MISSION AND EVANGELIZATION, PAPAL WRITINGS ON

Early papal writings on mission and evangelization dealt with specific issues or opportunities, and were usually addressed to missionaries, mission superiors or rulers. The earliest such example is the famous letter of pope gregory the great to St. Mellitus (d. 624), who was on his way to join St. Augustine in England. (Hist. Eccl. I, 30). This letter is remarkable for espousing a policy of graduality in the evangelization of the English people. Gregory the Great thought that while the idols were to be destroyed, their temples could be transformed for Christian worship, and their feasts could be replaced with feasts of Christian martyrs. In the Alexandrine Bulls, Pope alexander vi authorized the Portuguese and Spanish crowns to colonize the New World on the condition that they accepted the responsibility for converting its inhabitants to the Catholic Faith, thereby giving birth to the patronato real. When the shortcomings of the Patronato could no longer be ignored, Pope gregory xv issued a papal bull, Inscrutabili Divinae, authorizing the formation of the Congregation for the propagation of the faith (now known as the Congregation for the evangelization of peoples). Important 18th-century papal documents with far-reaching missiological consequences include Ex illa die (clement xi) and Ex quo singulari (benedict xiv) which prohibited the practice of Confucian ancestral veneration rituals by Chinese Catholic converts (see chinese rites controversy). Other papal documents called for the abolition of slavery in mission lands and the release of slaves by their owners.

In the late 19th century, Pope leo xiii wrote six major letters on mission and evangelization. His first letter, Sancta Dei civitas (Dec. 3, 1880), sought to modernize mission thinking by recalling the universality of mission. Two other apostolic letters, Humanae salutis (Sept. 1, 1886) and Ad extremas orientis plagas (June 23, 1893), dealt with the problem of missionary jurisdiction and indigenous clergy in India in the context of the centuries-old conflict between the Portuguese Padroado and Propaganda Fide. Two subsequent letters, In plurimis (May 8, 1888) and Catholicae ecclesiae (Nov. 20, 1890) dealt with the mission-related problem of slavery. In plurimis urged the Brazilian bishops to promote full abolition of slavery, while Catholicae ecclesiae was a letter supporting the campaign of Cardinal Charles lavigerie and his Society of missionaries of africa (the White Fathers) to eliminate slavery in Africa. Finally, the sixth letter, Orientalium dignitas ecclesiarum (Nov 30, 1894), dealt with the mission to the Eastern Church.

The twentieth century witnessed the emergence of a systematic body of papal teachings on mission and evangelization, beginning with Maximum illud, the Apostolic Letter of Pope benedict xv that was issued on Nov. 30, 1919. In this letter, Pope Benedict XV condemned missionary ethnocentrism and promoted the training of indigenous clergy in mission lands. He asserted that the chief aim of evangelization in mission lands was to make the missionary superfluous by training indigenous clergy for the eventual task of administering the local church. As far as he was concerned, the indigenous priest was not to "be trained for the sole purpose of assisting foreign missionaries in a subordinate ministry, but he must be fitted for his divine task and rendered able one day to undertake with credit the administration of his own people."

Known as the "Pope of the Missions," Pope pius xi reminded everyone in his encyclical Rerum ecclesiae (Feb. 28, 1926) that the whole Church was responsible for the task of mission, a point that subsequent popes would emphasize. He called for renewed efforts at building a strong body of indigenous clergy. He also foresaw the eventual possibility of decolonization and pointed out that disaster would befall the Church "unless full provision has been made for the needs of the Christian populace by a network of native priests throughout the whole country." Underlying his call for indigenous clergy to play an important role in the task of evangelization in the mission lands was his belief in the fundamental equality between the foreign missionary and indigenous clergy. Pius XI is remembered for being the first pope who personally consecrated indigenous Chinese, Indian and Japanese bishops.

Of the ten letters on mission that Pope pius xii wrote, the most important is Evangelii praecones (June 2, 1951), issued on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Pius XI's Rerum ecclesiae. Among other things, Pius XII adopted an approach to evangelization in mission lands that was reminiscent of Pope Gregory the Great in his letter to St. Mellitus. Reiterating a position which was first enunciated in his first encyclical, Summi pontificatus (Oct. 20, 1939), he suggested that "whatever there is in native customs that is not inseparably bound up with superstition and error will always receive kindly consideration and, where possible, will be preserved intact." As he explained: "let not the gospel, on being introduced into any new land, destroy or extinguish whatever its people possess that is naturally good, just or beautiful." Another important encyclical which Pius XII wrote was Fidei donum (April 21, 1957), which appealed to the universal Church to provide assistance to the missionary enterprise in Africa, a continent that was undergoing a painful transition toward political independence. Fidei donum also introduced the term "young churches" to describe the churches in mission lands.

