When the pope sits down and writes us a letter.

A few months ago Pope John Paul II published his latest encyclical letter, Fides et ratio (Faith and Reason). It's his 13th letter of his 20-year papacy. Twelve years in the making, this encyclical is a lengthy letter.

The publication of an encyclical, especially when tagged as "long awaited," is an important moment for Catholicism, and, in some cases, for the wider world. Whether an encyclical transcends its moment and becomes a benchmark in the traditions of Catholicism and, perhaps, in the history of the wider world, is dependent upon at least two things: 1) the importance of the subject matter and 2) the test of time. Fides et ratio is about important subject matter--the worldviews of modern philosophies and the Christian worldview. The second requirement, the test of time, is, at this point, too early to tell. Its ink is hardly dry.

Encyclical letters as we know them today began with Benedict XIV's letter on episcopal duties, Ubi primum, issued in 1740. After Benedict's death in 1758--some 13 encyclicals later--the next five popes used the encyclical letter quite sparingly. A total of 17 letters were issued by this quintet. Then came Pius IX in 1846, who published 38 encyclicals during his 32-year pontificate. Leo XIII's quarter-century papacy followed with 86 encyclical letters. We should all do so well with our own correspondence! Ever since then the encyclical letter has been common, though not necessarily as prolific, in every papacy, save for John Paul I. In his less than one month's papacy, Albino Luciani didn't have time to find the stationary let alone pen an encyclical!

Many of the nearly 300 encyclicals written since 1740 did not withstand the test of time. One reason encyclicals do not have an eternal shelf life is that later popes repudiate them. Paul VI, for example, referred to some of Pius XII's teachings as "out of date." Later in his papacy, Paul VI had difficulty with the concept of encyclical letters as universally applicable. He stopped writing them in 1968, a full decade before the end of his pontificate. His last encyclical happened to be Humanae vitae.

Paul VI told the world of his decision in an apostolic letter, Octogesimo adveniens. He wrote, "In the face of such widely varying situations it is difficult for us to utter a unified message and to put forward a solution which has universal validity. Such is not our ambition, nor is it our mission. It is up to the Christian communities to analyze with objectivity the situation which is proper to their own country, to shed on it the light of the gospel's unalter able words, and to draw principles of reflection, norms of judgment, and directives for action from the social teaching of the church." Ironically, Pope Paul published this letter on the 80th anniversary of perhaps the most famous and enduring social encyclical, Rerum novarum.

So the odds are steep that this encyclical, or any other papal letter, will withstand the tough tests of time. But, for the moment, Fides et ratio stands as the latest letter with a papal postmark!

Peter Gilmour ([e-mail]) teaches at the Institute of Pastoral Studies of Loyola University Chicago.