Humanum Genus was a papal encyclical promulgated on April 20, 1884, by Pope Leo XIII. Coming in the ascent of the industrial age and Marxism, it posited that the late 19th Century was a dangerous era for Christians, and condemned Freemasonry as well as a number of beliefs and practices allegedly associated with Freemasonry, including naturalism, popular sovereignty which does not recognize God, and the idea that the state should be "without God". Some of the encyclical's strictures remain in force today.
Read more about Humanum Genus: Two Cities, Historical Circumstances, Principles Condemned, Background
Famous quotes containing the word genus:
“Methinks it would be some advantage to philosophy if men were named merely in the gross, as they are known. It would be necessary only to know the genus and perhaps the race or variety, to know the individual. We are not prepared to believe that every private soldier in a Roman army had a name of his own,—because we have not supposed that he had a character of his own.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)