John Paul II The Pilgrim Pope

Compendium of Encyclical Letters John Paul II


Encyclicals should be divided by groups of related subjects. It is worth remembering first of all the trinitarian triptych of the years 1979-1986, which includes the encyclical Redemptor hominis, Dives in misericordia and Dominum et vivificantem. To the decade 1981-1991 belong the three social encyclicals: Laborem exercens, Sollicitudo rei socialis and Centesimus annus. Then there are the encyclicals dealing with ecclesiology: Slavorum apostoli (1985), Redemptoris missio (1990) and Ut unum sint (1995). In the ecclesiological sphere, the Pope's latest encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003), and the Marian Encyclical Redemptoris Mater (1987) can also be found.


Already in her first encyclical the Pope had intimately united the themes of Mother Church and Mother of the Church, widening them to the historical-theological and pneumatological sphere: "I implore above all Mary, the heavenly Mother of the Church, who deigns , In this prayer of the new Advent of humanity, persevere with us who form the Church, that is, the Mystical Body of his only begotten Son. I hope that, thanks to this prayer, we can receive the Holy Spirit descending upon us (cf. Acts 1: 8) and thus become witnesses of Christ "to the ends of the earth" (Redemptor hominis, 22). In Mariology, for the Pope, there are all the great themes of faith: there is no encyclical that does not conclude with a reference to the Mother of the Lord.


 And finally, we have three great doctrinal texts, which can be placed in the anthropological field: Veritatis splendor (1993), Evangelium vitae (1995) and Fides et ratio (1998).