On Thursday, October 24, Pope Francis will publish the fourth encyclical of his pontificate entitled He loved usabout “the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ.”
The Pope had announced in June that he was preparing a document on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, noting that meditating on the love of the Lord can “illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal and say something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart.”
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Pope Francis described the document as something that “brings together the precious reflections of previous magisterial texts and a long history that goes back to the Holy Scriptures, to re-propose today to the entire Church this devotion imbued with spiritual beauty.”
“I think it will do us a lot of good to meditate on various aspects of the Lord’s love, which can illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal and say something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart,” the Holy Father said at the end of his general audience on June 5.
The encyclical is published in the midst of celebrations for the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to Saint Margaret Mary of Alacoque, which began on December 27, 2023 and will conclude on June 27, 2025.
The Vatican will hold a live press conference on Thursday, October 24 about the encyclical: “He loved us: Encyclical Letter on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.”
Archbishop Bruno Forte, Italian theologian and new member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, will present the encyclical to the press together with Sister Antonella Fraaccaro, superior of the Italian religious order Disciples of the Gospel (“Discipulas del Evangelio”).
He loved us It will be the fourth encyclical of Pope Francis after Brothers Allpublished in 2020, Laudato Si’published in 2015, and The Light of Faithpublished in 2013.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Courtney Mares
Courtney Mares is the Vatican correspondent for Catholic News Agency (CNA), EWTN News’ English agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and received the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.