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| Satis cognitum Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII | |
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| Signature date | 29 June 1896 |
| Subject | On the Unity of the Church |
| Number | 59 of 85 of the pontificate |
| Text | |
Satis cognitum is an encyclical of Pope Leo XIII dated 29 June 1896 on the unity of the Church, and some heresies of his time.
"The pontificate of Leo marked a change in how popes exercised their teaching authority. With Leo, the popes begin to offer theological treatments on important topics. [1] It also saw a beginning the Church's participation in ecumenism. [2]
The encyclical is an invitation to those who are without the Church to return to it. [3] It is an affirmation of the Church's unity, and the role of the Magisterium in preserving that unity, [4] through the threefold responsibilities of sanctifying, governing and teaching. [5]
The document contains an extensive articulation of and apologia for Catholic ecclesiology as it relates to the Church's unity, one of the four marks of the Church according to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, which professes belief in "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church." The purpose was to indicate Leo's desire for unity and his interest in Catholic Ecumenism. [2]
In the second half of the text, Pope Leo strongly defends the primacy of the Roman Pontiff as taught at the First Vatican Council as a corollary of the Church's unity, but notes
...He who made Peter the foundation of the Church also "chose, twelve, whom He called apostles" (Luke vi., 13); and just as it is necessary that the authority of Peter should be perpetuated in the Roman Pontiff, so, by the fact that the bishops succeed the Apostles, they inherit their ordinary power, and thus the episcopal order necessarily belongs to the essential constitution of the Church. [6]
The encyclical concludes with an appeal to non-Catholic Christians and others for reunion with the Catholic Church.
Pope Paul VI refers to Satis cognitum as worthy of "special mention" within the history of papal documents dealing with the nature of the church. [7]
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Aeterni Patris was an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in August 1879. It was subtitled "On the Restoration of Christian Philosophy in Catholic Schools in the Spirit of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas". The aim of the encyclical was to advance the revival of Scholastic philosophy.
Pastor aeternus was issued by the First Vatican Council, July 18, 1870. The document defines four doctrines of the Catholic faith: the apostolic primacy conferred on Peter, the perpetuity of the Petrine Primacy in the Roman pontiffs, the definition of the papal primacy as a papal supremacy, and Papal infallibility – infallible teaching authority (magisterium) of the Pope.
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Aeterna Dei sapientia was the sixth encyclical made by Pope John XXIII, and was issued on 11 November 1961. It commemorates the fifteenth centennial of the death of Pope Leo I, also known as Leo the Great and a Doctor of the Church. It calls for Christian unity. It calls for Christendom to unite against external movements such as communism and secularism.
Mediatrix of all graces is a title that some in the Catholic Church give to the Blessed Virgin Mary; as the Mother of God, it includes the understanding that she mediates the Divine Grace. In addition to Mediatrix, other titles are given to her in the Church: Advocate, Helper, Benefactress. In a papal encyclical of 8 September 1894, Pope Leo XIII said: "The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace."
The term dogmatic fact is employed in the teaching of the Catholic Church, to mean any fact connected with a dogma, wherein the application of the dogma is itself what constitutes, or more accurately canonizes, the fact.
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The theology of Pope Leo XIII was influenced by the ecclesial teachings of the First Vatican Council (1869-1870), which had ended only eight years before his election in 1878. Leo issued some 46 apostolic letters and encyclicals dealing with central issues in the areas of marriage and family and state and society.
The Eastern Orthodox Church is opposed to the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy. While not denying that primacy does exist for the Bishop of Rome, Eastern Orthodox Christians argue that the tradition of Rome's primacy in the early Church was not equivalent to the current doctrine of supremacy.
