Church Documents

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Church Documents · Via Fidei

The Magisterium

Church Documents

Encyclicals, council documents, the Catechism, and Canon Law — each linked to its official source.

Encyclical
Ad Caeli Reginam
The encyclical on the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, given to crown the Marian Year kept for the centenary of the definition of the Immaculate Conception. Pius XII traces the title of Queen through Scripture, the Fathers, the liturgy and Christian art, and explains its foundation: Mary is Queen because she is the Mother of the Son of God and King, and because she was associated with him as the new Eve in the work of redemption — a queenship of grace and of intercession, wholly derived from and subordinate to the kingship of Christ, exercised in mercy for the members of his body. By this letter the Pope decreed the liturgical feast of the Queenship of Mary, to be kept each year throughout the world, and asked that the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary be renewed on the same day. In the reformed calendar the memorial is kept on 22 August, the octave day of the Assumption.
Read on vatican.va →
Council Document
Ad Gentes
The Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity. Its doctrinal principles ground mission not in strategy but in the Trinity: the Church is missionary by her very nature because she is born of the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father who wills all to be saved. The decree then describes missionary work itself — the witness of Christian life and charity, the preaching of the Gospel, the catechumenate and Christian initiation — and the forming of local Christian communities with their own clergy, religious and lay apostolate, until a young Church can take its own share in the mission of the whole Church. Further chapters treat the vocation and formation of missionaries, the ordering and planning of missionary activity, and the cooperation owed by bishops, priests, religious and laity everywhere.
Read on vatican.va →
Apostolic Letter
Admirabile Signum
A short apostolic letter on the meaning and importance of the nativity scene, signed at Greccio, where Saint Francis of Assisi made the first crib in 1223. It recounts that night as Thomas of Celano describes it, and then walks through the figures of the presepe one by one — the starry sky and the night, the ruins and the landscape, the shepherds and the poor, the angels and the star, the figures of daily work, Mary and Joseph, and finally the Child laid in the manger — explaining what each says about the Incarnation, and encouraging the custom in homes, workplaces and public places.
Read on vatican.va →
Encyclical
Aeterni Patris
The encyclical of Pope Leo XIII calling for the restoration of Christian philosophy according to the mind of Saint Thomas Aquinas, affirming the harmony of faith and reason.
Read on vatican.va →
Apostolic Exhortation
Africae Munus
The post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the Church in Africa in service to reconciliation, justice and peace, signed at Ouidah in Benin after the 2009 Second Special Assembly for Africa. Its first part treats the theological and spiritual foundations: conversion, the sacrament of Reconciliation, the family, the dignity of women, and the Church as the family of God on the continent. The second part turns to the concrete tasks of the members of the Church — bishops, priests, catechists, the lay faithful — and to the fields of action: governance and civil society, health care, education, communications, and dialogue with Islam and with traditional African religion.
Read on vatican.va →
Apostolic Exhortation
Amoris Laetitia
The post-synodal apostolic exhortation on love in the family, gathering the work of the two Synods of Bishops of 2014 and 2015. Its nine chapters move from the Scriptures on the family, through the realities and challenges families face today, to the Church's teaching on marriage as an indissoluble covenant open to life. Chapter four is an extended meditation on Saint Paul's hymn to charity applied to married love; later chapters treat the education of children, pastoral perspectives on preparation for marriage and on accompanying couples in the first years, a spirituality of the family, and the accompaniment, discernment and integration of those in irregular situations.
Read on vatican.va →
Apostolic Constitution
Anglicanorum Coetibus
The apostolic constitution providing for personal ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church, issued in response to repeated petitions from groups of Anglican clergy and faithful. It establishes a canonical structure — the personal ordinariate, juridically comparable to a diocese — within which former Anglicans may be received corporately while retaining elements of the Anglican patrimony of liturgy, spirituality and pastoral practice that are consonant with Catholic faith. Complementary norms issued with it govern the ordinary, the admission of married former Anglican clergy to Catholic ordination, and the formation of seminarians.
Read on vatican.va →
Apostolic Letter
Apostolicae Curae
The apostolic letter in which Leo XIII gave the Holy See's judgement on the validity of Anglican ordinations, after a specially appointed commission had examined the question and the Pope had reviewed the practice of his predecessors. Rehearsing the constant discipline by which converted Anglican clergy had been ordained absolutely, and examining the Edwardine Ordinal itself, the letter concludes that the rite is defective in form, because its words do not signify definitely the order of the priesthood with its power to consecrate and offer the Body and Blood of the Lord, and defective in intention, because those who framed and used it deliberately set aside the Church's sacrificial priesthood. Leo XIII therefore declares ordinations carried out according to the Anglican rite to have been and to be absolutely null and utterly void, and the letter remains the Church's authoritative judgement on the question. The Holy See publishes the text in Latin.
