40. We say "the sacred and inviolable rights of souls and of the Church," and this is the reflection which concerns Us more than any other, being the more grave. Again and again, as is well known, We have expressed Our thought - or rather the thought of Holy Church - on these important and essential matters, and it is not to you, Venerable Brothers and faithful masters in Israel that it is necessary to say more. But we must add something for the benefit of those dear people committed to your care whom, as shepherds of souls you nourish and govern by divine mandate and who would hardly ever be able in these days, save for you, to know the thoughts of the common Father of their souls. We repeat: "The sacred and inviolable rights of souls are of the Church"; because this matter concerns the right of souls to procure for themselves the greatest spiritual work of the Church, the divinely appointed and so mandatory of this teaching and of this work in that supernatural order which is established in the blood of the Redeemer and is necessary and obligatory for all of us if we are to share in the divine redemption. It concerns the right of souls so formed to share the treasures of the redemption with other souls, thus participating in the activities of the Apostolic Hierarchy.