Recentiores episcoporum synodi
Recentiores episcoporum synodi is a letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Catholic Church dated May 17, 1979 on eschatological questions, which is called in the German translation letter on some questions of eschatology . In it, essential statements on eschatology are made and clarified.
In essence, the following statements are made:
"1. The Church believes in the resurrection of the dead (cf. the Apostles' Creed ).
2. The Church understands this resurrection to affect the whole person; for the elect this is nothing other than the extension of the resurrection of Christ himself to men.
3. The Church holds fast to the persistence and subsistence of a spiritual element after death that is endowed with consciousness and will, so that the “I of man” continues to exist, although in the meantime it lacks its full physicality. To denote this element, the Church uses the term “soul”, which has become firmly established through use in Scripture and tradition. Although she does not overlook the fact that this term has different meanings in Scripture, she believes that there is no valid reason to reject it, especially since some linguistic expression is simply necessary in order to sustain the faith of Christians.
4. The Church rejects all modes of thought and speech that would make her prayers, funeral rites and the cult of the dead lose their meaning and become incomprehensible: for all of this constitutes in its substance a Locus Theologicus .
5. According to the Holy Scriptures, the Church expects “the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory” (Dei Verbum, I, 4), which, according to her faith, is to be understood as differentiated and set apart from the situation of man immediately after his death.
6. In her teaching on the fate of man after his death, the Church excludes any explanation which would dispel the meaning of Mary's acceptance into heaven at that point that belongs to her alone: namely, that the bodily glorification of the Most Blessed Virgin is anticipation that glorification that is destined for all the rest of the elect.
7. Faithful to the New Testament and Tradition, the Church believes in the bliss of the righteous who will one day be with Christ. In the same way she believes that an eternal punishment hits the sinner in such a way that he is robbed of the view of God and that the effect of this punishment encompasses the whole being of the sinner. As for the elect, however, she believes that before the contemplation of God a purification can take place, which is completely different from the punishment of the damned. This is what the Church means when she speaks of Hell and Purgatory.
When speaking about the fate of man after death, one must especially beware of modes of representation that rely exclusively on arbitrary imaginations; Exaggerations in this regard are no small reason for the difficulties that the Christian faith often encounters. Those images, on the other hand, which we find related in the Holy Scriptures, deserve special reverence. You have to understand their deeper meaning and avoid the danger of weakening them too much, because that often evaporates the reality itself that is hinted at in these pictures. "
swell
- Official publication (Latin): AAS 71 (1979), 939-943, as PDF .
- German version on the Vatican website
- Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference (ed.): Letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on some questions of eschatology (pronouncements of the Apostolic See, No. 11) (out of print), as PDF .
- excerpts (Latin / German) in: DH 4650–4659 .