Read on vatican.va →
Council Document
Apostolicam Actuositatem
The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, promulgated on the same day as Dei Verbum. The Council teaches that the lay apostolate derives from the Christian vocation itself, from baptism and confirmation and the charity poured out by the Holy Spirit, so that the Church can never be without it. Six chapters treat the vocation of the laity to share in the Church's saving mission; the twofold objective of that apostolate — the evangelisation and sanctification of others, and the renewal of the temporal order from within, together with works of charity; the fields in which it is exercised, from the parish and the family to youth, the social milieu, and the national and international spheres; its individual and organised forms, including Catholic Action; its right relationship with the hierarchy; and the formation that equips lay people for it.
Read on vatican.va →
Encyclical
Caritas in Veritate
Pope Benedict XVI's social encyclical on integral human development in charity and truth, addressing globalization, economic life, the environment, and the centrality of charity rooted in truth.
Read on vatican.va →
Encyclical
Casti Connubii
The encyclical of Pope Pius XI on Christian marriage, upholding its sanctity, indissolubility, and openness to life against the errors of the age.
Read on vatican.va →
Catechism
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Promulgated by Pope John Paul II in 1992, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is the official synthesis of Catholic doctrine in four pillars: The Profession of Faith (the Creed), The Celebration of the Christian Mystery (the Sacraments), Life in Christ (the moral life), and Christian Prayer (the Our Father).
Read on vatican.va →
Encyclical
Centesimus Annus
Marking the centenary of Rerum Novarum, Pope John Paul II reflects on the collapse of communism, the limits and proper role of the free economy, and the priority of the human person and the common good in social and economic life.
Read on vatican.va →
Apostolic Exhortation
Christifideles Laici
The post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the vocation and mission of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world, following the 1987 Synod of Bishops. Structured on the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, it presents the lay faithful in the mystery of the Church as sharers by baptism in Christ's priestly, prophetic and kingly office; describes the parish and the associations of the faithful as places of communion; sets out the secular character of the lay vocation as the sanctification of temporal realities; and treats the particular gifts of women, young people, the sick and the elderly, closing with a call to formation.
Read on vatican.va →
Council Document
Christus Dominus
The Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church, which takes up in practical terms what Lumen Gentium had taught doctrinally about the episcopate. Three chapters treat the bishops in relation to the universal Church — their share, with and under the Roman Pontiff, in care for the whole Church, the newly established Synod of Bishops, and the wish that the Roman Curia be reorganised and internationalised; then the bishop in his own diocese as teacher of the faith, sanctifier and shepherd, with directives on preaching, catechesis, the diocesan curia and pastoral council, pastors and parishes, and the resignation of bishops who can no longer fulfil their office; and finally the cooperation of bishops for the common good of several churches, through episcopal conferences and the revision of diocesan and provincial boundaries.
Read on vatican.va →
Apostolic Exhortation
Christus Vivit
The post-synodal apostolic exhortation to young people and to the entire People of God, following the 2018 Synod of Bishops on young people, faith and vocational discernment, and signed at the shrine of Loreto. Its nine chapters begin with what the word of God says about the young, present Jesus as forever young and the Church's youth, listen to the situation of young people today, and then proclaim three great truths: God loves you, Christ saves you, he is alive. The later chapters treat youth ministry, roots and the elderly, vocation as a call to love and to work, and discernment.
Read on vatican.va →
Code of Canon Law
Code of Canon Law (1983)
The Codex Iuris Canonici for the Latin Church, promulgated by John Paul II with the apostolic constitution Sacrae Disciplinae Leges on 25 January 1983 and in force from the following First Sunday of Advent. It replaces the 1917 Code and translates the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council into law across seven books: General Norms; The People of God; The Teaching Office of the Church; The Sanctifying Office of the Church; The Temporal Goods of the Church; Sanctions in the Church; and Processes. It governs the Latin Church alone; the Eastern Catholic Churches have their own code.
Read on vatican.va →
Code of Canon Law
Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (1990)
The Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium, promulgated by John Paul II with the apostolic constitution Sacri Canones on 18 October 1990 and in force from 1 October 1991. It is the first common code for all the Eastern Catholic Churches, drawn from the ancient canonical patrimony of the Eastern traditions and completing, with the 1983 Latin Code, the codification of the Church's law. Its thirty titles cover the rights and obligations of the Christian faithful, patriarchal and major archiepiscopal Churches, eparchies, the sacraments of Christian initiation given together, monks and other religious, ecumenism, sanctions and procedures.
