1. In my first Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, I wrote: “We have become sharers in this mission of the prophet Christ, and in virtue of that mission we together with him are serving divine truth in the Church. Being responsible for that truth also means loving it and seeking the most exact understanding of it, in order to bring it closer to ourselves and others in all its saving power, its splendour and its profundity joined with simplicity”: No. 19: AAS 71 (1979), 306. [Back]
2. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 16. [Back]
3. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 25. [Back]
4. No. 4: AAS 85 (1993), 1136. [Back]
5. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 2. [Back]
6. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith Dei Filius, III: DS 3008. [Back]
7. Ibid., IV: DS 3015; quoted also in Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 59. [Back]
8. Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 2. [Back]
9. Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (10 November 1994), 10: AAS 87 (1995), 11. [Back]
13. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 4. [Back]
15. The First Vatican Council, to which the quotation above refers, teaches that the obedience of faith requires the engagement of the intellect and the will: “Since human beings are totally dependent on God as their creator and Lord, and created reason is completely subject to uncreated truth, we are obliged to yield through faith to God the revealer full submission of intellect and will” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith Dei Filius, III: DS 3008). [Back]
16. Sequence for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of the Lord. [Back]
17. Pensées, 789 (ed. L. Brunschvicg). [Back]
18. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22. [Back]
19. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 2. [Back]
20. Proemium and Nos. 1, 15: PL 158, 223-224; 226; 235. [Back]
21. De Vera Religione, XXXIX, 72: CCL 32, 234. [Back]
22. “Ut te semper desiderando quaererent et inveniendo quiescerent”: Missale Romanum. [Back]
23. Aristotle, Metaphysics, I, 1. [Back]
24. Confessions, X, 23, 33: CCL 27, 173. [Back]
25. No. 34: AAS 85 (1993), 1161. [Back]
26. Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris (11 February 1984), 9: AAS 76 (1984), 209-210. [Back]
27. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration on the Relations of the Church with Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate, 2. [Back]
28. This is a theme which I have long pursued and which I have addressed on a number of occasions. “ 'What is man and of what use is he? What is good in him and what is evil?' (Sir 18:8)… These are questions in every human heart, as the poetic genius of every time and every people has shown, posing again and again—almost as the prophetic voice of humanity—the serious question which makes human beings truly what they are. They are questions which express the urgency of finding a reason for existence, in every moment, at life’s most important and decisive times as well as more ordinary times. These questions show the deep reasonableness of human existence, since they summon human intelligence and will to search freely for a solution which can reveal the full meaning of life. These enquiries, therefore, are the highest expression of human nature; which is why the answer to them is the gauge of the depth of his engagement with his own existence. In particular, when the why of things is explored in full harmony with the search for the ultimate answer, then human reason reaches its zenith and opens to the religious impulse. The religious impulse is the highest expression of the human person, because it is the highpoint of his rational nature. It springs from the profound human aspiration for the truth and it is the basis of the human being’s free and personal search for the divine”: General Audience (19 October 1983), 1-2: Insegnamenti VI, 2 (1983), 814-815. [Back]
29. “[Galileo] declared explicitly that the two truths, of faith and of science, can never contradict each other, 'Sacred Scripture and the natural world proceeding equally from the divine Word, the first as dictated by the Holy Spirit, the second as a very faithful executor of the commands of God', as he wrote in his letter to Father Benedetto Castelli on 21 December 1613. The Second Vatican Council says the same thing, even adopting similar language in its teaching: 'Methodical research, in all realms of knowledge, if it respects… moral norms, will never be genuinely opposed to faith: the reality of the world and of faith have their origin in the same God' (Gaudium et Spes, 36). Galileo sensed in his scientific research the presence of the Creator who, stirring in the depths of his spirit, stimulated him, anticipating and assisting his intuitions”: John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (10 November 1979): Insegnamenti II, , 2 (1979), 1111-1112. [Back]
30. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, 4. [Back]
