History of Church Letters

Précis of Official Catholic Teaching actually contains most of the history of Church teaching through encyclical letters. To understand why, let us briefly review the two thousand year history of Church letters.

The original Apostles, particularly St. Paul, used letters to keep in touch with far distant church communities. Twenty-one of these letters were included as part of the New Testament. After the Apostles passed into eternity, bishops often sent letters to one another, and sometimes to the faithful, to promote consistency in faith and discipline, especially about doctrines, feast-day celebrations, and liturgical calendars. The Bishop of Rome wrote epistles to bishops all over the world. He also received a great many letters from bishops all over the world and circulated them to other bishops.

The practice of circular letters fell into disuse during the Middle Ages, when the collegial bonds among bishops began to fray. The Holy See began to write letters to one bishop at a time concerning the affairs of his local diocese, and each diocesan bishop would in turn write only to the Holy See.

Pope Benedict XIV (1740-1758), helped by widespread use of the printing press, revived the ancient tradition of the Pope writing a common letter to all the bishops of the world; modern collections of papal letters usually begin with his papacy. Pope Gregory XVI (1831-1846) called these letters encyclicals, from the Latin encyclicus, circular, because they were intended for wide circulation. However, for papal letters published between 1740 and 1870, there was no agreement among scholars as to which were encyclicals. After Vatican I (1870) encyclical letters were clearly marked as such.

Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) restored an important characteristic of the early Christian circular letters. Encyclicals since 1740 had been primarily admonitions and exhortations regarding traditional issues; Pope Leo XIII addressed new substantive issues, such as Catholic social teaching. He wrote some seventy-five encyclicals, including such classics as Humanum Genus (1884) on Freemasonry, Rerum Novarum (1891) on Catholic social teaching, and Providentissimus Deus (1893) on Holy Scripture, and Annum Sacrum (1899) on consecration to the Sacred Heart.

During the twentieth century, Pope Pius X (1903-1914) wrote sixteen encyclicals, Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) wrote twelve, Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) wrote thirty, Pope Pius XII (1939-1958) wrote forty-one, Pope John XXIII (1958-1963) wrote eight, Pope Paul VI (1963-1978) wrote seven, and Pope John Paul II has so far written thirteen. All the important encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII and the twentieth century Popes are in Précis.

Since 1740 the Popes have produced nearly three hundred encyclicals, most of no continuing pastoral or theological interest. Pope Benedict XIV’s Quod Provinciale (1754) to the Bishops of Albania on the use of Islamic names by Christians, and Pope Leo XIII’s In Amplissimo (1902) thanking the American bishops for their good wishes on his anniversary, address no pressing needs for the Church Militant of our day. Indeed, among the encyclicals written before Pope John Paul II, perhaps ten percent are currently studied by faithful theologians.

Many Catholics have heard a priest or teacher observe that Pope John Paul II is one of the greatest Popes during the two thousand year history of the Church and wondered why. His role in the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1989 alone would suffice. His remarkable influence on religious freedom, the culture of life, interreligious dialogue, and worldwide evangelization would suffice as well. Within the scope of this review, his encyclicals have been extraordinary in their importance. Pope Paul VI set the stage with Humanae Vitae (1968), a bold stand against contraception, but Pope John Paul II has written a remarkable number of encyclicals that have had a powerful impact on the Church, and also on non-Catholics via the public media, such as Laborem Exercens (1981) and Centesimus Annus (1991) on Catholic social teaching, Veritatis Splendor (1993) on the splendor of the truth, Evangelium Vitae (1995) on the value of human life, Ut Unum Sint (1995) on ecumenism, and Fides et Ratio (1998) on the unity of faith and reason. Pope John Paul II has written encyclicals that have attracted only minor attention, such as Slavorum Apostoli (1985) on evangelization of the Slavic peoples, but his overall impact is astonishingly high. Because nearly all of the important teaching encyclicals began with Pope Leo XIII, Précis covers most of the history of Church teaching through encyclical letters.

Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals deserve special explanation. The Holy Father does not simply make a statement supported by persuasive arguments. Instead, using phenomenological analysis, which emphasizes careful description, John Paul II often approaches the same question from several different angles within a single document. He describes, thinks, judges, and then repeats the cycle often with only a slight variation. He also freely integrates insights from philosophy, theology, anthropology, and other disciplines. All this can be hard to follow for the reader who has not had seminary training. Most lay readers recognize his brilliant insights but find it hard to follow their logical development.

This phenomenological approach makes Pope John Paul II’s encyclicals much longer than the encyclicals of earlier Popes but also allows greater compression. John Paul II writes very deeply, with subtly embedded shadings of philosophical and theological insight. The highest Catholic scholars can see all this in his original texts, but most Catholic clergy and laity will find that the compression helps them see the encyclical’s overall message amid the strands of rigorous logic.

The phenomenological approach is also a clue to Pope John Paul II’s personal authorship of many of his encyclicals. Every Pope is assisted by the responsible dicastery in producing his encyclicals. In most cases the dicastery writes the encyclical according to the Holy Father’s instructions and submits it for his approval. The Holy Father makes changes as necessary and signs the final version. This is all highly confidential; the Pope’s signature makes it his encyclical. However, in Pope John Paul II’s case, his phenomenological approach and distinctive writing style make it possible to conclude that he pretty much writes his own encyclicals.

Pope John Paul II had said in his first encyclical, Redemptor Hominis (1979), that Vatican II was a providential event and that he is committed to implementing it. His encyclicals put great emphasis on the Vatican II documents, especially Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, and Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. In addition, John Paul II often quotes or cites Scripture in his encyclicals, overwhelmingly from the New Testament, especially The Gospel According to St. John and the Letter to the Romans. In the Old Testament, he most often quotes Genesis chapters 1 through 4. John Paul II generally lets Scripture speak for itself, without reference to historical or critical exegesis. He also refers often to the Church Fathers, especially St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, and also to the Doctors of the Church.

Encyclicals are not divinely inspired and do not contain new revelation, but they are authoritative teaching instruments from the Vicar of Christ. In descending order of formal authority, the papal documents are: apostolic constitutions, encyclical letters, encyclical epistles, apostolic exhortations, apostolic letters, letters, and messages. An encyclical letter is written for the whole Church, while an encyclical epistle is directed toward part of the Church, e.g., bishops or laity in a particular country, leaders of religious orders, priests, etc.