Encyclical: Divini Redemptoris; On Atheistic Communism

The 1927 Soviet Secret Police’s official published list of victims whom they put to death (over a period of 10 years since the 1917 Russian Revolution) numbered 1,744,674. Furthermore, world-wide propaganda of unprecedented activity, well-organized and supported by an unstinted supply of funds, went on without intermission or relaxation, the effects of which we still suffer today. The main aim of this campaign was to root out from the minds of the people the Christian faith and even the belief in God, and to overthrow the existing civilization founded upon that faith. Pope Pius XI, seeing this, recalls previous and present solemn condemnations and solemn protests against Communism. He then contrasts the destructive principles and method of action of atheistic Communism vs. the clear doctrine of the Catholic Church, in order to inculcate anew and with greater insistence the means by which Christian civilization can be saved from this satanic scourge.