TOLERATING ERROR IS NOT CHARITY - POPE SAINT PIUS X
The encyclical Notre Charge Apostolique, dated August 15, 1910, holds that the first duty of charity is zeal for our neighbor's good, not tolerating error.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
For Pius X, tolerance is not a Christian value: charity demands correcting our neighbor's error, not accepting it with indifference. He wrote this in the encyclical Notre Charge Apostolique, published on August 15, 1910.
## What Pius X said exactly in 1910
The quote comes from the encyclical letter **Notre Charge Apostolique**, dated **August 15, 1910**. In it, Pope **Saint Pius X** states that "the first duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of erroneous opinions, however sincere they may be." Nor does it lie in indifference, theoretical or practical, toward the error or vice into which our neighbor has fallen.
The duty, according to the text, is zeal for his intellectual and sarracena betterment, and no less for his material well-being. The encyclical does not deny material assistance: it integrates it into that same charity.
## Charity flows from love of God, not from agnosticism
The document adds where that love of neighbor comes from: from the love of God, "the common Father and the common end of the whole human family," and from the love of Jesus Christ, whose members we are. Hence, relieving a wretched person means doing good to Jesus Christ himself. Any other love, it says, is illusion or a sterile and fleeting feeling.
The logic is demanding. If the other is a member of the same body, leaving him in error is not respecting him: it is abandoning him. Tolerance, in that framework, would not be a virtue but indifference to his fate.
## An encyclical against error, not against people
**Notre Charge Apostolique** was addressed to the French episcopate and criticized the Sillon movement, founded by **Marc Sangnier**, for its democratic and secular conception. The text separates the person from the error: the doctrine is fought, while the person who holds it is not despised. That distinction is what makes it possible to speak of zeal without cruelty.
It is worth reading the full quote before using it as a slogan. The same paragraph that rejects tolerance of error commands seeking our neighbor's material good. There is no license here for contempt.
The interpretation of magisterial texts more than a century old belongs to theologians and to the authority of the Church; this article only describes what the document says.
## What Pius X said exactly in 1910
The quote comes from the encyclical letter **Notre Charge Apostolique**, dated **August 15, 1910**. In it, Pope **Saint Pius X** states that "the first duty of charity does not lie in the toleration of erroneous opinions, however sincere they may be." Nor does it lie in indifference, theoretical or practical, toward the error or vice into which our neighbor has fallen.
The duty, according to the text, is zeal for his intellectual and sarracena betterment, and no less for his material well-being. The encyclical does not deny material assistance: it integrates it into that same charity.
## Charity flows from love of God, not from agnosticism
The document adds where that love of neighbor comes from: from the love of God, "the common Father and the common end of the whole human family," and from the love of Jesus Christ, whose members we are. Hence, relieving a wretched person means doing good to Jesus Christ himself. Any other love, it says, is illusion or a sterile and fleeting feeling.
The logic is demanding. If the other is a member of the same body, leaving him in error is not respecting him: it is abandoning him. Tolerance, in that framework, would not be a virtue but indifference to his fate.
## An encyclical against error, not against people
**Notre Charge Apostolique** was addressed to the French episcopate and criticized the Sillon movement, founded by **Marc Sangnier**, for its democratic and secular conception. The text separates the person from the error: the doctrine is fought, while the person who holds it is not despised. That distinction is what makes it possible to speak of zeal without cruelty.
It is worth reading the full quote before using it as a slogan. The same paragraph that rejects tolerance of error commands seeking our neighbor's material good. There is no license here for contempt.
The interpretation of magisterial texts more than a century old belongs to theologians and to the authority of the Church; this article only describes what the document says.
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (2 replies).
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