Forgotten Treasures
The Pope Without an Encyclical

by Peter A. Kwasniewski

With this column, the series “Forgotten Treasures” comes to an end. Over the past two years, we have been focusing on important papal writings whose timeless wisdom Catholics would do well to rediscover and make their own. A review spanning from Leo XIII to Paul VI inevitably deals with pontificates of massive sweep, leaving behind multitudinous encyclicals and other documents.

As a final installment, and in commemoration of the recent 30th anniversary of his death, I would like to examine a single speech by the one-month pope John Paul I, namely, the address he delivered on August 27, 1978, following his election to the throne of Peter.

Different Men, Same Message

One of the things that makes me proud to be Catholic is the utter consistency of the Church’s message. When I discovered this papal address—which is, not surprisingly, quite unknown even to those who go out of their way to look to the papal magisterium for guidance, but which is the closest thing to a programmatic encyclical this Pope was able to offer to the Church—it brought a tremendous smile to my face, perhaps not unlike the smile for which Albino Luciani was famous. I recognized in the voice of the first John Paul not only the teaching I had seen in John XXIII and Paul VI, both of whose names he took in an historically unprecedented step, but also the teaching I had seen much further back in Pius IX and Leo XIII at the end of the nineteenth century.

That was not all. I recognized in the themes Albino Luciani discussed on that Sunday morning in Rome just over 30 years ago the key themes that Pope Benedict’s luminous preaching has centered around in the past three years.

Confident Constancy

Near the beginning of his address, John Paul I expresses his confidence in our Lord’s guidance: “Placing our hand in that of Christ, leaning on Him, we have now been lifted up to steer that ship which is the Church; it is safe and secure, though in the midst of storms, because the comforting, dominating presence of the Son of God is with it.” He quotes St. Augustine: The Church is a storm-tossed ship, but still it carries its passengers to safety. The new Pope adds, echoing the ancient adage extra ecclesiam nulla salus: “Only in the Church is salvation: without it one perishes!”

Then, having noted that the Church’s mission is to serve the world by bringing it to Christ and that, to do so, the faithful must work to overcome internal tensions as well as the temptation to accommodate themselves to the world, John Paul I turns to address one of the major problems of our time:

The world awaits this [strengthening of the spirit] today: it knows well that the sublime perfection to which it has attained by research and technology has already reached a peak, beyond which yawns the abyss, blinding the eyes with darkness. It is the temptation of substituting for God one’s own decisions, decisions that would prescind from moral laws. The danger for modern man is that he would reduce the earth to a desert, the person to an automaton, brotherly love to planned collectivization, often introducing death where God wishes life.

Readers of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI will immediately recognize the same themes, often in the same words. Consistency is a most beautiful thing where truth is concerned; the popes, to borrow a phrase from the Old Testament, turn neither to the right nor to the left, but follow straight along the path God has shown. Their impressive unanimity, their confident constancy, stands out all the more against the backdrop of a human world ever changing, never satisfied with its conquests, always in fear of uncertainty and collapse.

Implementing Vatican II

Exemplifying the reality long before Benedict XVI coined for it the phrase “hermeneutic of continuity,” John Paul I next recalls “the great lessons of pastoral guidance left by the most recent Popes, Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII,” and his immediate predecessor Paul VI, who “extended himself to carry into effect the Second Vatican Council and to seek world peace, the tranquility of order.” John Paul I says he will be dedicated to the same effort. Indeed, he outlines a “program” that was to become exactly that of John Paul II, in words that strike one as more relevant now than ever:

We wish to continue to put into effect the heritage of the Second Vatican Council. Its wise norms should be followed out and perfected. We must be wary of that effort [of implementation] that is generous, perhaps, but unwarranted. It would not achieve the content and meaning of the Council. . . . We wish to preserve the integrity of the great discipline of the Church in the life of priests and of the faithful. . . . We wish to remind the entire Church that its first duty is that of evangelization.

In these words we see several balanced points. First, an ecumenical council has to be implemented, it does not automatically implement itself. The teaching of a council needs to be followed out with fidelity so that the mission God had in mind for it may be brought to completion. In the history of the Church, some councils have, for a variety of reasons, failed to produce lasting fruit; what the members of the Church and especially its leaders freely do with the legacy of a council makes all the difference. Consequently, there can be efforts of implementation, even efforts characterized by enormous dedication and self-sacrifice on the part of their proponents, that nevertheless stray from the mark, failing to cohere with the “content and meaning” of the council. There can be factional enthusiasms, one-sided interpretations, unwarranted applications, ideas of renewal that turn out to be dead ends.

