ABSTRACT
This recommendation is above all remarkable because it is in complete contradiction to the text of Pius XII to which it refers. In other words, it is diametrically opposed to what the pope said to the recently appointed members of the College of Cardinals on 20 February 1946 on the occasion of the internationalisation of the College. The pope took as his point of departure Paul’s outline to the Christian community at Ephesus of the building up of the Church on the basis of different gifts given by the Lord to the faithful to equip the ‘saints’ for their work of service, building up ‘the body of Christ’ (Eph 4:11-16). He then quoted from the Encyclical Quadragesimo anno promulgated by Pius XI on 15 May 1931, in which it is stated that it is in conflict with God’s law to withdraw from man what he can achieve individually with his own efforts and his own plans and hand it over to the community. Pius XII applied this directly to the relationships between smaller and lower and bigger and higher communities. He then continued with the quotation from Quadragesimo anno: ‘All the activity of the community is by virtue of its being and conception subsidiary. It has the task of supporting the members of the community, but should not annihilate it or swallow it up.’ Finally Pius XII himself explained that this principle applied to all branches of social life, including the life of the Church, without injury to its hierarchical structure.
