Non possumus

Non possumus, completely Sine dominico non possumus is a Latin phrase meaning " We can not " or, in the full version of "Without (these ) things of the Lord, we can not ( live ) ".

Sine dominico non possumus

The quote is used in the church to emphasize the importance of Sunday worship, worship and Eucharist. Emeritus, one of the martyrs of the sacred books, pointed out during his interrogation by the Roman governor with this later often quoted response to the need of the Lord's Supper, which he himself, like many other Christians, had celebrated despite imperial ban, for which he and his companions had but decided despite threats of torture and death sentence.

So the Emperor Diocletian had the Christians prohibits the possession of their scriptures, the Sunday service together with Eucharist and the construction of buildings for their meetings, on infringement was punishable by death.

Non possumus

In this brief list of the quote can be attributed to the book of Acts. There reject the apostle Simon Peter and John before the High Council with the words " For we can not omit to speak of what we have seen and heard " ( Acts 4:20 LUT, Latin: "Non enim quae possumus vidimus et audivimus non loqui, " Acts 4:20 VUL ) from to refrain from preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus.

Another ecclesiastical use of the term "non possumus " is associated with Pope Leo the Great in conjunction, who wrote in the year 448 to Bishop Rusticus of Narbonne: " quibus non viventibus communicavimus mortuis communicare non possumus " ( translation: "we can not in death which hold community who were not in life in fellowship with us "). This principle has been used to justify various church strategies, namely with respect to the refusal of funeral liturgies, the lifting of the excommunications of deceased persons, questions of ecumenism and fundamental relations with the non-Christian world.

Pope Clement VII used the quote, probably referring to Acts 4, 20 ( see above) to reject the planned invitation of the English King Henry VIII to divorce him from his wife Catherine of Aragon. Then it was for repeated rejection formula of the Roman Curia to claims that contradicted the principles of the Roman Catholic Church to oppose.

From 1870 onwards, was "Non possumus " the collective name for the diplomatic strategies of the Popes Pius IX. , Leo XIII. , Pius X, Benedict XV. and Pius XI. in its relations with foreign powers after the " capture of Rome " ( inclusion of the Papal States in the emerging Italian nation-state, see Roman Question ) in which the pontiff became the "prisoner in the Vatican, " and decided to limit his contact with the outside world. This phase ended with the Lateran Treaty in 1929.

The Latin phrase "Non possumus " is also associated with the contemporary history of Poland. On May 8, 1953 Polish bishops sent a formal letter to the party leadership of the People's Republic of Poland, in which they stated their firm "No" to the subordination of the Roman Catholic Church under the communist state. In return, the government imprisoned the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski.