sacrorum antistitum

Rescinded in 1967, Pope Pius X instituted the requirement, motu proprio, on this day in 1910 that all clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors and professors in philosophical-theological seminaries of the Catholic church take his oath against modernism—that is the attempt to reconcile church doctrine with contemporary culture and norms.
An earlier encyclical by Pius, Pascendi Dominic gregis (Feeding the Lord’s Flock) brought the term to prominence and made it a matter of debate, especially vexed by scholars that insisted that the church could no longer ignore scientific evidence that ran counter to a literal interpretation of the Bible. To be sworn by all parties above, the clauses include rejecting “that method of judging and interpreting Sacred Scripture which, departing from the tradition of the Church, the analogy of faith, and the norms of the Apostolic See, embraces the misrepresentations of the rationalists…” While overturned by the curia and no longer mandatory, some organisations offer this pledge on a voluntary basis.