31. Origen, Contra Celsum, 3, 55: SC 136, 130. [Back]
32. Dialogue with Trypho, 8, 1: PG 6, 492. [Back]
33. Stromata I, 18, 90, 1: SC 30, 115. [Back]
34. Cf. Ibid., I, 16, 80, 5: SC 30, 108. [Back]
35. Cf. Ibid., I, 5, 28, 1: SC 30, 65. [Back]
36. Ibid., VI, 7, 55, 1-2: PG 9, 277. [Back]
37. Ibid., I, 20, 100, 1: SC 30, 124. [Back]
38. Saint Augustine, Confessions, VI, 5, 7: CCL 27, 77-78. [Back]
39. Cf. Ibid., VII, 9, 13-14: CCL 27, 101-102. [Back]
40. De Praescriptione Haereticorum, VII, 9: SC 46, 98: “Quid ergo Athenis et Hierosolymis? Quid academiae et ecclesiae?”. [Back]
41. Cf. Congregation for Catholic Education, Instruction on the Study of the Fathers of the Church in Priestly Formation (10 November 1989), 25: AAS 82 (1990), 617-618. [Back]
42. Saint Anselm, Proslogion, 1: PL 158, 226. [Back]
43. Idem, Monologion, 64: PL 158, 210. [Back]
44. Cf. Summa contra Gentiles, I, 7. [Back]
45. Cf. Summa Theologiae, I, 1, 8 ad 2: “cum enim gratia non tollat naturam sed perficiat”. [Back]
46. Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Participants at the IX International Thomistic Congress (29 September 1990): Insegnamenti XIII, 2 (1990), 770-771. [Back]
47. Apostolic Letter Lumen Ecclesiae (20 November 1974), 8: AAS 66 (1974), 680. [Back]
48. Cf. I, 1, 6: “Praeterea, haec doctrina per studium acquiritur. Sapientia autem per infusionem habetur, unde inter septem dona Spiritus Sancti connumeratur”. [Back]
49. Ibid., II-II, 45, 1 ad 2; cf. also II-II, 45, 2. [Back]
50. Ibid., I-II, 109, 1 ad 1, which echoes the well known phrase of the Ambrosiaster, In Prima Cor 12:3: PL 17, 258. [Back]
51. Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter ÆTerni Patris (4 August 1879): ASS 11 (1878-79), 109. [Back]
52. Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Lumen Ecclesiae (20 November 1974), 8: AAS 66 (1974), 683. [Back]
53. Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 15: AAS 71 (1979), 286. [Back]
54. Cf. Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Humani Generis (12 August 1950): AAS 42 (1950), 566. [Back]
55. Cf. First Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ Pastor Aeternus: DS 3070; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, 25 c. [Back]
56. Cf. Synod of Constantinople, DS 403. [Back]
57. Cf. Council of Toledo I, DS 205; Council of Braga I, DS 459-460; Sixtus V, Bull Coeli et Terrae Creator (5 January 1586): Bullarium Romanum 4/4, Rome 1747, 176-179; Urban VIII, Inscrutabilis Iudiciorum (1 April 1631): Bullarium Romanum 6/1, Rome 1758, 268-270. [Back]
58. Cf. Ecumenical Council of Vienne, Decree Fidei Catholicae, DS 902; Fifth Lateran Ecumenical Council, Bull Apostoli Regiminis, DS 1440. [Back]
59. Cf. Theses a Ludovico Eugenio Bautain iussu sui Episcopi subscriptae (8 September 1840), DS 2751-2756; Theses a Ludovico Eugenio Bautain ex mandato S. Cong. Episcoporum et Religiosorum subscriptae (26 April 1844), DS 2765-2769. [Back]
60. Cf. Sacred Congregation of the Index, Decree Theses contra Traditionalismum Augustini Bonnetty (11 June 1855), DS 2811-2814. [Back]
61. Cf. Pius IX, Brief Eximiam Tuam (15 June 1857), DS 2828-2831; Brief Gravissimas Inter (11 December 1862), DS 2850-2861. [Back]
62. Cf. Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, Decree Errores Ontologistarum (18 September 1861), DS 2841-2847. [Back]
63. Cf. First Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith Dei Filius, II: DS 3004; and Canon 2, 1: DS 3026. [Back]
64. Ibid., IV: DS 3015, cited in Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 59. [Back]
65. First Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith Dei Filius, IV: DS 3017. [Back]
66. Cf. Encyclical Letter Pascendi Dominici Gregis (8 September 1907): ASS 40 (1907), 596-597. [Back]
67. Cf. Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Divini Redemptoris (19 March 1937): AAS 29 (1937), 65-106. [Back]
68. Encyclical Letter Humani Generis (12 August 1950): AAS 42 (1950), 562-563. [Back]
69. Ibid., loc. cit., 563-564. [Back]
70. Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus (28 June 1988), Arts. 48-49: AAS 80 (1988), 873; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian Donum Veritatis (24 May 1990), 18: AAS 82 (1990), 1558. [Back]
71. Cf. Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation” Libertatis Nuntius (6 August 1984), VII-X: AAS 76 (1984), 890-903. [Back]
72. In language as clear as it is authoritative, the First Vatican Council condemned this error, affirming on the one hand that “as regards this faith…, the Catholic Church professes that it is a supernatural virtue by means of which, under divine inspiration and with the help of grace, we believe to be true the things revealed by God, not because of the intrinsic truth of the things perceived by the natural light of reason, but because of the authority of God himself, who reveals them and who can neither deceive nor be deceived”: Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius, III: DS 3008, and Canon 3, 2: DS 3032. On the other hand, the Council declared that reason is never “able to penetrate [these mysteries] as it does the truths which are its proper object”: ibid., IV: DS 3016. It then drew a practical conclusion: “The Christian faithful not only have no right to defend as legitimate scientific conclusions opinions which are contrary to the doctrine of the faith, particularly if condemned by the Church, but they are strictly obliged to regard them as errors which have no more than a fraudulent semblance of truth”: ibid., IV: DS 3018. [Back]
