2 Magisterial documents of the pontificate of John Paul II
The pontificate of John Paul II produced fourteen encyclicals, fifteen apostolic exhortations, eleven apostolic constitutions, forty-five apostolic letters, and thirty Motu Proprios.
The encyclicals can be divided into the Trinitarian anthropology trilogy: (Redemptor Hominis (1979) on God the Son, Dives in Misericordia (1980) on God the Father, and Dominum et Vivificantem (1986) on God the Holy Spirit; the social teaching trilogy: Laborem Exercens (1981) on the meaning of human work, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987) on the social concerns of the Church, and Centesimus Annus (1991) on the one-hundredth anniversary of the promulgation of Rerum Novarum (a social encyclical of Leo XIII); the fundamental theology quartet: Redemptoris Mater (1987) on Mariology, Redemptoris Missio (1990) on missiology, Fides et Ratio (1998) on the relationship between faith and reason, and Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003) on eucharistic theology; the moral theology duo, Veritatis splendor (1993) on the splendour of the truth, and Evangelium vitae (1995) on respect for the sanctity of human life; and the two stand-alone topics, the apostles of the Slavs, Slavorum Apostoli (1985), and ecumenism, Ut Unum Sint (1995).
The trinitarian anthropology trilogy could be described as John Paul II’s development of the anthropology implicit in the second half of the conciliar document Gaudium et spes. Paragraph 22 of Gaudium et spes was the most-often-cited paragraph of all the Conciliar documents in the speeches and homilies of John Paul II. It links Christology to anthropology. The trilogy of encyclicals on the relationship between the human person and God the Son, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit places this anthropology within the broader trinitarian framework.
In general, the social teaching trilogy follows the trajectory set by earlier papal teaching in this field, applying the established principles to the situation of the contemporary world. However, the first of the social encyclicals, Laborem Exercens, does something more, insofar as it links theological anthropology to the field of social teaching. It speaks not only of social justice but of the spirituality of human labour. It recognizes that there is both a transitive and intransitive dimension to human work, or, an objective and subjective dimension, and for John Paul II, the subjective dimension is actually the most important. On this point, John Paul II touches upon the issue described in Marxist literature as the problem of the alienation of the human person from the product of their labour. Paragraph 15 of the encyclical draws attention to alienation, in its criticism of systems of ‘excessive bureaucratic centralization’ that make the worker feel as though he is merely ‘a cog in a huge machine moved from above’. Laborem exercens thus incorporates elements of John Paul II’s interest in the philosophy of personalism into the sphere of social teaching. His employment of the concept of solidarity, also a feature of Laborem exercens, is another example of this intersection of personalism and social teaching.
Redemptoris Mater (1987) presents the Mariology of John Paul II who explores the links between Mariology and ecclesiology and Mariology and spirituality. In paragraph 5 he notes that
it is significant that the conciliar text [Lumen Gentium] places this truth about the Church as the Body of Christ (according to the teaching of the Pauline Letters) in close proximity to the truth that the Son of God ‘through the power of the Holy Spirit was born of the Virgin Mary’. (Redemptoris Mater 1987: paragraph 5)
This means that ‘the reality of the Incarnation finds a sort of extension in the mystery of the Church-the Body of Christ’. Commentaries on this encyclical have drawn attention to the background influence of the Marian theology of St Louis de Montfort (1673–1716).
Redemptoris Missio (1990) sought to reaffirm the value of the Church’s missionary activity in circumstances where the missionary orders had experienced a significant reduction in vocations in the post-Vatican II era. In paragraph 2 of the encyclical, John Paul II listed as his reasons for writing the document:
To respond to the many requests for a document of this kind; to clear up doubts and ambiguities regarding missionary activity ad gentes, and to confirm in their commitment those exemplary brothers and sisters dedicated to missionary activity and all those who assist them; to foster missionary vocations; to encourage theologians to explore and expound systematically the various aspects of missionary activity; to give a fresh impulse to missionary activity by fostering the commitment of the particular churches - especially those of recent origin - to send forth and receive missionaries; and to assure non-Christians and particularly the authorities of countries to which missionary activity is being directed that all of this has but one purpose: to serve man by revealing to him the love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ. (Redemptoris Missio 1990: paragraph 2)
Consistent with his general trinitarian Christocentrism, and his first tranche of encyclicals, John Paul II associated the missionary work of the Church with the missions of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.
Of the fundamental theology quartet, the most prominent was Fides et ratio (1998). It begins with the statement:
Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves. (Fides et ratio 1998: preamble)
Much of the encyclical takes the form of an intellectual history of how faith and reason have been understood in their relationship to one another. Paragraph 73 suggests that the relationship between theology and philosophy is best construed as a circle, and paragraph 45 observes that
what for Patristic and Medieval thought was in both theory and practice a profound unity, producing knowledge capable of reaching the highest forms of speculation, was destroyed by systems which espoused the cause of rational knowledge sundered from faith and meant to take the place of faith. (Fides et ratio 1998: paragraph 45)
It is argued that the severance of the relationship of faith and reason leads to rationalism and eventually nihilism. Paragraph 48 summarises the problems that arise from a severance of the two modes of knowledge:
Deprived of what Revelation offers, reason has taken side-tracks which expose it to the danger of losing sight of its final goal. Deprived of reason, faith has stressed feeling and experience, and so run the risk of no longer being a universal proposition. (Fides et ratio 1998: paragraph 48)
The final encyclical of John Paul II’s papacy, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003), reaffirms the centrality of the Eucharist for the life of the church and the importance of the sacrificial dimension of Eucharistic theology. In paragraph 8, John Paul II describes the Eucharist as something of ‘cosmic’ significance:
Yes, cosmic! Because even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world. It unites heaven and earth. It embraces and permeates all creation. The Son of God became man in order to restore all creation, in one supreme act of praise, to the One who made it from nothing. He, the Eternal High Priest who by the blood of his Cross entered the eternal sanctuary, thus gives back to the Creator and Father all creation redeemed. He does so through the priestly ministry of the Church, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity. Truly this is the mysterium fidei which is accomplished in the Eucharist: the world which came forth from the hands of God the Creator now returns to him redeemed by Christ. (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 2003: paragraph 8)
In paragraph 10, the practice of Eucharistic adoration is affirmed alongside a criticism of theologies that strip Eucharistic theology of its sacrificial meaning and celebrate the Eucharist as if it were simply a fraternal banquet.
