Even in Catholic countries there are still too many who are
Catholics hardly more than in name. There are too many who fulfill more or less
faithfully the more essential obligations of the religion they boast of
professing, but have no desire of knowing it better, of deepening their inward
conviction, and still less of bringing into conformity with the external gloss
the inner splendor of a right and unsullied conscience, that recognizes and
performs all its duties under the eye of God.
We know how much Our Divine Savior detested this empty
pharisaic show, He Who wished that all should adore the Father "in spirit
and in truth." The Catholic who does not live really and sincerely
according to the Faith he professes will not long be master of himself in these
days when the winds of strife and persecution blow so fiercely, but will be
swept away defenseless in this new deluge which threatens the world. And thus,
while he is preparing his own ruin, he is exposing to ridicule the very name of
Christian.
Pius XI
Divini Redemptoris