The encyclical opens with an assertion of the competency of the magisterium of the Catholic Church to decide questions of morality.

The encyclical acknowledges that " perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching ", but points out that the Roman Catholic Church cannot " declare lawful what is in fact unlawful ", because she is concerned with " safeguarding the holiness of marriage, in order to guide married life to its full human and Christian perfection.

The Jesuit Journal Sic dedicated one edition to the encyclical with supportive contributions.

Paul defended the encyclical, saying “ It does not surprise the Church that she becomes, like her divine Founder, a ‘ sign of contradiction ’; yet she does not, because of this, cease to proclaim with humble firmness the entire moral law, both the natural law and the law of the Gospel.

The authority which the magisterium enjoys by the will of Christ exists so that the moral conscience can attain the truth with security and remain in it .” John Paul quoted Humanae Vitae as a compassionate encyclical, " Christ has come not to judge the world but to save it, and while he was uncompromisingly stern towards sin, he was patient and rich in mercy towards sinners ".

In his encyclical Mediator Dei, Pius XII links liturgy with the last will of Jesus Christ.

In the English-speaking world, the Douay-Rheims Bible — translated from the Latin Vulgate by expatriate recusants in Rheims, France in 1582 ( New Testament ) and in Douai, France in 1609 ( Old Testament )— which was revised by Bishop Richard Challoner in 1749 – 1752 ( the 1750 revision is that which is printed today ), was, until the prompting for " new translations from the original languages " given by Pope Pius XII in the 1942 encyclical letter Divino afflante spiritu and the Second Vatican Council, the translation used by most Catholics ( after Divino afflante spiritu, translations multiplied in the Catholic world, just as they multiplied in the Protestant world around the same time beginning with the Revised Standard Version, with various other translations being used around the world for English-language liturgies, ranging from the New American Bible, the Jerusalem Bible, the Revised Standard Version Second Catholic Edition, and the upcoming English Standard Version Catholic lectionary ).

* June 2 – Pope Paul III publishes the encyclical Sublimis Deus, which declares the natives of the New World to be rational beings with souls who must not be enslaved or robbed.

He is known for intellectualism, the development of social teachings with his encyclical Rerum Novarum and his attempts to define the position of the Church with regard to modern thinking.

In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor on reparations, Pope Pius XI called Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ a duty for Catholics and referred to them as " some sort of compensation to be rendered for the injury " with respect to the sufferings of Jesus.

In October 1948, as the 1948 Arab – Israeli War was in progress, Pope Pius XII, deeply disturbed by that violent conflict, issued the encyclical " In Multiplicibus Curis ", in which he called on the peace-makers to give Jerusalem and its outskirts " an international character " and to assure-" with international guarantees "-freedom of access and worship at the holy places scattered throughout Palestine.

Pope Pius XII, who had a particular interest in the liturgy, wrote in his 1947 encyclical Mediator Dei that " the use of the mother tongue in connection with several of the rites may be of much advantage to the people ", though he stated at the same time that only the Holy See had the authority to grant permission for the use of the vernacular.

The first encyclical written by Pope Benedict XV coincided with the beginning of World War I, which he labelled The Suicide of Civilized Europe.

The encyclical Humani Generis Redemptionem from 15 June 1917, deals with blatant ineffectivenesss of Christian preaching.

In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor on reparations, Pope Pius XI called Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ a duty for Catholics and referred to them as " some sort of compensation to be rendered for the injury " with respect to the sufferings of Jesus.

An encyclical letter to all Christians In defence of his resignation is unedited, as are also a Dialogue with two Turks about the divinity of Christ, and a work about the Adoration of God.

The archbishop opened the conference with an address: deliberation followed ; committees were appointed to report on special questions ; resolutions were adopted, and an encyclical letter was addressed to the faithful of the Anglican Communion.

The reports of the special committees ( based in part upon those of the committee of 1867 ) were embodied in the encyclical letter, which described the best mode of maintaining union, voluntary boards of arbitration, the relationship between missionary bishops and missionaries ( a particular problem in India ), chaplains in continental Europe, modern forms of infidelity and the best way of dealing with them and the condition, progress and needs of the churches.

The encyclical letter is accompanied by sixty-three resolutions ( which include careful provision for provincial organisation and the extension of the title archbishop " to all metropolitans, a thankful recognition of the revival of brotherhoods and sisterhoods, and of the office of deaconess ," and a desire to promote friendly relations with the Eastern Churches and the various Old Catholic bodies ), and the reports of the eleven committees are subjoined.

