Quanta Cura

The Quanta Cura was a papal letter dispersed to all the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, it was sent in 1864 by Pope Pius IX. It warned against freedom of discussion which was growing due to new scientific ideas, such as Darwinism, these ideas threatened core religious beliefs. It stated that religion was the foundation of society and where it was missing there was a lack of true justice, instead justice was ruled by the greedy nature of wealth. There is also mention of how the private sphere was linked to the political sphere.

Considering papal decrees such as this one is an interesting insight into the changing relationship between religion and science as they reflect how the pope interprets the bible and the social climate.