The two moral theology encyclicals, Veritatis splendor (1993) and Evangelium vitae (1995), can be taken as first, an essay on the fundamental principles of moral theology, and second, the application of these principles to the field of bioethics and more broadly what are described as ‘life issues’. John Paul II explained his motivation for writing Veritatis splendor in the following paragraph 4:
A new situation has come about within the Christian community itself, which has experienced the spread of numerous doubts and objections of a human and psychological, social and cultural, religious and even properly theological nature, with regard to the Church’s moral teachings. It is no longer a matter of limited and occasional dissent, but of an overall and systematic calling into question of traditional moral doctrine, on the basis of certain anthropological and ethical presuppositions. At the root of these presuppositions is the more or less obvious influence of currents of thought which end by detaching human freedom from its essential and constitutive relationship to truth. Thus the traditional doctrine regarding the natural law, and the universality and the permanent validity of its precepts, is rejected; certain of the Church’s moral teachings are found simply unacceptable; and the Magisterium itself is considered capable of intervening in matters of morality only in order to ‘exhort consciences’ and to ‘propose values’, in the light of which each individual will independently make his or her decisions and life choices. (Veritatis splendor 1993: paragraph 4)
The encyclical goes on to criticize Kantian notions of moral autonomy, and to offer instead a conception of Christian ethics as a form of ‘participated theonomy’ – a participation in the virtues of Christ. In the secondary literature, the encyclical has been associated with the christocentric approach to ethics of the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar (2005–1988) and the biblical Thomism of the Dominican theologian Servais-Théodore Pinckaers (1925–2008).
Evangelium Vitae narrows the focus of moral theology to issues surrounding the defence of the sanctity of human life and thereby covers such topics as murder, abortion, euthanasia, and capital punishment. Before writing Evangelium vitae, Pope John Paul II surveyed every Catholic bishop in the world, asking whether they agreed that murder, directly willed abortion, and euthanasia are immoral, and all agreed that they were. The pope then concluded each of the passages in Evangelium vitae dealing with these three issues with a reference to the ‘ordinary and universal magisterium’, and a footnote that cited Lumen Gentium section 25 regarding the authority to teach about matters of faith and morals.
Slavorum Apostoli (1985) covered a theme close to the heart of the Polish pope. It offered an analysis of the contribution of Sts Cyril (826–869) and Methodius (815–885), two brothers from the city of Thessalonica, to the evangelization of the Slavic peoples. St Cyril created the Slavonic alphabet, and he also translated the Bible and other writings from Greek and Latin into the language of the Slavic peoples. In paragraph 7, Pope John Paul noted that St Methodius succeeded in gaining the trust of Roman pontiffs, Patriarchs of Constantinople, Byzantine emperors, and various princes of the Slavic peoples. In paragraph 11 he added that the decision of the pair to
identify themselves with those peoples’ life and traditions, once having purified and enlightened them by Revelation, make Cyril and Methodius true models for all the missionaries who in every period have accepted Saint Paul’s invitation to become all things to all people in order to redeem all. (Slavorum Apostoli 1985: paragraph 11)
Ut Unum Sint (1995) is the only encyclical of the pontificate of John Paul II to directly address ecumenism. It reiterates the importance of ecumenism and in paragraph 79 argues that there are five neuralgic issues in this field: (1) the relationship between Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, (2) an understanding of the Eucharist as the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, and the sacrificial memorial and real presence of Christ and the sanctifying outpouring of the Holy Spirit, (3) the understanding of ordination as a sacrament with the threefold ministry of the episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate; (4) the understanding of the place of the pope and bishops in the magisterium of the church; and (5) the understanding of the Virgin Mary as the Mother of God and icon of the Church who intercedes for Christ’s disciples and all of humanity.
The Apostolic Exhortations of the pontificate of John Paul II can be sub-divided into the sextet dealing with the situation of the Church in particular regions of the world: Ecclesia in Africa (1995), Une espérance nouvelle pour le Liban (1997), Ecclesia in Asia (1999), Ecclesia in America (1999), Ecclesia in Oceania (2001), and Ecclesia in Europa (2003); a quartet dealing with the priesthood and other forms of consecrated life: Redemptionis Donum (1984), Pastores Dabo Vobis (1992), Vita Consecrata (1996), and Pastores Gregis (2003); the duet on lay and family life, Familiaris Consortio (1981) and Christifideles Laici (1988); and three stand-alone topics: Catechesi Tradendae (1979) on catechesis, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia (1984) on the sacrament of penance, and Redemptoris Custos (1989) on St Joseph and the spirituality of the Holy Family.
Many of John Paul II’s Apostolic Letters are on the subject of newly-canonized saints or anniversaries of some historical event. Divini Amoris Scientia (1997) proclaimed St Thérèse of Lisieux a Doctor of the Church, Augustinum Hipponensem (1986) marked the 1600th anniversary of the conversion of St Augustine, and Duodecimum Saeculum (1987) marked the 1200th anniversary of the Second Council of Nicaea. In many such letters there is no new teaching, simply an amplification of earlier teachings regarded as useful for addressing contemporary pastoral issues. However, some Apostolic Letters do add something new. Vicesimus Quintus Annus (1988), the Apostolic Letter on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), included strong statements about deviations from the liturgical principles of Sacrosanctum Concilium. At section 13 there are references to ‘illicit omissions or additions’, ‘rites invented outside the framework of established norms’, ‘postures or songs which are not conducive to faith or to a sense of the sacred’, ‘abuses in the practice of general absolution’, and ‘confusion between the ministerial priesthood, linked with ordination, and the common priesthood of the faithful, which has its foundation in baptism’. In particular ‘the composition of new Eucharistic Prayers and the substitution of profane readings for the texts from Sacred Scripture’ was expressly forbidden. Fifteen years later, Spiritus Sponsa (2003) was released to mark the fortieth anniversary of the proclamation of Sacrosanctum Concilium. It reiterated the need for adherence to the principles of Sacrosanctum Concilium and emphasized the importance of the liturgy for the work of the new evangelization.
The Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae (2002) was also significant for the liturgical life of the Church. In this Letter John Paul II added the five Luminous Mysteries to the practice of the rosary. This was released in the twenty-fifth year of his papacy, declared to be the Year of the Rosary. In 2004, the last year of the Wojtyła pontificate, the Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum Domine declared a Year of the Eucharist and affirmed the liturgical practice of Eucharistic adoration.
Of all the Apostolic Letters, the most doctrinally significant was Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (1994). It affirmed the Catholic practice of the reservation of the priesthood to men. This document followed the 1976 Declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith titled Inter Insigniores: On the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood. Both documents emphasize that Christ did not include any women among his chosen twelve apostles, not even his mother. Inter Insigniores adds the argument that, since the ‘whole sacramental economy is based upon natural signs or symbols imprinted on the human psychology’, and since Christ’s role in the Eucharist is to be expressed sacramentally, the ‘natural resemblance’ which must exist between Christ and his minister would not be present if the place of Christ were to be taken by a woman. This is referred to as the anthropological argument. The fact that the twelve apostles were all male, and that neither they nor Christ Himself chose to ordain women, is described as the argument from tradition. This document met with extensive criticism from feminist theological circles, especially in the United States and German-speaking countries.
Of the Apostolic Constitutions, those most cited in the context of doctrinal issues are Sapientia Christiana (1979) and Ex Corde Ecclesiae (1990), dealing with principles for the governance of Catholic tertiary education institutions, especially the teaching of theology. Articles 67 and 68 of Sapientia Christiana are addressed to the faith and reason relationship and its consequences for the curricula of theology departments. Article 67. N.2 declares:
The individual theological disciplines are to be taught in such a way that, from their internal structure and from the proper object of each as well as from their connection with other disciplines, including philosophical ones and the sciences of man, the basic unity of theological instruction is quite clear, and in such a way that all the disciplines converge in a profound understanding of the mystery of Christ, so that this can be announced with greater effectiveness to the People of God and to all nations. (Sapientia Christiana 1979: Article 67. N.2)
Article 68. Ns. 1 and 2 allow for an adoption of ideas from outside the realm of Christian revelation, such as the wisdom traditions of different peoples, but such adoptions or adaptations must avoid syncretism. Not every element of every wisdom tradition will be capable of assimilation into a Christian intellectual framework.
Ex Corde Ecclesiae is in style a more discursive, less juridical, document. The emphasis is on explaining and defending the underlying principles of a Catholic University. It declares:
[T]he institutional fidelity of the University to the Christian message includes a recognition of and adherence to the teaching authority of the Church in matters of faith and morals. Catholic members of the university community are also called to a personal fidelity to the Church with all that this implies. Non-Catholic members are required to respect the Catholic character of the University, while the University in turn respects their religious liberty. (Ex Corde Ecclesiae 1990: section 27)
A number of the Motu Proprios resemble the Apostolic Letters insofar as they make declarations regarding the honour to be accorded to particular saints. Spes Aedificandi (1999) named St Bridget of Sweden, St Catherine of Siena, and St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross as co-patron saints of Europe, and E sancti Thomae Mori (2000) declared St Thomas More to be a patron saint of statesmen and politicians. Other Motu Proprios were of a more doctrinal nature. Apostolos Suos (1998) addressed the issue of the theological and juridical authority of episcopal conferences. Ecclesia Dei (1988) established a commission for dealing with the doctrinal and liturgical issues of followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebrve, typically those who opposed the postconciliar liturgical changes, and the Conciliar document Dignitatis Humanae (1965). Misericordia Dei (2002) on the sacrament of penance (otherwise known as confession) effectively banned the practice of general absolution except in circumstances of impending death.
2.1 Documents of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith (1978–2005)
Of all the CDF publications, Dominus Iesus (2000) – the Declaration on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church – is widely regarded as the most doctrinally significant of the pontificate of John Paul II. It dealt with issues in ecclesiology, ecumenism, and interfaith matters. At section 6 it declared that ‘the theory of the limited, incomplete, or imperfect character of the revelation of Jesus Christ, which would be complementary to that found in other religions, is contrary to the Church’s faith’. In other words, the fullness of revelation is found in the life of Christ and is not in need of supplementation from non-Christian religious traditions. Section 12 followed through on the logic of this principle with the further declaration that the ‘hypothesis of an economy of the Holy Spirit with a more universal breadth than that of the Incarnate Word, crucified and risen’, is contrary to the Catholic faith, which, on the ‘contrary, considers the salvific incarnation of the Word as a Trinitarian event’. Here the idea criticized is that there might be a difference between the teaching of Christ as recorded in the Gospels and the work of the Holy Spirit in contemporary times.
