On November 9, 1846, Pope Pius IX issued an encyclical titled Qui Pluribus, a Latin phrase that translates as "to the many." Pius was writing during a period of great political and social upheaval. Across the continent, food shortages, unemployment, and rapid industrialization were fueling discontent among peasants and factory workers.
Amid the strife, European newspapers began to talk about communisme (French for communism), an economic system that had bewitched prominent French intellectuals a half-century before. Against this backdrop, Pius issued a stark warning on the economic system, which he described as one of the “fatal errors of our time,” alongside socialism and nihilism.
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