Pluries instanterque (1936): the Church's ruling on the shrine ceremonies

By the 1930s Japanese Catholics faced a hard question again and again: when the law or custom of the country called for acts that seemed to come from non-Christian religious rites, could they take part? The Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide answered in an instruction dated May 26, 1936, and addressed to the apostolic delegate in Japan, Archbishop Paolo Marella. It takes its name from its first words, Pluries instanterque, "Many times and with insistence": rules on this question had been asked for.¹

The Congregation began by recalling the principles it had given missionaries in 1659: do not try to persuade peoples to change their rites, customs and manners unless they are plainly contrary to religion and good morals; the faith rejects no people's rites that are not wicked, but wishes them kept and protected; nothing so breeds hatred as changing the customs of a country.¹"It is therefore the duty of the missionary," the instruction continued, "to recognize and honor the devotion and love of the Japanese for their country, and to form the faithful not to be inferior to other citizens in this."¹

It then set out the facts as the Japanese authorities themselves had stated them. The government distinguished the national homage paid at shrines it administered from religious Shinto worship. On September 22, 1932, the archbishop of Tokyo had asked the Ministry of Education whether students were taken to the shrines for patriotic and not religious reasons, and the vice-minister had answered that the salute required "has no other purpose than to express sentiments of patriotism and loyalty."¹The 1899 education law, which forbade religious teaching and ceremonies in schools, confirmed the point.¹The instruction added that Catholics who refused such ceremonies were easily accused of coldness to their country, a false and injurious opinion that "not only greatly distresses the Japanese Catholics but also turns souls away from the way of salvation."¹

After consulting experts, taking into account a wish expressed by the Council of Nagasaki in 1890 and the views of the apostolic delegates Mooney and Marella and of the Japanese bishops, the cardinals of the Congregation met on May 18, 1936, and Pius XI ratified their decision in an audience on May 25.¹The rules were three:¹

• Bishops were to teach the faithful that the ceremonies at the state-administered shrines had, by the authorities' repeated declarations, a purely civil meaning of love of country, "filial reverence toward the imperial family and the benefactors of the country", so Catholics might take part like other citizens, stating their intention when needed to avoid misunderstanding.
• At funerals, weddings and other private ceremonies of Japanese social life, bishops could let the faithful take part in customs that had lost any religious meaning and now signified only courtesy and goodwill.
• Wherever the oath on the rites was in use, priests were to follow these instructions faithfully, "avoiding all controversy."

The instruction was signed by Cardinal Pietro Fumasoni Biondi, prefect, and Archbishop Celso Costantini, secretary.¹