The most-often-cited of all the paragraphs of Dominus Iesus is section 16. It declared:
The Catholic faithful are required to profess that there is an historical continuity - rooted in the apostolic succession - between the Church founded by Christ and the Catholic Church: ‘This is the single Church of Christ... which our Saviour, after his resurrection, entrusted to Peter’s pastoral care (cf. John 21:17), commissioning him and the other Apostles to extend and rule her (cf. Matt 28:18ff.), erected for all ages as ‘the pillar and mainstay of the truth’ (1 Tim 3:15). This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists in [subsistit in] the Catholic Church, governed by the Successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him. With the expression subsistit in, the Second Vatican Council sought to harmonize two doctrinal statements: on the one hand, that the Church of Christ, despite the divisions which exist among Christians, continues to exist fully only in the Catholic Church, and on the other hand, that ‘outside of her structure, many elements can be found of sanctification and truth’ that is, in those Churches and ecclesial communities which are not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church. But with respect to these, it needs to be stated that ‘they derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Catholic Church’. (Dominus Iesus 2000: section 16)
This paragraph is of central importance to Catholic ecumenical theology. Section 17 went on to distinguish between Christian churches who retain a valid Eucharist and episcopate and those who do not. Those Christian communities who have lost a valid Eucharist and episcopate are deemed to be ‘not Churches in the proper sense’; however, those who are baptized in these communities are, by baptism, incorporated in Christ and [thus are deemed to be] in a certain communion, albeit imperfect, with the Church’.
After Dominus Iesus, in order of prominence, the liberation theology movement was the subject of two documents from the CDF: the Instruction on Certain Aspects of the Theology of Liberation (1984) and Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation (1986). The first of these documents declared that:
the ultimate and decisive criterion for truth can only be a criterion which is itself theological. It is only in the light of faith, and what faith teaches us about the truth of man and the ultimate meaning of his destiny, that one can judge the validity or degree of validity of what other disciplines propose, often rather conjecturally, as being the truth about man, his history and destiny. (CDF 1984: section VII, 10)
In short, scripture and tradition trumps social theory, or is the standard by which social theories themselves are judged.
The second of the two CDF documents acknowledged that experience can play a role in theological work but again a caveat was added that ‘the theologian will be careful to interpret the experience from which he begins in the light of the experience of the Church herself’. (CDF 1986: section 70). Such experience is said to shine with particular brilliance in the lives of the saints, and it falls within the responsibility of the ‘pastors of the Church, in communion with the Successor of Peter, to discern its authenticity’ (CDF 1986: section 70).
Towards the end of the pontificate, the CDF produced the Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life (2002). A central principle undergirding it is that the Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine. This issue most commonly arose in the context of abortion legislation. Some Catholic politicians would argue that while they were personally opposed to abortion, they would not vote against legislation allowing others to partake in this practice. Against this attitude the document declared:
It is a question of the lay Catholic’s duty to be morally coherent, found within one’s conscience, which is one and indivisible. There cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called ‘spiritual life’, with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called ‘secular’ life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social responsibilities, in the responsibilities of public life and in culture. The branch, engrafted to the vine which is Christ, bears its fruit in every sphere of existence and activity. (CDF 2002: section III [6])
The document also stated that ‘those who are directly involved in lawmaking bodies have a “grave and clear obligation to oppose” any law that attacks human life. For them, as for every Catholic, it is impossible to promote such laws or to vote for them’ (section II [4], original emphasis). The only qualification to this principle is, as John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, regarding
the situation in which it is not possible to overturn or completely repeal a law allowing abortion which is already in force or coming up for a vote, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality. (CDF 2002: section II [4], original emphasis)
2.2 The catechism of the Catholic Church
In 1992, John Paul II promulgated a new Catechism of the Catholic Church. The structure of this document is built on four pillars: the baptismal profession of faith (the Creed); the sacraments of faith; the life of faith (the Commandments); and the prayer of the believer (the Lord’s Prayer). The aims of the Catechism are described as ‘presenting an organic synthesis of the essential and fundamental contents of Catholic doctrine, as regards both faith and morals, in the light of the Second Vatican Council and the whole of the Church’s Tradition’. Its principal sources are the Sacred Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, the liturgy, and the Church’s Magisterium. It was drafted primarily for bishops and catechists. As stated in the apostolic constitution Fidei depositum (1992) with which its publication was ordered, the Catechism was composed so ‘that it may be a sure and authentic reference text for teaching Catholic doctrine and particularly for preparing local catechisms’.
2.3 Dominant theological interests of the pontificate of John Paul II
The two areas of theology that dominated the magisterial teaching of the Pontificate of John Paul II were theological anthropology and moral theology, and both were set within an overarching framework of trinitarian theology. The moral theology was said to be explicitly Christocentric, scriptural, and personalist. It also affirmed the belief that there are moral absolutes, that is, actions that are either right or wrong irrespective of the individual actor’s intentions or cultural formation. One of the most difficult issues addressed in the context of moral theology was that of the situation of those who are divorced and remarried and wish to receive communion. The apostolic letter Familiaris Consortio (1981) addressed the issue and held that:
The Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the indissolubility of marriage. (Familiaris Consortio 1981: section 84)
In a series of Wednesday audience addresses in the early years of the pontificate, John Paul II offered what became known as the Catechesis on Human Love (1982), popularly marketed as a ‘theology of the body’. In his reflections on the creation narratives in the book of Genesis, John Paul II highlighted how these narratives treat a range of original human experiences. These include not only original sin, but original innocence, original solitude, original unity, original nakedness, and original shame. Other key concepts in the theology of the body include: the hermeneutic of the gift, the spousal meaning of the body, and the notion of marriage as the primordial sacrament.
In addition to the emphasis given to moral theology, to the sacrament of marriage, and to the issues around the sanctity of human life, including contemporary bioethical issues, the pontificate of John Paul II is associated with the promotion of religious freedom and the denunciation of all forms of totalitarian government (including, and especially, Marxist governments). It is also associated with numerous inter-faith initiatives, especially the Catholic Church’s relationship with the Jewish people, described by John Paul II as the ‘elder brothers’ of Christians. John Paul II was also a major actor in the events that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 and its political control of the countries of Eastern Europe. His pontificate is also associated with the promotion of the spirituality of divine mercy. In the year 2000, at the canonisation Mass for Poland’s St Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938), John Paul II decreed that the second Sunday of Easter would henceforth be known as Divine Mercy Sunday.