In addition to the usual themes that his predecessors covered, e.g., the necessity of indigenous clergy to meet the challenges of decolonization, Pope john xxiii's encyclical Princeps pastorum (Nov. 28, 1959) is remembered for laying the cornerstone for the Church's subsequent recognition of cultural diversity in her task of mission, asserting, among other things, that the Church "does not identify herself with any one culture to the exclusion of the rest—not even with European and Western culture, with which her history is so closely linked."

Among the various letters on mission and evangelization that Pope paul vi wrote, the Apostolic Exhortation on the occasion of the 1974 Synod of Bishops on Evangelization in the Modern World, evangelii nuntiandi (Dec. 8, 1975), stands out for its deeply profound reflection on the relationship between evangelization and culture. Here, Pope Paul VI emphasized the need to evangelize human culture and cultures. In his own words: "The rift between the gospel and culture is undoubtedly an unhappy circumstance of our times just as it has been in other eras. Accordingly we must devote all our resources and all our efforts to the sedulous evangelization of human culture, or rather of the various human cultures" (Evangelii nuntiandi 20). He warned against the facile reduction of evangelization to that of mere human liberation with its goal of material well-being (Evangelii nuntiandi 32). These discussions should be set in the context of Paul VI's criticism of certain quarters in the Church that were misusing conciliar teachings as arguments against the necessity of evangelization.

Pope john paul ii wrote significantly on the question of evangelization, beginning with the Apostolic Exhortation, Catechesi tradendae (Oct. 16, 1979). In Catechesi tradendae, he discussed the close relationship between inculturation, catechesis and evangelization, saying that inculturation "is called to bring the power of the Gospel into the very heart of culture and cultures" (Catechesi tradendae 53). Subsequently in his encyclical slavorum apostoli (June 2, 1985), he suggested that the work of evangelization that was carried out by SS. Cyril and Methodius "as pioneers in territory inhabited by Slav peoples—contains both a model of what today is called 'inculturation'—the incarnation of the gospel in native cultures—and also the introduction of these cultures into the life of the church" (Slavorum Apostoli 21). The most important missiological document of John Paul II is his encyclical, redemptoris missio (Dec. 7, 1990), written to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Vatican II's Missionary Decree, Ad gentes. Here, John Paul II invited the Church to "renew her missionary commitment" (Redemptoris missio 2) and highlighted the necessity for three categories of evangelization: (i) evangelization of non-Christians (i.e., the mission ad gentes in the strict sense), (ii) pastoral care of the faithful, and (iii) the "reevangelization" or "new evangelization" of people "who no longer consider themselves members of the church and live a life far removed from Christ and his Gospel" (Redemptoris missio 33).

All post-Vatican II papal writings on mission and evangelization have drawn upon the profound theological insights of Vatican II documents Ad gentes, Lumen gentium, Gaudium et spes, and Nostra aetate to articulate a renewed theology of mission for today. At the heart of these papal writings is the call to the whole body of the Church to undertake the task of mission, not just the mission professionals. In the wake of the importance which Gaudium et spes and Ad gentes give to human cultures and communities, the scope of mission has broadened beyond merely effecting a "change of religion" in individuals to include transforming human cultures and communities in the light of the Gospel message.

Bibliography: w. burrows, ed., Redemption and Dialogue: Reading Redemptoris Missio and Dialogue and Proclamation (Maryknoll 1993). c. carlen, The Papal Encyclicals Vols. 1–5 (Ann Arbor 1990). a. dulles, "John Paul II and the New Evangelization," Studia Missionalia 48 (1999) 165–80. p. g. falciola, Evangelization according to the Mind of Paul VI (Rome 1982). pontificia universitÁ urbaniana, Dizionario di Missiologia (Rome 1993). j. a. scherer and s. b. bevans, eds., New Directions in Mission & Evangelization. Vols. I–III (Maryknoll 1992–99).

[j. y. tan]