<P> Pius' statement of "profound grief" at the murder of the deformed, the insane, and those suffering from hereditary disease...as though they were a useless burden to Society" is a condemnation of the ongoing Nazi euthanasia program, under which disabled Germans were being removed from care facilities and murdered by the state as "life unworthy of life". It built upon the high - profile condemnations offered by the Archbishop of Munster, August von Galen and others . It was followed, on 26 September 1943, by an open condemnation by the German Bishops which, from every German pulpit, denounced the killing of "innocent and defenceless mentally handicapped, incurably infirm and fatally wounded, innocent hostages, and disarmed prisoners of war and criminal offenders, people of a foreign race or descent". </P> <P> The new role of the laity resulted in the foundation of numerous secular institutes with faithful members of all walks of life . Against significant difficulties and opposition from established religious orders, Pius XII issued in 1947 the Apostolic Constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia, which, for the first time in Church history, allowed lay people to form their own secular communities, and establish them within a newly established Canon Law framework . The Pope himself used the encyclical to encourage active participation of the laity by addressing a wide variety of groups and professional associations throughout the world . </P> <P> For many years, it was thought that Vatican II had made one significant exception to Mystici corporis . The encyclical of Pope Pius stated that the Body of Christ is the Catholic Church . Pope Paul VI quoted Mystici corporis from Pius XII verbatim in his first encyclical Ecclesiam suam: "Consider, then, this splendid utterance of Our predecessor:' The doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, a doctrine revealed originally from the lips of the Redeemer Himself ..."' Pope Paul VI continues: "We wish to take up this invitation and to repeat it in this encyclical, for We consider it timely and urgent and relevant to the needs of the Church in our day ." </P> <P> The Council defined that the Church subsists in (subsistit in) the Body of Christ . This seemed to some theologians to relativize the identity of the one Catholic Church with the Body of Christ . Pope Paul VI, Pope Pius XII and all popes before him have taught complete identity . After some confusion over what subsistit in meant, the Vatican in 2007 clarified its position as being identical with Pope Pius XII . Leading Council theologians like Joseph Ratzinger and Henri de Lubac expanded on this . </P>

The church is the mystical body of christ