Decrees by Various Popes
Various papal decrees further
contributed to preventing Aquinas’ philosophy from petering out during history.
The following significant events may be mentioned. In 1323, Pope John XXII
declared Aquinas a saint. Aquinas’ main theological work, the Summa
Theologiae, later gained a place of honour alongside the Bible on the altar
in the hall where the First Council of Trent met. Leo XIII (1898-1903), in his
encyclical Aeterni Patris of 1879, called Aquinas the princeps and
magister who stands out far above the other scholastic intellectuals and
pleaded for a revival of his philosophy. An encyclical is a circular letter
from a pope himself to his bishops priests, and the Roman Catholic Church (for
a summary of this particular encyclical, cf. Meuleman, 1952 and Gilson,
1972:37).
In Pascendi Dominic Gregis
of 1907 against modernism, Pope Pius X (1903-1914) concerned with Pope Leo XIII
by prescribing scholastic philosophy (meaning mainly Aquinas) as foundational
to the theological sciences. Benedictus XV (1914-1922) in 1917 regarded
Aquinas’ rational thinking as an example to lecturers and institutions. Pius XI
(1922-1939), in his Studiorum Ducem of 1923, called Aquinas the common
or universal teacher of the Roman Catholic Church, followed by the encyclical Humani
Generis of Pius XII (1939-1958) in 1950. IN this document, he did not
oppose the Augustinian or Franciscan traditions in Neo-Thomism, but the nouvelle
theologie (new theology) under the influence of existentialism in
particular (cf. Meuleman, 1960). Once more, the philosophy of Aquinas was
recommended since it would safeguard the foundations of the Christian faith.
In 1965 (directly after the
Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965), Pope Paul VI, in a decree of 28 October,
on the training of priests again emphasized the meaning of Aquinas’ ideas for
scientific development. Finally, in the encyclical Fides et ratio of
Pope John Paul II (1978-2005), one once again finds (in the line of Humani
Generis) accommodation of the Augustinian and Franciscan traditions.
Augustinian and Franciscan traditions emphasize Thomism as the antipode for
various irrationality and relativist tendencies. Pope Benedictus XVI
(2005-2013) followed the Augustinian tradition, and the latest pope, Francis,
is of the Jesuit Order. (Bernie Van Der Walt, Thomas Aquinas and the
Neo-Thomist Tradition: A Christian-Philosophical Assessment [Ontario,
Canada: Paideia Press, 2021], 179-80)
