60 years of Ecclesiam suam: What are the fruits of the encyclical of Saint Paul VI?

This August 6 marks 60 years of His own churchon the “mandate” of the Church in the contemporary world, the first encyclical of Saint Paul VI and which can be defined as a “programmatic text” that relaunches some fundamental themes of the renewal proposed by the Second Vatican Council.

In fact, with this encyclical Paul VI continued the update (the update) announced by Saint John XXIII in the opening speech of the first conciliar session, Mother Church rejoicesin which he highlighted the “task” of the Church, which “in our time (…) prefers to use the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.”

After 60 years, this document remains a point of reference for the reform of the Church, as can be seen from the conversation with the Franciscan priest Fabio Nardelli, professor of Ecclesiology at the Theological Institute of Assisi and the Pontifical University Antonianum. of Rome, as well as an assistant at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Lateran University of Rome, whom we ask to tell us the reason why Saint Paul VI wrote this encyclical:

“The Pope meditated at length on the text of his first encyclical, whose fundamental lines he had already anticipated in the opening speech of the second session of the Second Vatican Council. Greetings, brothers, on September 29, 1963. The document was considered by many as a ‘program’ of his pontificate, revealing the depth of his soul. The context in which it was born is that of the 1960s, considered a time of great transformation and economic development, with which a true ‘Copernican revolution’ came and the Church was necessarily called to relate to everyone. The encyclical His own church intended to make clear to ‘everyone’ how essential the Church is for the salvation of human society and, at the same time, how much the ecclesial community cares about the encounter with humanity.”

For the Church, what are the ways through which it can fulfill the mandate entrusted to it by Jesus?

“The Church is called to rediscover the awareness of what the Lord desires and, consequently, fulfill a mission that transcends it, spreading the announcement of the Gospel, living the missionary mandate of the Risen Lord (see Mt 28:16-20). On this path, first of all, according to Pope Paul VI, ‘the renewed discovery of her vital relationship with Christ’, which is the ‘beginning’ and the ‘way’, was urgent. Pope Montini’s ecclesiology is clearly Christocentric and the Church lives and works to continue and spread the very mission of the Master.”

Why did Pope Saint Paul VI underline the Church’s ‘zeal’ for peace?

“Within the session dedicated to dialogue, particularly towards ‘men of good will’, Pope Paul VI addressed the issue of ‘peace’ as an opportunity for encounter between peoples and invited the Church to take care and attention to achieve greater authentic peace among men as a path of renewal and reconciliation. Later, on January 1, 1968, he instituted the World Day of Prayer for Peace as an opportunity for conversion and prayer for all humanity.”

What is the mission that the Church is called to fulfill?

“The missionary action of Christ ‘continues’ through the Church and in the Church, in that it prolongs in the present time the same universal saving action of Christ. It maintains that the Church exists as a ‘witness’ of the Gospel and therefore carries out all its gestures (announcement, sacraments, charity) allowing itself to be molded by the living force of the Word of God with which it is constituted as a community of hope and fraternity, living its evangelizing dimension as a constitutive experience. The mission of the Church is not possible without a deep and continuous ‘ecclesial renewal’.”

What importance does “missionary” dialogue have in the encyclical?

“With the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, dialogue became a cornerstone of the missionary task of the Church and in the encyclical His own church He clarified how necessary authentic ecclesiastical self-awareness and the consequent reform are. Pope Paul VI divided the recipients of missionary dialogue according to the logic of ‘concentric circles’: a) all men of good will; b) all men who worship the one and supreme God; c) all Christians of other confessions. In summary, it can be considered that Pope Montini has adopted evangelization as a style of identity of the Church and dialogue as a style of mission.”

60 years later, what are the fruits of this encyclical?

“The encyclical His own church wanted to deepen the ‘conscience’ of the Church, with a view to update to weave authentic and meaningful relationships with the contemporary world. The text, after 60 years, returns to contemporary man and the current synodal context the image of a Church in continuous discovery, linked to Christ and in continuous reform to open itself to dialogue with otherness. It can be stated, in summary, that the centrality of Christ and the proclamation of the Gospel can be considered the only ways to follow for an authentic path of conversion and continue to be two essential and unsurpassable aspects of Montinian Magisterium. The testimony of the encyclical His own church “It offers a balanced ecclesiological vision that puts at the center the being and action of the Church, that is, its identity and specific mission.”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in ACI Press.