3 Magisterial documents of the pontificate of Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict issued three encyclicals: the first, Deus Caritas Est (2005) on the theological virtue of love, the second, Spe Salvi (2007) on the theological virtue of hope, and the third, Caritas in Veritate (2009) on the relationship between charity and truth. A fourth encyclical on the theological virtue of faith was drafted but not released. It appeared as Lumen Fidei (2013) under the authority of Pope Francis. Pope Benedict also issued four apostolic exhortations: Sacramentum caritatis (2007) which took up themes in his pre-papal liturgical works; Verbum Domini (2010) which focused on Christology and scripture; and Africae Munus (2011) and ecclesia in Medio Oriente (2012), on the situation of the Church in Africa and the Middle East respectively. The Apostolic Letters of the Benedict XVI pontificate were mostly announcing beatifications and canonizations, a practice described as raising a person ‘to the glory of the altars’, meaning that the name of the saint or blessed can henceforth be mentioned in liturgical contexts. In 2012 Pope Benedict also used the Apostolic Letter to announce that he had granted the honorary title of ‘Church Doctor’ to St John of Avila (1499–1569) and to St Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179). The most significant Apostolic Constitution of the Benedict XVI pontificate was Anglicanorum Coetibus (2009). It provided for the establishment of Personal Ordinariates (canonical structures) for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. Of the Motu Proprios, the most theologically and pastorally significant was Summorum Pontificum of 2007. It lifted various canonical barriers to the use of the Tridentine Rite of the Mass, described by Benedict XVI as the ‘Extraordinary Form’ of the Mass.
3.1 Documents of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith (2005–2013)
The two most doctrinally significant documents of the CDF during the pontificate of Benedict XVI were Responses to some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of the Church (2007) and Dignitas Personae: On Certain Bioethical Questions (2008). The latter was received as a complementary document to the earlier Donum vitae (1987). The ‘Responses to some Questions’ document clarified the meaning of concepts used in the Conciliar document Lumen Gentium (1964) and in Dominus Iesus (2000). The focus of Dignitas Personae was on the morality of various methods for treating infertility. This document declared that new medical techniques must respect three fundamental goods: (a) the right to life and to physical integrity of every human being from conception to natural death; (b) the unity of marriage, which means reciprocal respect for the right within marriage to become a father or mother only together with the other spouse; and (c) the specifically human values of sexuality which require ‘that the procreation of a human person be brought about as the fruit of the conjugal act specific to the love between spouses’ (Section 12). Concretely, this means that ‘all techniques of heterologous artificial fertilization, as well as those techniques of homologous artificial fertilization which substitute for the conjugal act’, are not morally licit.
3.2 Dominant theological interests of the pontificate of Benedict XVI
Fundamental theology and liturgical theology were two dominant interests of the papacy of Benedict XVI. His trilogy of encyclicals on the theological virtues (counting Lumen Fidei [2013] as largely his work, although it was promulgated under the name of Francis) covers the territory of fundamental theology and theological anthropology, and the encyclical Caritas in Veritate (2009) covers the territories of fundamental theology and social teaching. The Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis covered liturgical and sacramental theology and the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum was also in the territory of liturgical theology.
Deus Caritas Est (2005), the first of the encyclicals on the theological virtues, can be read as Benedict’s answer to the Nietzschean charge that Christianity had killed eros. Instead of fostering the notion that eros is defective in relation to agape, Benedict argued that the relationship between the two different types of love is symbiotic.
The second encyclical on the theological virtues, Spe Salvi (2007), can be read as a correction to secularist readings of Gaudium et spes, and can also be read as offering an alternative understanding of the relationship between hope and history and related themes in eschatology from those typically found in the works of liberation theologians. The general principle is that there is a Christian understanding of hope as a theological virtue but that this Christian understanding has been subject to various secularist mutations.
The first three chapters of Lumen Fidei, though promulgated under the name of Francis, are more similar to the works of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. One of the gifts Benedict XVI brought to the papacy was an extensive knowledge of the history of ideas, and in particular a deep knowledge of German philosophy. As Kant is a key to deciphering the culture of modernity, so is Nietzsche for postmodernity. Kant gave scholars the quest for autonomous reason, severed from any association with theological presuppositions, and Nietzsche gave the world the critique of Christianity as an oppressive straitjacket whose moral compass was fit only for the lower classes. Much of the encyclical is a criticism of these German philosophical contributions and their sidelining of the theological virtue of faith.
Caritas in Veritate explored the relationship between charity and truth. It was a plea to understand the limitations of a secularist notion of development, that is, of placing trust in institutional processes and material prosperity without any reference to God or the interior dynamics of the human soul. Benedict believed that, when cultures no longer serve the deepest human needs and actually narrow the spiritual horizons of people, the result is anomie and depression. He argued that the remedy is to grasp the fact that truth is given as a divine gift, and is not self-constructed.
This third encyclical, covering social development issues, was the subject of some criticism from American neo-conservative quarters. Benedict XVI had a strong interest in the social effects of economic policy and emphasized that the market is never morally neutral, and thus its activity needs to be monitored with reference to higher social goods than economic freedom.
One of the most dramatic moments in Benedict’s papacy was the release of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum on 7 July 2007, lifting the sanctions against the use of the Tridentine Rite of the Mass as it had been slightly modified in the papacy of John XXIII. In his pre-papal writings Ratzinger observed that those who preferred this Rite to the Missal of Paul VI had been treated like lepers and that this was not just. According to Ratzinger there was nothing theologically defective about the older form of the Rite. The Missal of Paul VI was promulgated with a view to meeting the pastoral needs of ‘modern man’, however quite a significant proportion of Catholics did not fit into that sociological category and preferred the high solemnity of the older Form to the relaxed manner in which the new Form was often celebrated. Ratzinger/Benedict did not oppose liturgical pluralism, providing that any Rite in use must be able to defend itself as being a Rite of apostolic provenance. It could not be something recently ‘cooked up’ by a committee of liturgists.