Renewing Missionary Zeal

This, it seems, is why the pope brings up the discipline of the Church, which so many in 1978 were attacking in the name of renewal. He, as Vicar of Christ, is committed rather to sustaining this discipline in its integrity, understanding genuine renewal to be zealous recommitment to all that is of perennial truth and permanent value. This is also why he brings up evangelization. One of the oddest results of the Council was a sudden lessening of missionary zeal for the conversion of unbelievers—exactly the opposite of what John XXIII and Paul VI had intended and the documents themselves had urged. John Paul I speaks to this topic twice in his address. Near the beginning he states:

We call especially on the children of the Church to understand better their responsibility: “You are the salt of the earth . . . you are the light of the world” (Mt 5:13–14). . . . The faithful should be ready to give witness of their own faith to the world: “Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pt 3:15).

Near the end he brings in the reason why: “We must always be ready to give witness of the faith that is ours and of the mission that Christ has given to us, ‘that the world may believe’ (Jn 17:21).” Later in his address John Paul I says:

We salute the entire missionary Church, and we extend to all men and women who in their outposts of evangelization dedicate themselves to the care of their brothers, our encouragement and our most loving recognition. They should know that, among all who are dear to us, they are the dearest: they are never forgotten in our prayers and thoughts, because they have a privileged place in our heart.

The new pope also announces that he will continue to pursue the work of true ecumenism: “We intend to dedicate our prayerful attention to everything that would favor union [among divided Christians]. We will do so without diluting doctrine but, at the same time, without hesitance.” A good formula to remember: to invite others to unity without compromising the truth of the faith, but at the same time without the delays born of timidity and diffidence.

Standing for Truth

Before a final section of his address consisting of greetings to different groups, John Paul I dwells on his mission to be a servant of world peace. He notes that his predecessor Paul VI was a champion of “serene and constructive dialogue” and that he will pursue the same “with patience but firmness.” Then we find a paragraph that might have jumped verbatim out of an address of Pope Benedict XVI on today’s global situation, taking into its purview the suffocating dictatorship of relativism in the West and the encroaching presence of militant Islam:

We wish finally to express our support for all the laudable, worthy initiatives that can safeguard and increase peace in our troubled world. We call upon all good men, all who are just, honest, true of heart. We ask them to help build up a dam within their nations against blind violence which can only destroy and sow seeds of ruin and sorrow. So, too, in international life, they might bring men to mutual understanding, to combining efforts that would further social progress, overcome hunger of body and ignorance of the mind, and advance those who are less endowed with goods of this earth, yet rich in energy and desire.

Humble Faithfulness

Undoubtedly there are other features of this address to which one might draw attention, but the major points have been covered. Now, it is true enough that this first address of John Paul I is modest in content and unremarkable when compared with many of the mighty encyclicals that have been recommended in the “Forgotten Treasures” series. It is true that John Paul I was humbly placing his ministry in continuity with the work of his predecessors and committing himself to a path of total fidelity to tradition. It is true that his address borrows its themes from earlier popes and that subsequent popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, will inevitably build on the same foundations.

Do we not learn something of immense importance from the very modesty, humility, and lack of “originality” that characterize this new pope’s first address? All of this amounts to a marvelous, instructive lesson in the permanence, stability, unity, and indefectability of the Catholic Church, whose leaders, unlike worldly politicians, do not promise one thing while doing another or introduce contradictory programs with each passing generation. Indeed, anyone who reads the relatively compact corpus of John Paul I’s writings will discover that he is (if one may put it so) an eloquent but selfless link in the chain of Successors of St. Peter, a faithful disciple who passes on only what he has heard and has no time for vain novelties.

In this respect, his address, simple, childlike, bold, and clear, is the very mark of the martyred fisherman. No wonder it contains John Paul II’s program in miniature; no wonder it anticipates the concerns of Benedict XVI. It is the voice of St. Peter speaking across history, resonating in the heart of the Church. May we, in the depth of our hearts, stay ever faithful to the heart of the Church, faithful to the Vicar of Christ whoever he may be.

Peter Kwasniewski is an associate professor of theology at Wyoming Catholic College and a visiting professor at the International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Gaming, Austria. He received his BA in liberal arts from Thomas Aquinas College in California and his MA and Ph.D. in philosophy from The Catholic University of America.

Kwasniewski has published extensively in scholarly and popular journals and directs Gregorian chant and other sacred music. He and his wife, Clarissa, have two children and are lay members of the Order of Preachers.

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