Ecclesiology

Defines the dogma of papal primacy of jurisdiction over the universal Church and papal infallibility when the Pope speaks ex cathedra on matters of faith and morals.

Leo XIII's encyclical on the unity of the Church: the Church is one and visible by Christ's will, united in faith under a living teaching authority and in government under Peter and his successors, with whom the bishops rule as true pastors.

Leo XIII's encyclical on the Holy Spirit: his place in the Trinity, his work in the Incarnation and the Church, his indwelling in the souls of the just, and his gifts. Decrees an annual novena before Pentecost.

Identifies and condemns Modernism as a systematic heresy that reduces dogma to evolving human experience, undermining the foundations of Catholic faith.

Pius XI's encyclical on the Kingship of Christ: Christ reigns over individuals and societies by nature and by right of redemption, with legislative, judicial and executive power. Institutes the feast of Christ the King against the spread of secularism.

Defines the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ — a visible, hierarchical society animated by the Holy Spirit and governed by the Pope as Vicar of Christ.

Defines as dogma that the Blessed Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory — the most recent exercise of papal infallibility.

The dogmatic constitution on the Church — treating the Church as mystery, as People of God, the hierarchical constitution, the laity, the universal call to holiness, religious life, eschatology, and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Vatican II's Decree on Ecumenism: the Catholic principles of ecumenism, the elements of the Church found outside her visible bounds, spiritual ecumenism and the hierarchy of truths, and the Church's relation to the Eastern Churches and the Western communities.

The dogmatic constitution on divine revelation — addressing the nature of revelation, the transmission of revelation through scripture and tradition, the inspiration and interpretation of scripture, and the role of scripture in the life of the Church.

Vatican II's Declaration on Religious Freedom: the right of every person to immunity from coercion in religious matters, grounded in human dignity, while the moral duty to seek the truth and embrace the true religion remains intact.

Vatican II's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World: the dignity and vocation of the human person revealed in Christ, and the Church's teaching on marriage, culture, economic life, political community and peace.

Vatican II's Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions: respect for what is true and holy in other religions, esteem for Muslims, the Church's bond with the Jewish people and rejection of antisemitism, and the condemnation of all discrimination.

John Paul II's programmatic first encyclical: Christ the Redeemer as the centre of the universe and of history, who fully reveals man to himself, and the Church's mission to every human person in the modern world.

John Paul II's encyclical on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the pilgrim Church: Mary's pilgrimage of faith, her place at the centre of the Church's journey, and her maternal mediation, subordinate to and dependent on Christ's. Announces the Marian Year of 1987–88.

John Paul II's apostolic letter declaring that the Church has no authority to confer priestly ordination on women, and that this judgement is to be held definitively by all the faithful.

John Paul II's encyclical on commitment to ecumenism: the Catholic Church's irrevocable engagement in the search for unity, the fruits of thirty years of dialogue, the questions still to be resolved, and an invitation to dialogue on the exercise of the Petrine ministry.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's declaration on the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church: the fullness of revelation in Christ, the one economy of salvation, the subsistence of the Church of Christ in the Catholic Church, and the rejection of religious relativism.

John Paul II's last encyclical, on the Eucharist in its relationship to the Church: the Eucharist as sacrifice and real presence, its power to build the Church, its dependence on the apostolic ministry, the conditions for communion, and the dignity of its celebration.

Francis's first encyclical, largely drafted by Benedict XVI: faith as a light that illuminates the whole of human existence, its relation to truth, love and reason, its transmission through the Church in the sacraments, the Creed, prayer and the Decalogue, and its service to the common good.