In lifting the sanctions against the use of the older Form of the Roman Rite, Pope Benedict said that he hoped that the two Forms would be ‘mutually enriching’. He believed that the change in the new or Ordinary Form to having the scripture readings in the vernacular was a positive development, but nonetheless he thought that the Latin Gloria, Credo, Sanctus and Agnes Dei should be part of the cultural capital of all Catholics, regardless of their national backgrounds, and the same goes for the Greek Kyrie.
Scripture and the principles for its interpretation were also subjects close to the heart of Pope Benedict. He therefore declared the period from June 2008–June 2009 as the Year of St Paul. He remarked:
St. Paul offers a model for all time of how to approach theology and how to preach. The theologian, the preacher, does not create new visions of the world and of life, but he is at the service of truth handed down, at the service of the real fact of Christ, of the Cross and of the Resurrection. (General Audience, 5 November 2008)
The Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini (2010) was Pope Benedict’s response to the Synod on the ‘The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church’ that coincided with the Pauline Year. Part I of Verbum Domini covered the following themes: The Church as the primary setting for biblical hermeneutics; the soul of sacred theology; the development of biblical studies and the Church’s magisterium; the Second Vatican Council’s biblical hermeneutic; the danger of dualism and a secularized hermeneutic; faith and reason in the approach to scripture; the literal and spiritual sense of Scripture; the need to transcend the ‘letter’; the Bible’s intrinsic unity; the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments; the ‘dark’ passages of the Bible; Christians, Jews, and the sacred scriptures; the fundamentalist interpretation of sacred Scripture; the dialogue between pastors, theologians and exegetes; the Bible and ecumenism; and finally, the saints and the interpretation of scripture.
Part Two focused on the Word of God in the Church, including its liturgical context, and Part 3 addressed the Word of God in the world, with a focus on the mission of the Church to preach the Word of God to the world.
A recurring theme in Benedict’s publications is the idea that Christianity is primarily about a person’s participation in the life and love of the Trinity, mediated through the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist. The Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis presented Ratzinger/Benedict’s Eucharistic theology as well as his ideas about the ars celebrandi and the meaning of the active participation of the faithful. He argued that there should be no antithesis between ‘the ars celebrandi, the art of proper celebration, and the full, active and fruitful participation of all the faithful’. He declared that the ‘primary way to foster the participation of the lay faithful in the sacred rite is the proper celebration of the rite itself’ (section 38). The backstory to these statements was the attitude that became popular after the Second Vatican Council that the good of lay participation in the liturgy required the jettisoning of such solemn forms of liturgical music as Gregorian chant and polyphony in favour of ‘sacro-pop’ music. The argument was that the more solemn music, because of its degree of difficulty, excluded the less musically-educated members of parish congregations from participating in the singing. Pope Benedict however argued that ‘participation’ need not necessarily mean vocal participation. He was critical of sacro-pop music and affirmed the use of Gregorian chant and polyphony.
At the core of Ratzinger/Benedict’s theological vision is a trinitarian christocentrism heavily influenced by St Bonaventure and Romano Guardini (1885–1968), and an Augustinian ecclesiology heavily influenced by Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) and Hans Urs von Balthasar. There is also a classically Thomist concern about truth and the Christian engagement with Greek philosophy, and a typically mid-twentieth-century European interest in personalism, mediated through the works of Martin Buber (1878–1965) and Peter Wust (1884–1940), as a supplement to Greek philosophical ideas and categories. There is also an engagement with the typically nineteenth-century Romantic movement’s interests in the affective dimension in spiritual and moral life, the epistemic importance of tradition, the theological significance of history, and the transcendental of beauty (especially the role of beauty in the liturgy). Combined, these various elements of his theology present different facets of an Incarnational Humanism.
4 Magisterial documents of the pontificate of Francis
The pontificate of Francis has so far produced four encyclicals: Lumen Fidei (2013), as stated above, drafted by Benedict XVI, Laudato Si (2015), Fratelli Tutti (2020), and Dilexit Nos (2024). Laudato Si (2015) dealt with environmental issues. The first sections are predominantly accounts of different facets of the environmental crisis while the later sections become increasingly more theological. Paragraph 107 offers a critique of what is called ‘the technological paradigm’:
It can be said that many problems of today’s world stem from the tendency, at times unconscious, to make the method and aims of science and technology an epistemological paradigm which shapes the lives of individuals and the workings of society. The effects of imposing this model on reality as a whole, human and social, are seen in the deterioration of the environment, but this is just one sign of a reductionism which affects every aspect of human and social life. We have to accept that technological products are not neutral, for they create a framework which ends up conditioning lifestyles and shaping social possibilities along the lines dictated by the interests of certain powerful groups. (Laudato Si 2015: paragraph 107)
The theological analysis begins with the principle that ‘creation accounts in the book of Genesis suggest that human life is grounded in three fundamental and closely intertwined relationships: with God, with our neighbour and with the earth itself’. According to the Bible, these three relationships have been broken by sin: ‘The harmony between the Creator, humanity and creation as a whole was disrupted by our presuming to take the place of God and refusing to acknowledge our creaturely limitations’ (Laudado Si 2015: paragraph 66). However, these broken relationships have the potential to be healed through the graces of the Incarnation. Paragraph 235 declares that ‘[f]or Christians, all the creatures of the material universe find their true meaning in the incarnate Word, for the Son of God has incorporated in his person part of the material world, planting in it a seed of definitive transformation’. Sacramentality is thus highly relevant to environmental issues, as paragraph 236 explains:
The Lord, in the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation, chose to reach our intimate depths through a fragment of matter. He comes not from above, but from within, he comes that we might find him in this world of ours. In the Eucharist, fullness is already achieved; it is the living centre of the universe, the overflowing core of love and of inexhaustible life […] The Eucharist joins heaven and earth; it embraces and penetrates all creation […] Thus, the Eucharist is also a source of light and motivation for our concerns for the environment, directing us to be stewards of all creation. (Laudato Si 2015: paragraph 236)
Laudato Si also reiterates the teaching that all of creation bears the mark of the Trinity. At paragraph 239 there is the statement:
The Franciscan saint (St. Bonaventure) teaches us that each creature bears in itself a specifically Trinitarian structure, so real that it could be readily contemplated if only the human gaze were not so partial, dark and fragile. In this way, he points out to us the challenge of trying to read reality in a Trinitarian key. (Laudato Si 2015: paragraph 239)
Fratelli Tutti (2020) follows the Franciscan spirituality motif of Laudato Si but expands the list of social problems addressed. The encyclical is one long reflection on the subject of friendship and solidarity, with special emphasis on the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is noteworthy from a magisterial teaching perspective for its strong condemnation of the death penalty in paragraph 263.