77. Cf. Encyclical Letter Humani Generis (12 August 1950): AAS 42 (1950), 565-567; 571-573. [Back]
78. Cf. Encyclical Letter Æterni Patris (4 August 1879): ASS 11 (1878-1879), 97-115. [Back]
79. Ibid., loc. cit., 109. [Back]
82. Ibid., 22; cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 8: AAS 71 (1979), 271-272. [Back]
83. Decree on Priestly Formation Optatam Totius, 15. [Back]
84. Cf. Apostolic Constitution Sapientia Christiana (15 April 1979), Arts. 79-80: AAS 71 (1979), 495-496; Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (25 March 1992), 52: AAS 84 (1992), 750-751. Cf. also various remarks on the philosophy of Saint Thomas: Address to the International Pontifical Athenaeum “Angelicum” (17 November 1979): Insegnamenti II, 2 (1979), 1177-1189; Address to the Participants of the Eighth International Thomistic Congress (13 September 1980): Insegnamenti III, 2 (1980), 604-615; Address to the Participants at the International Congress of the Saint Thomas Society on the Doctrine of the Soul in Saint Thomas (4 January 1986): Insegnamenti IX, 1 (1986), 18-24. Also the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education, Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis (6 January 1970), 70-75: AAS 62 (1970), 366-368; Decree Sacra Theologia (20 January 1972): AAS 64 (1972), 583-586. [Back]
85. Cf. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 57; 62. [Back]
87. Cf. Fifth Lateran Ecumenical Council, Bull Apostolici Regimini Sollicitudo, Session VIII: Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, 1991, 605-606. [Back]
88. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 10. [Back]
89. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, 5, 3 ad 2. [Back]
90. “The search for the conditions in which man on his own initiative asks the first basic questions about the meaning of life, the purpose he wishes to give it and what awaits him after death constitutes the necessary preamble to fundamental theology, so that today too, faith can fully show the way to reason in a sincere search for the truth”: John Paul II, Letter to Participants in the International Congress of Fundamental Theology on the 125th Anniversary of “Dei Filius” (30 September 1995), 4: L'Osservatore Romano, 3 October 1995, 8. [Back]
92. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 15; Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity Ad Gentes, 22. [Back]
93. Saint Thomas Aquinas, De Caelo, 1, 22. [Back]
94. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 53-59. [Back]
95. Saint Augustine, De Praedestinatione Sanctorum, 2, 5: PL 44, 963. [Back]
96. Idem, De Fide, Spe et Caritate, 7: CCL 64, 61. [Back]
97. Cf. Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, Symbolum, Definitio: DS 302. [Back]
98. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 15: AAS 71 (1979), 286-289. [Back]
99. Cf., for example, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I, 16, 1; Saint Bonaventure, Coll. In Hex., 3, 8, 1. [Back]
100. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 15. [Back]
101. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor (6 August 1993), 57-61: AAS 85 (1993), 1179-1182. [Back]
102. Cf. First Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith Dei Filius, IV: DS 3016. [Back]
103. Cf. Fourth Lateran Ecumenical Council, De Errore Abbatis Ioachim, II: DS 806. [Back]
104. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 24; Decree on Priestly Formation Optatam Totius, 16. [Back]
105. Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae (25 March 1995), 69: AAS 87 (1995), 481. [Back]
106. In the same sense I commented in my first Encyclical Letter on the expression in the Gospel of Saint John, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (8:32): “These words contain both a fundamental requirement and a warning: the requirement of an honest relationship with regard to truth as a condition for authentic freedom, and the warning to avoid every kind of illusory freedom, every superficial unilateral freedom, every freedom that fails to enter into the whole truth about man and the world. Today also, even after two thousand years, we see Christ as the one who brings man freedom based on truth, frees man from what curtails, diminishes and as it were breaks off this freedom at its root, in man’s soul, his heart and his conscience”: Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 12: AAS 71 (1979), 280-281. [Back]
107. Address at the Opening of the Council (11 October 1962): AAS 54 ( 1962), 792. [Back]
108. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian Donum Veritatis (24 May 1990), 7-8: AAS 82 (1990), 1552-1553. [Back]
