What was the first encyclical written by John Paul II?
Pope John Paul II bibliography
The title of a Papal Encyclical is usually taken from its first few words. Pope John Paul II issued his first encyclical, "Redemptor hominis", on 4 March 1979. "Ecclesia de Eucharistia", his last encyclical, was issued on 17 April 2003.Notable Apostolic Exhortations of Pope John Paul II include:
The following is a list of works about the life and theology of Pope John Paul II.
Pacem in terris
F. Russell Hittinger describes the encyclical "as a kind of magna carta of the Catholic Church’s position on human rights and natural law". Pope John XXIII's 1963 encyclical "Pacem in terris" ("Peace on Earth") radically affected Catholic social teaching not only on war and peace, but on church-state relations, women's rights, religious freedom, international relations and other major issues. Fr. J. Bryan Hehir, called "Pacem in terris" "a pivotal text in [papal] encyclical history" that played a major role in the development of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration on Religious Freedom and its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, and on Pope John Paul II's encyclical "Centesimus annus" ("The Hundredth Year"), which marked the centennial of Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical on labor, Rerum Novarum. It also influenced the 1965 "Declaration on Religious Freedom" (Dignitatis humanae).