Mit brennender Sorge (German for "With deep anxiety", word by word: "With burning worry") is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, published on March 10, 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, March 14). The encyclical dealt with the condition of the Roman Catholic Church in Nazi Germany, and condemned Nazism. It is one of the few papal encyclicals in history not written in Latin. The encyclical was addressed to German bishops and was read in all parish churches of Germany. Pope Pius XI credited its creation and writing to his Papal Secretary of State, Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli. It had to be disseminated in secrecy. In the ancient Church, an encyclical was a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area. ... Pope Pius XI (Latin: ), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (May 31, 1857 – February 10, 1939), reigned as Pope from February 6, 1922 and sovereign of Vatican City from 1929 until his death on February 10, 1939. ... March 10 is the 69th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (70th in Leap years). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Passion Sunday is a term formerly used to denote the fifth Sunday of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar; since 1970, when the new church calendar approved by the Second Vatican Council went into effect, the term has been applied to the following Sunday, until then officially called Palm Sunday... March 14 is the 73rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (74th in Leap years) with 292 days remaining in the year. ... The Roman Catholic Church (commonly known as the Catholic Church) is the Christian Church which is led by the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, currently His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that it is the one holy catholic and apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... The term National Socialism has been used in self-description by a number of different political groups and ideologies, some of which have no connection with the Nazis; see National socialism (disambiguation). ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... A bishop is an ordained member of the Christian clergy who, in certain Christian churches, holds a position of authority. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Some passages stated:

"Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, or a particular form of State, or the depositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the human community—however necessary and honorable be their function in worldly things—whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God; he is far from the true faith in God and from the concept of life which that faith upholds"
"This God, this Sovereign Master, has issued commandments whose value is independent of time and space, country and race. As God's sun shines on every human face so His law knows neither privilege nor exception. Rulers and subjects, crowned and uncrowned, rich and poor are equally subject to His word. From the fullness of the Creators' right there naturally arises the fullness of His right to be obeyed by individuals and communities, whoever they are. This obedience permeates all branches of activity in which moral values claim harmony with the law of God, and pervades all integration of the ever-changing laws of man into the immutable laws of God." "None but superficial minds could stumble into concepts of a national God, of a national religion; or attempt to lock within the frontiers of a single people, within the narrow limits of a single race, God, the Creator of the universe, King and Legislator of all nations before whose immensity they are "as a drop of a bucket" (Isaiah xl, 15). " To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

This encyclical is evidence against the argument that Pope Pius XI did too little to prevent the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jews under Adolf Hitler. To the extent that it was written by Eugenio Pacelli, it is also evidence against the argument that Pope Pius XII did too little to prevent the atrocities of the Holocaust. Pope Pius XI (Latin: ), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (May 31, 1857 – February 10, 1939), reigned as Pope from February 6, 1922 and sovereign of Vatican City from 1929 until his death on February 10, 1939. ... Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ... Genocide is defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) article 2 as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: Killing members of the group; Causing... (help· info) (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. ... The Venerable Pius XII, born Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Eugenio Pacelli (Rome, March 2, 1876 - October 9, 1958) served as the Pope from March 2, 1939 to 1958. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Selection at the Auschwitz ramp in 1944, where the Nazis chose whom to kill immediately and whom to use as slave labor or for medical experimentation. ...

External links

• Mit brennender Sorge in English on Vatican.va
• Mit brennender Sorge in German on StJosef.at