Lumen fidei

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Lumen Fidei ( "light of faith") is the first encyclical of Pope Francis . With her, a joint encyclical of two popes was published on June 29, 2013, for the first time in the history of the Roman Catholic Church . The 82-page text is based on a begun, but not completed encyclical of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI . The encyclical was only signed by Francis.

On July 5, 2013, the encyclical was presented in the Vatican Audience Hall in the following languages: Latin , German , Italian , English , French , Spanish and Portuguese .

Central statement

The central message of the text is that faith must necessarily have consequences for the actions of Christians in society. Faith can and must “ enrich human life in all its dimensions. "Francis calls for faith" to be placed in the concrete service of justice, justice and peace. “Christians should also stand up for human dignity , the protection of marriage and the family , respect for creation and for peace and just forms of government . For this it is necessary to “ regain the light of faith [even if faith] in modern society is often described as unreasonable, useless and deceptive and threatens to obscure it. "Faith and reason are" not in contradiction "to one another.

Joint authorship

Pope Benedict declared 2013 the year of faith , that is, a year of intensive reflection on faith, “especially in a moment of profound changes”. When Benedict XVI. resigned and could no longer complete his fourth encyclical, which was supposed to deal with the subject of faith, his successor Francis offered him: "Then let's just write an encyclical for four hands". "In the fraternity in Christ I take over his valuable work and add a few more articles to the text", Francis is quoted by the news magazine Der Spiegel .

Father Bernd Hagenkord , editor-in-chief of the German program at Vatican Radio , explained: “Pope Francis took up the text, he says it literally in the encyclical. He added a few things. His own things. But he is very grateful that he found a text and completed the project of the encyclicals on theological virtues ” .

Appreciation

The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference , Archbishop Robert Zollitsch , describes the fact that " this text, if you will, comes from the pen of two popes " as "a lucky coincidence ". Zollitsch praised it as “a remarkable sign that Pope Francis, despite all the differences in the people and charisms involved, [...] generously took over the preparation of the substance. “The Protestant regional bishop in Braunschweig , Friedrich Weber , Catholica representative of the VELKD , described the encyclical to the Catholic news agency as a central document of Christian ecumenism and as a“ solid foundation for future joint work ”.

Formal structure

After a brief introduction, the encyclical consists of four chapters:

  • WE HAVE FAITHFULLY ACCEPTED LOVE
  • IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND
  • I DELIVER WHAT I HAVE RECEIVED TO YOU
  • GOD IS PREPARING A CITY FOR YOU

These each have four to six sub-chapters.

Book editions

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Vatican publishes first encyclical by two popes , swissinfo.ch, accessed on July 5, 2013
  2. ↑ a b Two Popes in the “Light of Faith” , SWR of July 5, 2013, accessed on July 5, 2013
  3. ↑ a b “Light of Faith”: Vatican publishes first encyclical from two popes , Der Spiegel , accessed on July 5, 2013
  4. ^ "Lumen fidei" published - a four-hand encyclical , Wiener Zeitung , accessed on July 5, 2013
  5. ^ A b Tilmann Kleinjung: Popes publish joint encyclicals - tagesschau.de. ( Memento from July 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Website tagesschau.de. Retrieved July 24, 2013.
  6. ↑ Weber appreciates encyclical , in: Die Tagespost, July 18, 2013, p. 4.