35. The Papacy and Liberalism

These are the points of view on which the government of Leo XIII is based. His latest encyclical is further proof of this. He seeks to counter liberalism in a factual manner and the liberalism of the whole trend of the time. For those who are still in the bonds of faith, the sentences of the circular letter, presented with sophistical acumen, will not remain without a profound impression. This should be openly admitted. Nor should it be denied that with the liberal principle the central point of modern culture has been correctly struck. The barometer of progress in the development of mankind is, in fact, the conception one has of freedom and the practical realization of this conception. We are convinced that recent times have seen a progress in this concept that is just as significant as that brought about by the teachings of Christ: "Let there be neither Jew, nor Greek, nor Barbarian, nor Scythian, but let all be brothers in Christ". Just as at that time the equality of all men before God and their equals was recognized, so in the last century the conviction increasingly took hold of people that our task could not consist in submission to the commandments of an external authority, that everything we believe, that the guiding principle of our actions should only come from the light of reason within ourselves. To consider as true only that which our own thinking compels us to, to move only within those social and state forms which we give ourselves, that is the great principle of the time.