This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/06/world/europe/papal-encyclical-gets-2-authors-for-first-time.html
The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| For Pope’s First Encyclical, an Esteemed Co-Author | For Pope’s First Encyclical, an Esteemed Co-Author |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Friday issued his first encyclical — a rich meditation on faith and love co-written with his predecessor, Benedict XVI, that clearly displays their different styles — one more conversational, the other more intellectual. | VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Friday issued his first encyclical — a rich meditation on faith and love co-written with his predecessor, Benedict XVI, that clearly displays their different styles — one more conversational, the other more intellectual. |
| “Lumen Fidei,” or “The Light of Faith,” which appears halfway through what the Vatican has declared the Year of Faith, calls on believers and seekers alike to explore how their lives could be enriched by God. | “Lumen Fidei,” or “The Light of Faith,” which appears halfway through what the Vatican has declared the Year of Faith, calls on believers and seekers alike to explore how their lives could be enriched by God. |
| In a summary of the document, the Vatican said that Benedict had “almost completed” the text before he resigned in February, the first pope in modern history to do so, and that Francis added “further contributions” to the existing “first draft.” | In a summary of the document, the Vatican said that Benedict had “almost completed” the text before he resigned in February, the first pope in modern history to do so, and that Francis added “further contributions” to the existing “first draft.” |
| “It’s not signed by two popes because we have only one pope,” Archbishop Gerhard Müller, the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told a news conference here on Friday. “This encyclical isn’t a patchwork,” he added, but a single unity that shows the continuity between the two papacies. | “It’s not signed by two popes because we have only one pope,” Archbishop Gerhard Müller, the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told a news conference here on Friday. “This encyclical isn’t a patchwork,” he added, but a single unity that shows the continuity between the two papacies. |
| The encyclical explores the more abstract connection between faith and love and faith and reason, but also urges Catholics to uphold the church’s conception of the family. “The first setting in which faith enlightened the human city is the family,” Francis writes. “I think first and foremost of the stable union of man and woman in marriage.” | The encyclical explores the more abstract connection between faith and love and faith and reason, but also urges Catholics to uphold the church’s conception of the family. “The first setting in which faith enlightened the human city is the family,” Francis writes. “I think first and foremost of the stable union of man and woman in marriage.” |
| “This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh and are enabled to give birth to new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, wisdom and loving plan,” he continues. | “This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation, whereby spouses can become one flesh and are enabled to give birth to new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, wisdom and loving plan,” he continues. |
| The encyclical urges Catholics to see faith as a journey of exploration, as well as a relationship with God, a force that enriches other bonds. “Faith makes us appreciate the architecture of human relationships because it grasps their ultimate foundation and definitive destiny in God, in his love, and thus sheds light on the art of building; as such it becomes a service to the common good,” Francis writes. | The encyclical urges Catholics to see faith as a journey of exploration, as well as a relationship with God, a force that enriches other bonds. “Faith makes us appreciate the architecture of human relationships because it grasps their ultimate foundation and definitive destiny in God, in his love, and thus sheds light on the art of building; as such it becomes a service to the common good,” Francis writes. |
| The concluding chapter of the encyclical, which touches on the role of faith in reinforcing the common good, recalls the informal, immediate style of Francis, a low-key Argentine Jesuit who regularly delivers off-the-cuff sermons and has chosen to live in a Vatican dormitory instead of the Apostolic Palace. | The concluding chapter of the encyclical, which touches on the role of faith in reinforcing the common good, recalls the informal, immediate style of Francis, a low-key Argentine Jesuit who regularly delivers off-the-cuff sermons and has chosen to live in a Vatican dormitory instead of the Apostolic Palace. |
| The opening three chapters are rich in biblical and thought-provoking literary references and bear the mark of Benedict, an intellectual and theologian who was head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office for 25 years before becoming pope in 2005. | The opening three chapters are rich in biblical and thought-provoking literary references and bear the mark of Benedict, an intellectual and theologian who was head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office for 25 years before becoming pope in 2005. |
| In addition to citing the Old Testament and the Gospel, the text refers to Dante and the philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Nietzsche; for Nietzsche, faith was associated with darkness, not light. It also refers to T.S. Eliot and the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s exploration of idolatry. | In addition to citing the Old Testament and the Gospel, the text refers to Dante and the philosophers Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Nietzsche; for Nietzsche, faith was associated with darkness, not light. It also refers to T.S. Eliot and the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber’s exploration of idolatry. |
| The encyclical also touches on a powerful passage in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Idiot,” in which Prince Myshkin sees the painting “Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb” by Hans Holbein the Younger and says, “Looking at this painting might cause one to lose his faith.” | The encyclical also touches on a powerful passage in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Idiot,” in which Prince Myshkin sees the painting “Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb” by Hans Holbein the Younger and says, “Looking at this painting might cause one to lose his faith.” |
| “Yet it is precisely in contemplating Jesus’s death that faith grows stronger and receives a dazzling light,” Francis writes. | “Yet it is precisely in contemplating Jesus’s death that faith grows stronger and receives a dazzling light,” Francis writes. |
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: | |
| Correction: July 5, 2013 | |
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Pope Francis’s encyclical was the first to be co-written by a pope with his predecessor. A Vatican spokesman said that while it has seldom been publicly acknowledged, it is not unprecedented for a pope to finish an encyclical started by a previous one. |