Papal and Other Vatican Documents

Documents of the Second Vatican Council

Other Resources

Parish Bulletin Articles

Papal and Other Vatican Documents 

This encyclical on evangelization speaks of the privilege and obligation of Catholics to bear witness to the faith and to Christian life through many sorts of missionary activity. “Faith is strengthened when it is given to others,” explains the Pope.

This Apostolic Exhortation is considered to be ‘the program of the new millennium’ on Catholic life and evangelization for the Church throughout the Americas. Though the region stretches from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego , it is considered as one America by the Pope. “Everything planned in the Church must have Christ and his Gospel as its starting point. Therefore, the Church in America must speak increasingly of Jesus Christ…”

This Apostolic Exhortation is sub-titled “On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World.” Its purpose is to promote a greater awareness among Catholic laity-“laborers in the vineyard”-of both the gift and the responsibility they share in the mission of the Church.

In this Encyclical Letter, On the Eucharist in its Relationship to the Church, the Pope recalls that the Apostles knew and recognized the risen Christ ‘in the breaking of the bread’. The early Church grew from a devotion to the Apostle’s teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread and  prayers. “The ‘breaking of the bread’ refers to the Eucharist,” he states. To contemplate Christ involves recognizing Him “above all in the living sacrament of His body and His blood.”

At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope John Paul wrote this address to the entire Church, to set out a course for the future. “Our spirit is set in one direction, the only direction for our intellect, will and heart is-towards Christ our Redeemer, towards Christ, the Redeemer of man. We wish to look towards him-because there is salvation in no one else but him, the Son of God- repeating what Peter said: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

This Apostolic Exhortation calls for the commitment to evangelize the modern world. “We wish to do so on this tenth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, the objectives of which are definitively summed up in this single one: to make the Church of the twentieth century ever better fitted for proclaiming the Gospel to the people of the twentieth century.”

In this Apostolic Letter at the close of the Great Jubilee of 2000, the Holy Father laid out the task for all clergy and faithful to build on the grace of the Jubilee, to contemplate the face of Christ, and then show Him to a world desiring this light. “Only faith could fully enter the mystery of that face.”

“This is why we are searching for, along with permanent and uninterrupted and never to be interrupted evangelization, a new evangelization, capable of being heard by that world that does not find access to ‘classic’ evangelization. Everyone needs the Gospel; the Gospel is destined to all and not only to a specific circle and this is why we are obliged to look for new ways of bringing the Gospel to all.”

Documents of the Second Vatican Council

This document extensively discusses and reveals the nature of the Church and her universal mission, which requires a greater urgency in the modern world “so that all men, joined more closely today by various social, technical and cultural ties, might also attain fuller unity in Christ.”

‘Indeed, the Lord Jesus, when He prayed to the Father, "that all may be one. . . as we are one" (John 17:21 -22) opened up vistas closed to human reason, for He implied a certain likeness between the union of the divine Persons, and the unity of God's sons in truth and charity. This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.’ (GS 24).

Other Documents and Resources

This article wonderfully captures and expresses the theme of evangelization as our response today to Chirst's summons to proclaim the Gospel to all nations -- a task far from being completed -- and as our reaction to Christ's passion, death and resurrection. Pulling in a variety of sources, this article gives a great 'big picture' summary of the New Evangelization.