109. In the Encyclical Letter Dominum et Vivificantem, commenting on Jn 16:12-13, I wrote: “Jesus presents the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, as the one who 'will teach' and 'bring to remembrance', as the one who 'will bear witness' to him. Now he says: 'he will guide you into all the truth'. This 'guiding into all the truth', referring to what the Apostles 'cannot bear now', is necessarily connected with Christ’s self-emptying through his Passion and Death on the Cross, which, when he spoke these words, was just about to happen. Later however it becomes clear hat this 'guiding into all the truth' is connected not only with the scandalum Crucis, but also with everything that Christ ‘did and taught’ (Acts 1:1). For the mysterium Christi taken as a whole demands faith, since it is faith that adequately introduces man into the reality of the revealed mystery. The 'guiding into all the truth' is therefore achieved in faith and through faith: and this is the work of the Spirit of truth and the result of his action in man. Here the Holy Spirit is to be man’s supreme guide and the light of the human spirit”: No. 6: AAS 78 (1986), 815-816. [Back]
110. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, 13. [Back]
111. Cf. Pontifical Biblical Commission, Instruction on the Historical Truth of the Gospels (21 April 1964): AAS 56 (1964), 713. [Back]
112. “It is clear that the Church cannot be tied to any and every passing philosophical system. Nevertheless, those notions and terms which have been developed though common effort by Catholic teachers over the course of the centuries to bring about some understanding of dogma are certainly not based on any such weak foundation. They are based on principles and notions deduced from a true knowledge of created things. In the process of deduction, this knowledge, like a star, gave enlightenment to the human mind through the Church. Hence it is not astonishing that some of these notions have not only been employed by the Ecumenical Councils, but even sanctioned by them, so that it is wrong to depart from them”: Encyclical Letter Humani Generis (12 August 1950): AAS 42 (1950), 566-567; cf. International Theological Commission, Document Interpretationis Problema (October 1989): Enchiridion Vaticanum 11, 2717-2811. [Back]
113. “As for the meaning of dogmatic formulas, this remains ever true and constant in the Church, even when it is expressed with greater clarity or more developed. The faithful therefore must shun the opinion, first, that dogmatic formulas (or some category of them) cannot signify the truth in a determinate way, but can only offer changeable approximations to it, which to a certain extent distort or alter it”: Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration in Defence of the Catholic Doctrine on the Church Mysterium Ecclesiae (24 June 1973), 5: AAS 65 (1973), 403. [Back]
114. Cf. Congregation of the Holy Office, Decree Lamentabili (3 July 1907), 26: ASS 40 (1907), 473. [Back]
115. Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Pontifical Athenaeum “Angelicum” (17 November 1979), 6: Insegnamenti, II, 2 (1979), 1183-1185. [Back]
116. No. 32: AAS 85 (1993), 1159-1160. [Back]
117. Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae (16 October 1979), 30: AAS 71 (1979), 1302-1303; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian Donum Veritatis (24 May 1990), 7: AAS 82 (1990), 1552-1553. [Back]
118. Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae (16 October 1979), 30: AAS 71 (1979), 1302-1303. [Back]
119. Cf. ibid., 22, loc. cit., 1295-1296. [Back]
120. Cf. ibid., 7, loc. cit., 1282. [Back]
121. Cf. ibid., 59, loc. cit., 1325. [Back]
122. First Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith Dei Filius, IV: DS 3019. [Back]
123. “Nobody can make of theology as it were a simple collection of his own personal ideas, but everybody must be aware of being in close union with the mission of teaching truth for which the Church is responsible”: John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (4 March 1979), 19: AAS 71 (1979), 308. [Back]
124. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis Humanae, 1-3. [Back]
125. Cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (8 December 1975), 20: AAS 68 (1976), 18-19. [Back]
126. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 92. [Back]
128. Prologus, 4: Opera Omnia, Florence, 1891, vol. V, 296. [Back]
129. Cf. Decree on Priestly Formation Optatam Totius, 15. [Back]
130. Cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Constitution Sapientia Christiana (15 April 1979), Arts. 67-68: AAS 71 (1979), 491-492. [Back]
131. John Paul II, Address to the University of Krakow for the 600th Anniversary of the Jagiellonian University (8 June 1997), 4: L'Osservatore Romano, 9-10 June 1997, 12. [Back]
132. “He noera tes pisteos trapeza”: Pseudo-Epiphanius, Homily in Praise of Holy Mary Mother of God: PG 43, 493. [Back]
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,