Presenting Pope Francis' new
encyclical and acknowledging how much of it was prepared by retired Pope
Benedict XVI, top Vatican officials hailed it as a unique expression of
the development of papal teaching and unity in faith.
"It is a fortunate coincidence that this text was written, so to speak,
by the hands of two popes," said Archbishop Gerhard Muller, prefect of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at a news conference
July 5 marking the release of "Lumen Fidei" ("The Light of Faith").
"Notwithstanding the differences of style, sensibility and accent,
anyone who reads this encyclical will immediately note the substantial
continuity of the message of Pope Francis with the teaching of Pope
Benedict XVI," the archbishop said.
Archbishop Muller, along with Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the
Congregation for Bishops, and Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of
the Pontifical Commission for Promoting New Evangelization, emphasized
not only the collaboration of the two popes, but their shared view of
faith as a "common good," a gift that is transmitted and nourished by
the church, but is meant to be shared with all humanity.
Christians have an obligation, they said, to help others by proclaiming
the Gospel, but also by living their faith in order to transform the
world into a place of authentic brotherhood and care for the weakest.
Cardinal Ouellet told reporters, "A pillar was lacking in Benedict XVI's
trilogy on the theological virtues" begun with his encyclicals on love
and on hope. "Providence willed that this missing pillar should be both a
gift from the pope emeritus to his successor and a symbol of unity."
Pope Francis' decision to take up the work begun by Pope Benedict and
add some of his own reflections, which he states explicitly in the
encyclical, witnesses to their unity in faith, the Canadian cardinal
said. "The light of faith is passed from one pontiff to another like a
baton in a relay, thanks to 'the gift of the apostolic succession.'"
For Cardinal Ouellet, the encyclical's "shared mode of transmission
illustrates in an extraordinary way the most fundamental and original
aspect of the encyclical: its development of the dimension of communion
in faith," of the importance of believing in and with the church and of
living one's faith in solidarity with others.
The text of the finished encyclical, he said, reflects "much of Pope Benedict and all of Pope Francis."
Archbishop Muller added, "This is not a patchwork encyclical."
The encyclical bears the signature only of Pope Francis, he said,
because "we have only one pope. An encyclical is a papal document and it
is Pope Francis' encyclical."
Archbishop Fisichella said Pope Benedict "was not convinced he had to
undertake the effort" of writing an encyclical on faith, but so many
people insisted that he decided to write it and offer it to the church
at the end of the Year of Faith, which concludes in November.
"History had another idea," the archbishop said.
Archbishop Fisichella said that while there are obvious echoes of Pope
Benedict's teaching in the document, "it is fully the text of Pope
Francis" as seen in "the immediacy of the expressions used, the richness
of the images to which he refers and the particularity of some of the
citations of ancient and modern authors."
He said that, like the first encyclical of any pope, one can get from
the text an idea of what will be the main emphases of Pope Francis'
pontificate. In fact, he said, the encyclical repeatedly uses the three
verbs the pope used in his homily at Mass with cardinals the morning
after his election: "Walk, build, confess."
Archbishop Muller said that in the encyclical, and particularly "in the
meditations that he offers us by way of his daily homilies, Pope Francis
often reminds us that 'all is grace.' This affirmation, which in the
face of all the complexities and contradictions of life might seem naive
or abstract, is in fact an invitation to recognize the ultimate
goodness of reality."
"This is the purpose of the encyclical letter 'Lumen Fidei,'" he said.
"The light that comes from faith, from the revelation of God in Jesus
Christ and in his Spirit, illuminates the depths of reality and helps us
to recognize that reality bears within itself the indelible signs that
the work of God is good."
Cardinal Ouellet told reporters, "The encyclical presents the Christian
faith as a light that comes from listening to the Word of God in
history. It is a light that allows us to see the love of God at work,
establishing his covenant with humankind."
Pope Francis teaches that the light of faith "offers us human beings a
hope that gives us the courage to journey together toward a future of
full communion," he said.