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 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (November 2017) |
| Sertum laetitiae Latin for 'The Crown of Joy' Encyclical of Pope Pius XII | |
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| Signature date | 1 November 1939 |
| Subject | On the Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the establishment of the hierarchy in the United States |
| Number | 2 of 41 of the pontificate |
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Sertum laetitiae (November 1, 1939) is an encyclical from Pope Pius XII to the Catholic Church of the United States of America in memory of the 150th anniversary of the installation of the first American bishop.
The encyclical recalls Pope Pius VI, who appointed bishop John Carroll (bishop) of Baltimore in 1789. It took the help of George Washington, a friend of Carroll, to formalize the erection of the first bishopric of the Catholic Church in the 13 colonies forming the United States. One hundred years later, in 1889, Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical Longinqua Oceani addressed the Church in the United States and issued praise and admonitions.
By 1939, the Church in the United States had nineteen provinces, 115 dioceses, 200 seminaries and numerous institutions. Pius XII, who recalls his official visit three years earlier, expresses his pride in these efforts. He praises the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. (which away back had offered him a professorship in 1903). The Pontiff supports the wishes of the American bishops to establish an American College in Rome.
The encyclical advises Catholic bishops to be active in advancing racial justice by improving the access of Negroes to Catholic schools. It also critiques blind materialism. It asserts that individual happiness can only be achieved by obeying the Commandments of God, saying that non-observance undermines the basis of true civilization.