Acerba animi

Acerba animi (Latin, "Of harsh souls"; also called On the Persecution of the Church in Mexico) is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI promulgated on 29 September 1932, to denounce the continued persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico. It was the second of three encyclicals concerning persecution in Mexico, including Iniquis afflictisque (1926) and Firmissimam constantiamque (1937).[1] The Mexican government at the time was engaging in violently anticlerical persecution of the Church, and the Pope harshly criticised the government for its past and current abuse of the Church and its faithful and chided the government for not only violating its promises to the Church made in the recent cessation of the Catholic uprising, the Cristero War, but expanding the persecution.[2][1]

  1. ^ a b Philippe Levillain The Papacy: An Encyclopedia p. 1208, 2002 Routledge
  2. ^ Acerba animi, paragraph 3