Pope Pius XI in his encyclical letter Miserentissimus Redemptor ( on May 8, 1928 ) affirmed the Church's position with respect to Saint Margaret Mary's visions of Jesus Christ by stating that Jesus had " manifested Himself " to Saint Margaret and had " promised her that all those who rendered this honor to His Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces.

In the 1979 encyclical Redemptor Hominis Pope John Paul II explained the theme of unity of Mary's Immaculate Heart with the Sacred Heart.

At first, both conservatives and liberals found elements in the encyclical to which to appeal.

The encyclical declared private property a fundamental principle of natural law.

Against this background to the encyclical, Faulhaber suggested in an internal Church memorandum that the bishops should inform the Nazi regime “ that the Church, through the application of its marriage laws, has made and continues to make, an important contribution to the state ’ s policy of racial purity ; and is thus performing a valuable service for the regime ’ s population policy .”

In the encyclical Longinqua oceani ( 1895 ; “ Wide Expanse of the Ocean ”), Leo indicated a generally positive view of the American Church, commenting mostly on the success of Catholicism in the US but also noting the view that the Church " would bring forth more abundant fruits if, in addition to liberty, she enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage of the public authority.

Most notably, early in 1937, Pacelli asked several German cardinals, including Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber to help him write a protest of Nazi violations of the Reichskonkordat ; this was to become Pius XI's 1937 encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge.

In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor, Pope Pius XI stated: " the spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ".

" The attempt by some twentieth-century Catholic theologians to present the Eucharistic change as an alteration of significance ( transignification rather than transubstantiation ) was rejected by Pope Paul VI in his 1965 encyclical letter Mysterium fidei In his 1968 Credo of the People of God, he reiterated that any theological explanation of the doctrine must hold to the twofold claim that, after the consecration, 1 ) Christ's body and blood are really present ; and 2 ) bread and wine are really absent ; and this presence and absence is real and not merely something in the mind of the believer.

Acknowledging the controversy, Paul VI in a letter to the Congress of German Catholics ( Aug. 30, 1968 ), stated: " May the lively debate aroused by our encyclical lead to a better knowledge of God ’ s will.

Benedict XVI wrote his first encyclical on " God is love ".

Mary, the mother of God, was the subject of encyclical letters to the people of Russia in Fulgens Corona, as well as a papal letter to the people of Russia.

Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Deus Caritas Est ( God is Love ) of 2006 refers to Song of Songs in both its literal and allegorical meaning, stating that erotic love ( eros ) and self-donating love ( agape ) is shown there as the two halves of true love, which is both giving and receiving.

* Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Deus Caritas Est (" God is Love ") of 2006 claims that justice is the defining concern of the state and the central concern of politics, and not of the church, which has charity as its central social concern.

" In his first encyclical ( E Supremi Apostolatus, 4 October 1903 ), he stated his overriding policy as follows: " We champion the authority of God.

In his encyclical on Ephraim the Syrian he depicts Ephraim as a model of Marian devotion to our mother who uniquely was predestined by God.

In his encyclical Dilectissima Nobis ( 1933 ), in which he addressed the situation of the Church in Republican Spain, he proclaimed, that the Church is not " bound to one form of government more than to another, provided the Divine rights of God and of Christian consciences are safe ", and specifically referred to " various civil institutions, be they monarchic or republican, aristocratic or democratic ".

The encyclical condemned particularly the paganism of the national-socialism ideology, the myth of race and blood, and the fallacy of their conception of God.

On December 17, 2007, in a statement on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines ( CBCP ) website, Pampanga archbishop Paciano Aniceto stated that Pope Benedict XVI assured Filipinos that God and the Church are still with them-in his encyclical " Spe Salvi facti sumus ( In hope we are saved ).

In the 1950 encyclical Humani generis, Pope Pius XII confirmed that there is no intrinsic conflict between Christianity and the theory of evolution, provided that Christians believed that the individual soul is a direct creation by God and not the product of purely material forces.

Some consider the first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est ( God is Love ), with its exposition of the relation between agape and eros, to be the culmination of John Paul II's Theology of the Body.

His first encyclical letters focused on the Triune God ; the very first was on Jesus the Redeemer (" Redemptor Hominis ").

In The Splendor of Truth (" Veritatis Splendor "), a papal encyclical concerning morality, he emphasised the dependence of man on God and his law (" Without the Creator, the creature disappears ") and the " dependence of freedom on the truth.