a letter from the pope sent to all Roman Catholic bishops throughout the world
<noun.communication> [ adj ]
intended for wide distribution
<adj.all> an encyclical letter
Encyclic \En*cyc"lic\, Encyclical \En*cyc"li*cal\, a. [L. encyclios of a circle, general, Gr. ?; ? in + ? circle: cf. F. encyclique. See {Cycle}.] Sent to many persons or places; intended for many, or for a whole order of men; general; circular; as, an encyclical letter of a council, of a bishop, or the pope.
Encyclic \En*cyc"lic\, Encyclical \En*cyc"li*cal\, n. An encyclical letter, esp. one from a pope. --Shipley.
distributed \distributed\ adj. 1. spread from a central location to multiple points or recipients. Opposite of {concentrated}. [Narrower terms: {apportioned, dealt out, doled out, meted out, parceled out}; {diffuse, diffused}; {dispensed}; {dispersed, spread}; {divided, divided up, shared, shared out on the basis of a plan or purpose)}; {encyclical}; {rationed}; {scattered, widespread}; {sparse, thin}; {unfocused, unfocussed}] Also See: {distributive}. [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]
2. spread among a variety of securities; -- of investments.
Syn: diversified. [WordNet 1.5]
Distributing to the necessity of saints. --Rom. xii. 13.
This is precisely the problem with which Pope John Paul II dealt in his recent encyclical, "Centesimus Annus."
Paul VI's controversial encyclical came in the wake of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, from which he had removed the issue.
Named after a pope who condemned "modernist" trends in the church in a 1907 encyclical, Lefebvre's movement claims to have millions of sympathizers.
John Paul frequently cited the church's social teaching, including an encyclical he wrote in 1981 on the problems of work. The pope had cited that document as giving justification to the strikes taking place in Poland.
The pope's encyclical marked the Roman Catholic Church's first major statement concerning missionary work in a quarter-century.
Of course, Mr. Neuhaus and the editors of the Journal are free to interpret the new encyclical according to their best lights, but to do so in such a way as to play the pope off against the bishops is, putting it mildly, most unfortunate.
That decision was upheld in the 19th century and reconfirmed by the papal encyclical Providentissimus Deus, in 1893. But the story did not end there.
"I would like to remind you of the encyclical Humanae Vitae that Paul VI published 20 years ago, July 25 1968, and to exhort you to read and meditate upon this important document of the church," the pope said during his general audience.
This was the theme of his other major social encyclical, "On Human Work," issued in 1981.
Pope Leo XIII's 1893 encyclical "Rerum Novarum" introduced a rigorous theology of the "just wage" into the debate, including indirect support for the family standard.
The pope's world vision, as laid out in a social encyclical in February, drew some questioning from the Catholic right, usually his strongest defenders.
This, surprisingly, seems to be the sentiments of the pope's encyclical.