Dilexit Nos (2024) is a reflection on devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This devotion has been strong within the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) of which Pope Francis is a member. The first sections of the encyclical emphasize that the heart is the synthetic centre of the human person, in the sense of being that place where the affective and cognitive dimensions of the person are synthesized or integrated. In the later part of the encyclical, Pope Francis offers a history of devotion to the Sacred Heart through the lives of the saints for whom this devotion was a central element of their spirituality.
In addition to three encyclicals, the pontificate of Francis has so far produced seven Apostolic Exhortations: Evangelii Gaudium (2013) on the ‘Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World’; Amoris Laetitia (2016) on marriage and family issues; Gaudete et exsultate (2018) on the call to holiness; Christus vivat (2019) on life in Christ; Quirida Amazonia on pastoral issues in the Amazonian Basin (2020); Laudate Deum (2022) on climate issues; and C’est la confiance, on the spirituality of St Thérèse of Lisieux to celebrate the 150th anniversary of her birth.
A common theme among the many Apostolic Letters of Pope Francis is the financial management of the Vatican. Of the Apostolic Constitutions, Veritatis Gaudium, on the Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties (2017), was of global application. It reiterated many of the principles in earlier Apostolic Constitutions but added an explicit endorsement of inter-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary studies.
The Pontificate of Francis is also associated with a large number of Motu Proprios, many more than the previous two pontificates. The two most highly discussed are: Traditionis custodes (2021) and Ad theologiam promovendam (2023). The first has been controversial because it seeks to limit the practice of what Benedict XVI called the ‘Extraordinary Form’ of the Mass. In other words, it seeks to undo Benedict’s Summorum Pontificum Motu Proprio of 2007. Ad theologiam promovendam called for a ‘paradigm shift’ in the study of theology to make it more interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and contextual.
4.1 The dicastery of the doctrine of the faith under Francis
In the early years of the pontificate of Francis, the leadership of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith was carried by prefects who had been promoted during the pontificate of Benedict XVI – Cardinal Gerhard Müller (2012–2017) and Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer (2017–2023). However, in July 2023, Pope Francis named his fellow Argentinian and long-time supporter Victor Manuel Fernández as Prefect for the renamed Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Fernández is famous for his opposition to John Paul II’s encyclical Veritas splendor and for his publication of a book about kissing. Under his direction, in December 2023 the Dicastery released the declaration Fiducia Supplicans: On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings, prompted by the pastoral issue of same-sex couples (who are by the fact of their sexual practices denied access to Communion) coming forward to ask for blessings. The document distinguishes between ‘liturgical blessings’ and ‘non-liturgical blessings’. By allowing a ‘non-liturgical blessing’, that is, a blessing outside of any liturgical context, the document declares that it is possible to bless couples in irregular situations and same-sex unions ‘without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage’. The document was widely criticized and has been rejected in some dioceses, including nine dioceses in France, as well as dioceses throughout Africa where it has been described as an exercise in Western imperialism. The Polish Bishops’ conference responded to the document by issuing a statement to the effect that
since practicing sexual acts outside marriage, that is, outside the indissoluble union of a man and a woman open to the transmission of life, is always an offense against the will and wisdom of God expressed in the sixth commandment of the Decalogue, people who are in such a relationship cannot receive a blessing. (Statement of the Polish Episcopal Conference, 21 December 2023, citing a March 2021 “Responsum” from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and reported in Arnold 2023)
The Hungarian Bishops’ Conference decreed that ‘priests should always avoid common blessings for couples who live together in a non-marital partnership or a marriage that is not valid in the Church, or who live in a same-sex partnership’ (Statement of the Hungarian Bishop’s Conference, 27 December 2023). The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church also completely rejected the document.
Fiducia supplicans was followed by another declaration from the Dicastery of the Faith titled ‘Dignitas Infinita’ (on Human Dignity) in April 2024. It has given rise to some academic discussions about whether or not human dignity is always ‘infinite’ or whether it is something that can be diminished by sin.
4.2 Dominant theological interests of the pontificate of Francis
The pontificate of St John Paul II was focused on theological anthropology and moral theology, and the pontificate of Benedict XVI on liturgical theology and fundamental theology. Both were heavily imbued with the influence of Communio-style theology (that is, the theology associated with the journal Communio: International Catholic Review that was founded by Joseph Ratzinger, Henri de Lubac and Hans Urs von Balthasar, among others). The pontificate of Francis, however, has a focus on social and environmental teaching and is heavily imbued with the influence of liberation theology, especially the Argentinian variant known as ‘People’s Theology’.
