The geopolitical context in which the fi rst encyclical of this pope was written is elaborated to understand the interests of the Catholic Church in the interwar period and its attitude towards fascist regimes. The novelty of these results is that the perception of modern European fascists of an ideological war waged by the globalist left similar to what Pius XI called a “holy battle” to defend Catholicism from secularism is supported by the studied document. Though any positive perception of fascism by Pius XI is not clearly demonstrated in the encyclical there are evident accusations against socialism and the Italian government of the time. This position can be used by modern European far-right ideologues to present the Church in a manipulated and equivocal rigid dichotomy between rejecting socialism and approving fascism. As exposed by this work, Pius XI tried to position the Church as a political institution capable of providing the conditions for a durable peace in Europe and as a third political way that rejected socialism, but also nationalism. The signifi cance of these results can serve to clarify how European far-right extremists use historical religious texts taken out of context to justify and promote their political ideology
Gonzalez Cedillo Joel Ivan (Wed,) studied this question.