more than to another, provided the Divine rights of God and of Christian consciences are safe." The encyclical called the acts of the Spanish government an "offense not only to Religion and the Church, but also to those declared principles of civil liberty on which the new Spanish regime declares it bases itself."

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