| Ecclesiam Suam Latin for 'His Church' Encyclical of Pope Paul VI | |
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| Signature date | 6 August 1964 |
| Subject | The mandate of the Catholic Church in the modern world |
| Number | 1 of 7 of the pontificate |
| Text | |
Ecclesiam Suam is an encyclical of Pope Paul VI on the Catholic Church given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the Feast of the Transfiguration, 6 August 1964, the second year of his Pontificate.
Pope Paul called the Church founded by Jesus Christ as a loving mother of all men.[1] He states that in light of the ongoing Vatican Council he did not want to offer new insights or doctrinal definitions. He asked for a deeper self-knowledge, renewal and dialogue.[2] He also states that the Church itself was engulfed and shaken by a tidal wave of change, and was deeply affected by the climate of the world.[3]
Content
Paul VI quotes the encyclical Mystici Corporis of Pope Pius XII, as a key document:[4]
Consider, then, this splendid utterance of Our predecessor:
"The doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church, a doctrine revealed originally from the lips of the Redeemer Himself, and making manifest the inestimable boon of our most intimate union with so august a Head, has a surpassing splendor which commends it to the meditation of all who are moved by the divine Spirit, and with the light which it sheds on their minds, is a powerful stimulus to the salutary conduct which it enjoins."
In Ecclesiam suam, Paul VI invited separated Churches to unity, stating that the continued papacy is essential for any unity, because without it, in the words of Jerome: "There would be as many schisms in the Church as there are priests."[5] In this encyclical, Paul VI attempted to present the Marian teachings of the Church in view of her new ecumenical orientation. Ecclesiam suam called the Virgin Mary the ideal of Christian perfection. Pope Paul VI regarded "devotion to the Mother of God as of paramount importance in living the life of the Gospel."[6]
