Lumen fidei

Lumen fidei
(Latin: The Light of Faith)
Encyclical letter of Pope Francis
Caritas in Veritate ◄► Laudato si'
Date 29 June 2013
Argument On faith
Pages 88
Encyclical number 1 of 2 of the pontificate
Text in Latin
in English
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Lumen fidei (English: The Light of Faith) is the name of the first encyclical of Pope Francis, issued on 29 June 2013, on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and which was published on 5 July 2013, almost four months after his election to the papacy. It was issued in conjunction with the Year of Faith previously proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI to be observed from October 2012 to November 2013.

Subject

The encyclical focuses its theme on faith, and completes what his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI had previously written about charity and hope, the other two theological virtues, in his encyclicals Deus caritas est and Spe Salvi.[1] Francis took, in fact, the work of Benedict, who before his resignation of the papacy had completed a first draft of the text, to which the new pope made additions.[1] Francis explicitly expresses in paragraph 7 of the encyclical: "These considerations on faith — in continuity with all that the Church's magisterium has pronounced on this theological virtue — are meant to supplement what Benedict XVI had written in his encyclical letters on charity and hope. He himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own."[2]

It is divided into four chapters, to which are added an introduction and a conclusion. The encyclical traces the history of the faith of the Church (from the call of God to Abraham and the people of Israel, to the resurrection of Jesus), discusses the relationship between reason and faith, the Church's role in the transmission of the faith, and the role faith plays in the building of societies in search of the common good. The text concludes with a prayer to the Virgin Mary, who is presented as a model of faith.[1]

Content

The metaphor of life as a journey has been used by Pope Francis before, notably in his address to the bishops of Brazil in July 2013. In Lumen fidei, he observes that faith was formally viewed as a light that dispels the darkness and illuminates the way, but later came to be "understood either as a leap in the dark, to be taken in the absence of light, driven by blind emotion, or as a subjective light, capable perhaps of warming the heart and bringing personal consolation, but not something which could be proposed to others as an objective and shared light which points the way."[3] Part of the purpose of the encyclical is to restore the light of faith to an understanding of its place in the common journey of mankind.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Speciale, Alessandro (4 July 2013). "The light of faith: origin, history and horizon of the christianism". La Stampa. Turin. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  2. ↑ Pope Francis (29 June 2013). "ENCYCLICAL LETTER LUMEN FIDEI". Vatican.va. St. Peter's Basilica. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  3. ↑ Pope Francis. Lumen fidei, §3, June 29, 2013, Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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