| Redemptoris missio Latin for 'The Mission of the Redeemer' Encyclical of Pope John Paul II | |
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| Signature date | 7 December 1990 |
| Subject | On the permanent validity of the Church's missionary mandate |
| Number | 8 of 14 of the pontificate |
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Redemptoris missio (Latin for The Mission of the Redeemer), subtitled On the permanent validity of the Church's missionary mandate, is an encyclical by Pope John Paul II published on 7 December 1990. The release coincided with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Vatican II's Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity, Ad gentes.[1] It is devoted to the subject of "the urgency of missionary activity"[2] and in it the pope wished "to invite the Church to renew her missionary commitment."[3]
The encyclical differentiated three spheres of evangelization (Para 33-34):
- Missio ad gentes, directed to people who do not yet believe in Christ
- Reevangelization, aimed at rekindling Christian faith
- Pastoral care, the deeper insertion of the gospel in the hearts and minds of faithful Christians[4]
- ^ Weigel, George (1999). Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II. HarperCollins Publishers. p. 632. ISBN 0060932864. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
- ^ Introduction, 1.
- ^ Introduction, 2.
- ^ Dulles SJ, Avery Cardinal, Evangelization for the Third Millennium, 2009, Paulist Press, New York