Read on vatican.va →
Catechism
Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
A faithful and certain synthesis of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, requested by John Paul II and approved and published by Benedict XVI with a motu proprio given on 28 June 2005. It follows the same four parts as the Catechism — the profession of faith, the celebration of the Christian mystery, life in Christ, and Christian prayer — but presents them in 598 questions and answers, with cross-references to the corresponding paragraphs of the Catechism. Sacred images introduce each part, and appendices gather the common prayers and a set of formulas of Catholic doctrine for memorisation.
Read on vatican.va →
Council Document
Council of Chalcedon
The fourth ecumenical council (451) promulgated the Chalcedonian Definition: Christ is one person in two natures, divine and human, 'without confusion, change, division, or separation.' It condemned Monophysitism (Eutychianism).
Read on en.wikipedia.org →
Council Document
Council of Constance
The sixteenth ecumenical council (1414–1418) ended the Western Schism — when rival claimants disputed the papacy — by securing the election of Pope Martin V. It also condemned the errors of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus.
Read on en.wikipedia.org →
Council Document
Council of Ephesus
The third ecumenical council (431) condemned Nestorianism and affirmed that the one person of Christ is both God and man, so that Mary is rightly called Theotokos — Mother of God — because the one she bore is the eternal Son made flesh.
Read on en.wikipedia.org →
Council Document
Council of Florence
The seventeenth ecumenical council (Basel–Ferrara–Florence, 1431–1445) worked for reunion with the Eastern churches, producing decrees of union with the Greeks, Armenians, and Copts, and articulated Catholic teaching on the procession of the Holy Spirit and papal primacy.
Read on en.wikipedia.org →
Council Document
Council of Trent
The nineteenth ecumenical council (1545–1563) was the engine of the Catholic Reformation in response to Protestantism. It defined justification, the seven sacraments, the relationship of Scripture and Tradition, the canon of Scripture, the sacrificial nature of the Mass, and decreed sweeping reform of clergy and seminaries.
Read on en.wikipedia.org →
Council Document
Council of Vienne
The fifteenth ecumenical council (1311–1312) suppressed the Order of the Knights Templar and addressed disputes over Franciscan poverty and Church reform.
Read on en.wikipedia.org →
Council Document
Dei Filius
The Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, approved in the third session of the First Vatican Council against the rationalism, pantheism and materialism of the nineteenth century. Four chapters treat God the Creator of all things, who made the world out of nothing by his free counsel; divine revelation, which it pleased God to give beyond what human reason could reach, so that the truths of religion may be known by all with firm certainty and no admixture of error; faith, the supernatural virtue by which we believe what God has revealed because of his authority, aided by grace and confirmed by the signs of credibility; and finally faith and reason, which can never be at variance since the same God gives both the light of reason and the gift of faith, though faith remains above reason and its mysteries are not demonstrable. Each chapter closes with canons. The Holy See publishes the text on vatican.va in Latin and Italian.
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Council Document
Dei Verbum
The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. Affirms that Tradition and Scripture, flowing from the same divine wellspring, are bound closely together; that the Magisterium serves the Word of God; and that Scripture must be read in the Spirit in whom it was written.
Read on vatican.va →
Apostolic Letter
Desiderio Desideravi
An apostolic letter to the bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons and lay faithful on the liturgical formation of the People of God, offered as a reflection rather than as new legislation after Traditionis Custodes. Taking its title from Christ's words at the Last Supper, it presents the liturgy as the place of encounter with the risen Lord, insists that the Council's liturgical reform is irreversible, and diagnoses the real problem as a lack of formation. It distinguishes formation for the liturgy from formation by the liturgy, treats the recovery of a capacity for symbols and for silence, and gives careful attention to the ars celebrandi.
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Encyclical
Deus Caritas Est
Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical. Reflects on God as love, the unity of love (eros and agape) in creation and salvation, and the practice of love by the Church as a community of love.
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Apostolic Letter
Dies Domini
An apostolic letter on keeping the Lord's Day holy, given on Pentecost 1998 in preparation for the Great Jubilee. It gathers five names for Sunday and gives a chapter to each: Dies Domini, the day of the Lord as the day of creation; Dies Christi, the day of the risen Lord and of the gift of the Spirit; Dies Ecclesiae, the day of the eucharistic assembly, where the Sunday obligation is explained as the response of a people gathered by the Lord; Dies Hominis, the day of rest, joy, solidarity and works of mercy; and Dies Dierum, Sunday as the primordial feast that reveals the meaning of time.
Read on vatican.va →