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Pope John Paul II The Encyclicals
Pope John Paul II The Encyclicals
THE ENCYCLICALS
IN EVERYDAY LANGUAGE
Denitive Edition of
All Fourteen Encyclicals
Third Edition
Edited by
Joseph G. Donders
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Third, denitive edition abridged version of John Paul II: The Encyclicals in Everyday
Language, with all fourteen encyclicals of Pope John Paul II, a new epilogue by the
author, and an enlarged index 2005 by Joseph G. Donders.
First edition, abridged in sense lines copyright 1996 by Joseph G. Donders. Second,
updated edition with abridged version of Fides et Ratio, an epilogue by the author, and
an enlarged index 2001 by Joseph G. Donders.
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Redeemer of Humankind
Redemptor Hominis
March 4, 1979
John Paul II outlines his pontical program. He refers to the great jubilee
of Jesus birth in the year 2000. His ponticate will be like an Advent
time, expecting Jesus. In the line of the Second Vatican Council he states
that looking at Jesus Christ we see who we really are. We are created in
Gods image and sharers in Gods life. This is the good news the church
has to preach and respect. It is the foundation of our human rights and of
our work for justice and human development. It asks for the reimagining
and the restructuring of the world as we know it. It is a truth that begs
for interreligious dialogue and Christian unity. It is this truth about the
human person that indicates the way the church should go.
I. INHERITANCE
1. At the Close of the Second Millennium
Jesus Christ is the center of the universe and of history.
This time, in which God entrusted to me
the universal service of the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome,
is very close to the year 2000.
2000 will be the year of the great jubilee,
recalling that the Word became esh and dwelt among us ( Jn 1:14).
It is in a way a time of a new Advent,
a season of expectation:
in these last days God spoke to us by his Son (Heb 1:12)
who became man, born of the Virgin Mary.
Redeemer of Humankind
I answered:
With obedience in faith to Christ, my Lord,
and with trust in the mother of Christ and of the church,
in spite of the great difculties, I accept,
making the link between the incarnation
and my ministry.
In the spirit of my predecessor John Paul I,
I chose the name John Paul II
to express my love for the unique inheritance
left to the church by John XXIII and Paul VI.
I wish to refer to that inheritance as a threshold,
from which I intend to continue into the future,
guided by the Spirit Christ promised and sent to his church.
Redemptor Hominis
Though it is true that the church
should have humility as its foundation,
and be critical as regards
its human character and activity,
criticism, too, should have its just limits.
Otherwise it ceases to be constructive,
wishing to direct the opinion of others
in accordance with ones own,
in too thoughtless a manner.
Paul VI, respecting every particle of truth,
preserved the providential balance
of the barks helmsman.
Though not free of internal difculties and tensions,
the church is at the moment more strengthened
against excesses of self-criticism,
more critical as regards thoughtless criticism,
more resistant to various novelties,
more mature in discernment,
better in bringing out its everlasting treasure,
more intent on its own mystery,
and because of all this
more serviceable for its mission of the salvation of all.
Redeemer of Humankind
Redemptor Hominis
Redeemer of Humankind
Redemptor Hominis
The name for that deep amazement
at our worth and dignity
is the Gospel, the good news.
It is also called Christianity.
This amazement determines
the churchs mission in the world,
and even more so in the modern world.
It vivies authentic humanism;
it xes Christs place in human history,
leading through cross and death to resurrection.
Redeemer of Humankind
Redemptor Hominis
Jesus Christ meets everyone with the same words:
You will know the truth
and the truth will make you free ( Jn 8:32),
words containing both
a requirement and a warning:
the requirement of an honest relationship to truth
and a warning against every illusory freedom.
Standing before Pilate Jesus said:
I was born to bear witness to the truth ( Jn 18:37).
All through the centuries he has been standing with those
condemned for the sake of truth.
14. For the Church All Ways Lead to the Human Person
As human beings are so closely linked to Christ
the church cannot overlook any of them.
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Redeemer of Humankind
Redemptor Hominis
These are questions that must be asked by all.
Are we developing and progressing,
or are we regressing and being degraded?
Does good prevail over evil?
The issue of development is on everybodys lips,
it lls newspapers all over the world,
but next to all afrmations and certainties,
it is a subject that also contains questions
and anguished disquiet.
The latter are of no less importance
than the former.
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Redemptor Hominis
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in seeing this sacrament of love
at the center of the life of the people of God,
truly becoming the life of our souls ( Jn 6:51, 57; 14:6; Gal 2:20).
And let us never forget Pauls words,
to examine ourselves before eating the bread
and drinking the cup (1 Cor 11:28).
This call links the Eucharist and Penance.
The rst words of the Gospel of good news was:
Repent and believe in the Gospel (Mk 1:15).
The same Christ who calls us to the eucharistic banquet
calls us to penance.
Without this conversion
the Eucharist would lack
its full redeeming effectiveness.
Christs self-giving to the Father
raises in us the need to turn to God
with a constant, ever more profound conversion.
In recent years much has been done
to highlight the community aspect of penance
in conformity with the most ancient tradition of the church.
We cannot, however, forget
that conversion is an act of the individual,
in which that individual cannot be replaced
by anyone else.
Defending individual confession,
the church is protecting an individual right,
the right to a more personal encounter
with the crucied forgiving Christ,
saying, through the minister:
Your sins are forgiven (Mk 2:5);
Do not sin any more ( Jn 8:11).
This is also Christs right
with regard to every human being
redeemed by him.
The sacrament of penance
ts in with the desires of the human conscience
hungering and thirsting for righteousness (Mt 5:6).
The church gathering in the Eucharist
should have a felt need for penance,
both as regards the sacrament,
but also for what concerns
penance as a virtue.
The church of the New Advent
must be the church of the Eucharist and of Penance,
the church of the Divine Mission.
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Redemptor Hominis
It is for this freedom that Christ
has set us free.
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