Encyclicals: It is an indication of the magnitude of Pope John Paul's contribution to thinking in the Church that Cardinal Desmond Connell feels the late pontiff could in time be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church.
The last pontiff to be so was St Gregory the Great, who died over 1,400 years ago in 604. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church in 1295.
A Doctor of the Church must first be a saint and, currently, just 33 saints have been elevated to the status of Doctor. These include St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, St Teresa of Avila, and the most recent addition (on October 19th, 1997, by Pope John Paul himself), St Thérèse of Lisieux.
Pope John Paul had "left the church a great legacy of writings," the Cardinal said, adding that the total was "breathtaking".
Principal among Pope John Paul's documents would be his 14 encyclicals , 15 apostolic exhortations, 11 apostolic constitutions and 45 apostolic letters.
He also published five books as Pope: Crossing the Threshold of Hope (October 1994); Gift and Mystery: On the 50th Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination (November 1996); Roman Triptych - Meditations, a book of poems (March 2003); Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way (May 2004); and Memory and Identity, which was published last month.
However, it is his encyclicals which are most likely to have lasting significance. Yesterday at Mass in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin drew attention to Pope John Paul's very first encyclical Redemptor Hominis (Redeemer of Humankind) published in March 1979, less than six months after he assumed office.
The Archbishop said that "in many ways [ it] gathered together so many of his thoughts as a philosopher and a bishop and made them into a programmatic challenge for his ministry as successor of St Peter."
It's central theme was that "Jesus Christ is the stable principle and fixed centre of the mission that God himself has entrusted to man." We must "all share in this mission and concentrate all our forces on it, since it is more necessary than ever for modern mankind," it said.
His second encyclical, Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy), published in November 1980, and dealing with the infinite mercy of God, had particular resonance yesterday as it was Pope John Paul himself who established yesterday - the first Sunday after Easter - as Divine Mercy Sunday.
His third encyclical, Laborem Exercens (On Human Work), was published on September 1981 on the 90th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (On New Things), which dealt with the condition of the working class and addressed, radically, issues of labour and capital.
Laborem Exercens was one of two encyclicals published by Pope John Paul marking anniversaries of Rerum Novarum. Like it, they celebrated the dignity of human labour. The other encyclical published by Pope John Paul on the theme was Centesimus Annus (On the Hundreth Anniversary), published on the centenary of Rerum Novarum in May 1991.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, then with the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace, had significant input into its preparation.
Veritatis Splendor (Splendour of Truth), published in August 1993, deals with issues of conscience and truth, freedom and law, and has been talked of as among the more lyrical of all his encyclicals. Similarly described has been Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), which deals, passionately, with "the incomparable value of the human person".
Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason), published in September 1998, is among the most celebrated of all his encyclicals and has aroused interest far beyond the realms of faith. It deals with themes of reason and belief. It was the only one of his encyclicals to be also published in Arabic.
His last encyclical was published two years ago in April 2003. Ecclesia de Eucharistia (Church of the Eucharist) deals with the transforming power present in the Eucharist.
