New Papal Encyclical, part 1

 I am going to start working my way through Pope Leo XIV's new encyclical, "MAGNIFICA HUMANITAS." I do recommend you read the full document here. 

 As with any primary document, do attempt to go into it with an open mind, and let the document speak for itself. I am already seeing all sorts of reactions and critiques starting to pop up online. As usual, such reactions range from the positive to the banal to the "the sky is falling, and we may die" spectrum. Do attempt to be objective and fair in your own reading. Try not to let the ballyhooers cloud your opinion before you even read the first paragraph. 

It appears to be a 245 paragraph document (excluding citations and footnotes), containing 5 chapters with an intro and a conclusion. I will try to break this up into sections for digestibility (both yours and my own). I just read the first paragraph before writing this blog entry, and I am already intrigued, but let me read through it before I start launching off into my pontifications, pun intended, on this latest Papal teaching document. 

I will just say that my gut feeling is that this is a document in the long line of Catholic Social Teaching documents going back to Rerum Novarum in the late 1800s. I was written extensively on those documents on this blog previously. If you want to refresh your memory on the major Social Justice encyclicals, I did a post over 10 years ago now, where I have direct links to all the major encyclicals up to that point. There have been a few since written by Pope Francis that are not on that list, but you can find them on the Vatican website, if you are so inclined. 

So, until next time, do some reading on Magnifica Humanitas and see what you make of it, and I will do the same. 

 Until next time...

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