Liberation theology is a relatively new movement in Catholic theology, arising from a post-World War II interest in the relationships between theology and politics and theology and economics. Rather than partnering scripture with concepts borrowed from the world of Greek philosophy, such as logos, nous, and natural law, liberation theology begins with the categories of experience and practice (praxis). For most practitioners of liberation theology, the Bible provides texts for reflection. What is important is not what a particular biblical author intended to say or what actually happened, historically speaking, the important issue is what ideas arise from the reflection against the background of the reader’s social circumstances. Different liberation theologies arose depending on the particular social theory or theories informing the reflections upon praxis. The Argentinian variant known as Teologia del Pueblo (Theology of the People) prides itself on being Peronist rather than Marxist. Its leading proponents include Juan Carlos Scannone SJ (1931–2019) who was a student of Karl Rahner and friend and former teacher of Pope Francis, Lucio Gera (1924–2012), and Rafael Tello (1917–2002).
Pope Francis is said to have been heavily influenced by the Teologia del Pueblo. Unlike some other forms of liberation theology that discourage popular piety on the grounds that it distracts the uneducated from political activism, the Peronist variant of liberation theology affirms popular piety as an element of the popular culture. Key elements of the Peronist influence are the affirmation of popular culture and the concept of the ‘people’. In an essay published in 1977, entitled ‘Popular Culture: Pastoral and Theological Considerations’, Juan Carlos Scannone claimed that People’s Theology ‘regards both the popular culture and the pastoral care of the people as the hermeneutical locus, that is, the sphere of critical reflection, interpretation and knowledge, of the Christian message’ (Scannone 1977: 161). Specifically, he refers to the cultural ethos of the ‘Juan Pueblos’ (a Spanish version of the English ‘common Joe’) as a source of wisdom which has not been subject to ‘the distortions which, among the privileged, stem from ownership, power and learning’ (Scannone 1977: 163). Scannone posits this as a general theological principle, not limited to Argentinian ‘Juan Pueblos’. It is, he asserts,
the poor of all the nations to which the people of God is sent who most naturally possess the living wisdom which, in either case, constitutes the kernel of the Christian ethos and that of the cultural ethos of each people. (Scannone 1977: 170)
According to Michael R. Candelaria:
Scannone’s unique theology is geared toward an interpretation of popular culture. The key elements of this theology include making a break or epistemological rupture with conventional ways of doing theology; positing popular culture as the locus of interpretation; and conceiving the people as the authentic subject of theology. (Candelaria 1990: 50)
Professor Loris Zanatta of the University of Bologna has published an article entitled ‘Un papa peronista?’ in which he makes the claim that Pope Francis has used the word pueblo or people some 356 times in his papal speeches, that Pope Francis believes that poverty bestows upon people a moral superiority, and accordingly, for Pope Francis, the ‘deposit of the faith’ is to be found preserved among the poor living in ‘inner city neighbourhoods’ (Zanatta 2016: 240–249). Among the magisterial documents of Pope Francis, Evangelii gaudium offers principles for ‘building a people’ at paragraphs 221–236, and Fratelli tutti offers a reflection on the difficulty of understanding the concept of a people at paragraphs 157–160.
The Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia (2016) has been the most controversial of the documents of Pope Francis, apart from the recent Dicastery of the Doctrine for the Faith’s Fiducia supplicans. It affirmed elements of the nuptial mystery theology found in John Paul II’s Catechesis on Human Love, insofar as this theology was set out in the earlier sections of the Exhortation. However, chapter eight of the document generated a high level of controversy because of its ambivalent treatment of the issue of communion for the divorced and remarried. The issue was addressed in footnote 351, which stated that believers can be allowed to receive the sacraments ‘in an objective situation of sin’, ‘because of mitigating factors’. It has been described as the most famous footnote in the history of the Church. At a theological level the debate is over two things. First, what precisely is meant by footnote 351? Second, if footnote 351 is construed to mean that in certain circumstances (other than situations of a Josephite relationship) a person who is divorced and re-partnered may take Communion, how can this be consistent with previous magisterial teaching? Paragraph 84 of John Paul II’s Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris consortio, and paragraph 29 of Benedict XVI’s Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, both expressly rejected the practice of allowing Communion for the divorced and remarried. The ambivalent nature of the document has allowed it to be given different interpretations in different dioceses. The bishops in the Buenos Aires region have produced their own guidelines for interpreting the footnote and, in a letter to the Argentinian bishops dated 5 September 2016, Pope Francis personally endorsed the guidelines and said that ‘there are no other interpretations’.
The controversy surrounding Amoris Laetitia has its roots in different approaches to fundamental theology. For some theologians, revelation does not include specific truth content. For some, revelation simply means the awakening of the human spirit to divine love. If this is so, then the theological tradition that recognizes a common set of doctrines and moral principles is obsolete. Moreover, if doctrinal unity is no longer necessary, then this has repercussions for the understanding of the Petrine Office, which loses its charism as a principle of unity. If the power of the keys is limitless (which is another way of saying that the exercise of the power of the keys is not circumscribed by the deposit of the faith, by scripture, or by tradition, classically understood, but is a kind of papal prerogative) then this represents a seismic shift in the field of ecclesiology. Within the field of moral theology itself there are different interpretations of the relationship between moral theology and dogmatic theology, and different understandings of the notion of conscience. It has been a general orientation of the pontificate of Francis to ‘read down’ the defence of moral absolutes found in previous magisterial documents, such as John Paul II’s Veritatis splendor (1993), in favour of an approach to moral theology that is more casuistic in the sense of being more open to finding ‘loop holes’ in the tradition or exceptions to the general principles.
Debates about moral and sacramental theology have been at the epicentre of various Synods held during the pontificate of Francis, especially the Synods on the Family (2014 and 2015) and the Synod on the Pan-Amazon Region (2019). While the issue of communion for the divorced and remarried dominated the Synods on the Family, the issue of clerical celibacy dominated the Synod on the Pan-Amazon region, along with the ‘Pachamama affair’. The latter refers to the appearance of images of Pachamama on the altar of a church inside the territory of the Vatican during the Amazonian Synod as part of the celebration of the culture of the peoples of the Amazon Basin.
As of October 2024, a Synod on Synodality is in operation, showcasing a number of the principles embodied in the Teologia del Pueblo, such as the inclusion of delegates without any formal theological training.
