Ad gentes is the Second Vatican Council's decree on missionary activity. The title is Latin for "To the Nations," and is from the first line of the decree, as is customary with Roman Catholic documents. It establishes evangelization as one of the fundamental missions of the Catholic Church and reaffirms the tie between evangelization and charity for the poor. Ad Gentes also calls for the formation of strong Christian communities as well as strong relations with other Christians. Finally, it lays out guidelines for the training and actions of the missionaries.
A dicastery is a department of the Roman Curia, the administration of the Holy See through which the pope directs the Roman Catholic Church. The most recent comprehensive constitution of the church, Pastor bonus (1988), includes this definition:
By the word "dicasteries" are understood the Secretariat of State, Congregations, Tribunals, Councils and Offices, namely, the Apostolic Camera, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
Familiaris consortio is a post-synodal apostolic exhortation written by Pope John Paul II and promulgated on 22 November 1981.
The lay apostolate is made up of laypersons, who are neither consecrated religious nor in Holy Orders, who exercise a ministry within the Catholic Church. Lay apostolate organizations operate under the general oversight of pastors and bishops, but need not be dependent upon them for direction..
An instrumentum laboris is a type of Vatican official document used at a General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. The first such document was drafted for the Synod on evangelization in 1974.
An apostolic exhortation is a magisterial document written by the pope. It is considered third in importance, after apostolic constitutions and encyclicals. Exhortations generally encourage a particular virtue or activity. Apostolic exhortations are frequently issued following a Synod of Bishops, in which case they are known as post-synodal apostolic exhortations. They do not define Church doctrine and are not considered legislative.
Evangelii nuntiandi is an apostolic exhortation issued on 8 December 1975 by Pope Paul VI on the theme of Catholic evangelization. The title, taken from the opening words of the original Latin text, means "in proclaiming the Gospel". It affirms the role of every Christian, not only ordained ministers, priests, and deacons, or religious, or professional church staff, in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Christifideles laici is a post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Pope John Paul II, signed in Rome on December 30, 1988. It is summary of the teaching that arose from the 1987 synod of bishops on the vocation and mission of the laity in the church and the world. The document's subtitle was: On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World. Its primary scriptural texts were the parable of the workers in the vineyard and the story of the True Vine and branches. In Christifideles laici, John Paul summarized many of his still-developing ideas regarding new evangelization.
Reconciliatio et paenitentia is an apostolic exhortation by Pope John Paul II, delivered on 2 December 1984 in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, which grew out of the Sixth General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops held in 1983. The fourth of John Paul II's apostolic exhortations, it presents Jesus as the Reconciler of a shattered world.
The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, also translated as Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, is a dicastery of the Roman Curia whose creation was announced by Pope Benedict XVI at vespers on 28 June 2010, eve of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, to carry out the New Evangelization. The Pope said that "the process of secularisation has produced a serious crisis of the sense of the Christian faith and role of the Church", and the new pontifical council would "promote a renewed evangelisation" in countries where the Church has long existed "but which are living a progressive secularisation of society and a sort of 'eclipse of the sense of God'."
In the Catholic Church, the Synod of Bishops, considered as an advisory body for the pope, is one of the ways in which the bishops render cooperative assistance to the Bishop of Rome in exercising his office. It is described in the Code of Canon Law (CIC) as "a group of bishops who have been chosen from different regions of the world and meet together at fixed times to foster closer unity between the Roman Pontiff and bishops, to assist the Roman Pontiff with their counsel in the preservation and growth of faith and morals and in the observance and strengthening of ecclesiastical discipline, and to consider questions pertaining to the activity of the Church in the world."
The new evangelization is the particular process by which baptized members of the Catholic Church express the general Christian call to evangelization.
Evangelii gaudium is a 2013 apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis. In its opening paragraph, Pope Francis urged the entire Church "to embark on a new chapter of evangelism". According to the exhortation, the Church must understand itself as a "community of missionary disciples", who are "permanently in a state of mission". It has been described as "the manifesto of Francis" and a "Magna Carta for church reform."
Gaudete et exsultate is the third apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, dated 19 March 2018 and published on 9 April 2018, subtitled "on the call to holiness in today's world". It addresses the universal call to holiness, with a focus "to repropose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time".
Christus vivit is a post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, written in response to the Fifteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, on young people, faith and vocational discernment, held from 3 to 28 October 2018. It is addressed "to young people and to the entire people of God". The document is dated 25 March 2019, the day on which Francis signed the original Spanish text while visiting the Basilica of the Holy House of Mary in Loreto, Italy, and published on 2 April, the anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II, who was "the first Pope to address a letter to young people in 1985 and he was the Pope who began the World Youth Days". When the text was released on 2 April, the Vatican provided translations in Italian, French, English, German, Portuguese and Arabic. Though not published in Latin, the document takes its title from the Latin translation of its incipit, rendered in the English translation as "Christ is alive". The Vatican also provided a summary of the document by Andrea Tornielli, the editorial director of the Holy See's Dicastery for Communication. The 35,000 words in the English translation are organized into 299 paragraphs in nine chapters.
Ecclesia in Europa is a post-synodal apostolic exhortation written by Pope John Paul II, published on 28 June 2003. The exhortation follows up on the Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops, which met during 1–23 October 1999. It addresses the Church in Europe.
Episcopalis communio is an apostolic constitution promulgated by Pope Francis on September 15, 2018. It takes note of the various organizations used during the previous Synod of Bishops, and defines that its final document "participates in the ordinary magisterium."
Querida Amazonia is a 2020 post-synodal apostolic exhortation of Pope Francis, written in response to the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region held in Rome in October 2019. Focusing on the Amazon region of South America, it is addressed "to the people of God and to all persons of good will". The document is dated 2 February 2020, the liturgical feast of Candlemas, and was released by the Holy See Press Office at a press conference on 12 February. Originally written in Spanish, the exhortation was also published in English, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Polish, and Arabic. The 16,000 words of the English translation are organized into 111 paragraphs in four chapters, each of which is dedicated to a "great dream": social, cultural, ecological and ecclesial.
Pastores gregis, subtitled "The Bishop, Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World," is a post-synod apostolic exhortation released on October 16, 2003 by Pope John Paul II. It offers doctrinal and pastoral principles intended to guide Catholic bishops. The document resulted from a ordinary general assembly of bishops, held from September 30 to October 27, 2001. The synod, which was held shortly after the September 11 attacks, discussed episcopal service in view of Christian hope.
Africae munus is the third post-synodal apostolic exhortation issued by Pope Benedict XVI. It was signed on 19 November 2011 in Benin.
