Catholic World News News Feature

John Paul remembered #6: the 14 encyclicals April 09, 2005

During his 26-year pontificate, John Paul II wrote 14 encyclical letters.

The number of John Paul's encyclicals was not extraordinary. Among his predecessors, Pope John XXIII produced 8 encyclicals, and Pope Paul VI wrote 7, during much shorter reigns. Pope Pius XII produced a remarkable 41 encyclicals! But Pope John Paul II broke new ground with the length and depth of his work-- as befits a Pontiff who was an accomplished philosopher and theologian. If encyclicals are measured by the sheer volume of words, his output easily takes first place.

An encyclical is a teaching document. It is a letter addressed to the bishops of the world, and through them to all the faithful. In some cases an encyclical is intended simply to deepen understanding of the Catholic faith; in other cases the Pope cautions against popular trends.

Among the 14 encyclicals of Pope John Paul II, several are purely theological. In this category one could place his remarkable trilogy of encyclical letters on the Holy Trinity. Redemptor Hominis (1979) centered on the person of Jesus Christ as the true savior of mankind. Dives in Misericordia (1980) focused on God the Father; Dominum et Vivificantem (1986) was dedicated to the Holy Spirit.

Pope John Paul enlarged this series with Redemptoris Mater (1987), on the role of the Virgin Mary as the "first disciple" and the perfect model of Christian witness. Redemptoris Missio (1990) explored the mission of the Church in spreading the Gospel while promoting the dignity of man.

From the outset of his pontificate, John Paul II emphasized the importance of human rights and human dignity. In Laborem Exercens (1981) he drew on his own experience as a manual laborer in a Polish chemical factory to proclaim the dignity of productive labor. Later, in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1988), he applied the same line of thought to the world's economic structures, demanding respect for the economic rights of people living in impoverished nations.

The late Pope continued that series of encyclicals with four others the delve into the roots of modern society. In Centesimus Annus (1991) he welcomed the collapse of Soviet socialism, but warned against the excesses of modern market capitalism. Veritatis Splendor (1993) analyzed the crisis of modern culture, tracing it to an unwillingness to observe the primary tenets of natural law. And Evangelium Vitae (1995) was a powerful indictment of the "culture of death." In Fides et Ratio (1998) the Holy Father explained that a proper understanding of life can be attained only through a cooperation between secular and religious knowledge-- between faith and reason. Two of Pope John Paul's encyclicals were dedicated to the specific topics of evangelization and ecumenism. Slavorum Apostoli (1985) extolled the missionary work of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, who brought the Christian faith to Eastern Europe. Ut Unum Sint (1995) was an impassioned argument for the restoration of unity among Christ's followers.

The Pope's final encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2000), did not have the same public impact as earlier letters such as Evangelium Vitae. It was a more personal document, dedicated to veneration of the Blessed Sacrament.

A full listing of the encyclicals of Pope John Paul II, with their dates of promulgation and a quick synopsis of their arguments, follows:

1. Redemptor Hominis promulgated on March 15, 1979, set forth one of the great themes of the pontificate: that man can only discover his true identity in Christ, the sole savior of humanity. For the entire 26 years of his reign on Peter's throne, Pope John Paul would encourage the faithful to focus their attention on Jesus: to "look upon face of Christ."
2. Dives in Misericordia, promulgated on December 2, 1980, was a deep theological meditation on God the Father, and especially his infinite mercy. It is essential to recognize that mercy, the Pope said, in order to build a just society on earth; men recognize themselves as brothers only in the light of their heavenly Father. This encyclical showed the heavy influence of Sister Faustina, the Polish nun who popularized the Divine Mercy devotion, and whom Pope John Paul would eventually canonize.
3. Laborem Exercens, promulgated on September 15, 1981, was John Paul's first social encyclical. Here he reiterated the Church's teachings requiring just compensation for workers, and condemned the class warfare inspired by Marxism. But he also advanced the argument that labor has its own intrinsic dignity as a means of cooperating in God's work of creation.
4. Slavorum Apostoli, promulgated on July 2, 1985, expressed the Pope's deep attachment to the Eastern tradition of Christianity, and his keen concern for restoring unity between the Catholic and Orthodox churches.
5. Dominum et Vivificantem, promulgated on May 30, 1986, completed John Paul's trilogy on the Holy Trinity. It is the Holy Spirit, the Pope wrote, who makes men recognize good and evil, and inspires us to seek God's pardon for our sins. The failure to respond is the "sin against the Holy Spirit," and the role of the Church is to make the world more conscious of the Spirit's call.
6. Redemptoris Mater, promulgated on March 25, 1987-- the feast of the Annunciation-- proposed the Virgin Mary as a model of feminine dignity and Christian discipleship. Pope John Paul expressed his own deep Marian devotion, and paid homage to the Marian traditions of the Eastern churches.
7. Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, promulgated on February 19, 1988, contained the Pope's series of social encyclicals, with a demand for justice in the treatment of the Third World. Pope John Paul called for reforms in international political and economic systems, to give impoverished people greater control of their own development.
8. Redemptoris Missio, promulgated on January 22, 1991, recalled that Jesus offers salvation to all mankind, and calls the Church to spread the message of salvation throughout the world. Pope John Paul emphasized that the Church "proposes, never imposes" the faith. But in light of the loss of faith in traditionally Catholic societies, he called for a "new evangelization"-- raising another theme that would resound throughout the remainder of his pontificate.
9. Centesimus Annus, promulgated on May 1, 1991, was issued to commemorate Rerum Novarum, in which Pope Leo XIII inaugurated the great tradition of social encyclicals. Commemting on the collapse of the Soviet empire, John Paul II noted the spiritual aridity of Marxist thought, and noted that the people of Eastern Europe had overthrown a totalitarian regime armed only with "truth and justice." He cautioned, however, against the excesses of capitalism deprived of moral guidance, and governed solely by consumerism.
10. Veritatis Splendor, promulgated on October 5, 1993, was a philosophical exposition of natural law. John Paul II delivered a compelling argument that fundamental moral laws are inscribed on the human heart; he then drew out the argument to show that these moral laws should guide world leaders to reject abortion, euthanasia, and other evils.
11. Evangelium Vitae, promulgated on March 30, 1995, continued the argument from natural law, condemning the "culture of death" that has emerged in the modern world. Pope John Paul categorically stated that no Catholic can support laws allowing legal abortion or euthanasia. He also called for an end to the use of the death penalty.
12. Ut Unum Sint, promulgated on May 30, 1995, was the Pope's most emphatic plea for ecumenical cooperation. He remarked that the Bishop of Rome should be the focus of unity among Christ's followers, and in a dramatic gesture he asked for other Christian leaders to help the Church consider how the papacy could better serve the cause of Christian unity.
13. Fides et Ratio, promulgated on October 15, 1998, was the last philosophical treatise among the late Pope's encyclicals. Here he traced many of the problems of modern thought to a misguided belief that faith and reason are incompatible-- whereas, he insisted, they must work together to allow a full understanding of the purpose of life.
14. Ecclesia de Eucharistia, promulgated on April 17, 2003-- Holy Thursday-- followed upon the Pope's declaration of the current Year of the Eucharist. In this last encyclical John Paul II said that the Eucharist must be the center of all Christian life, and cautioned against abuses of the Eucharistic liturgy.

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