Home » For the first time, the Pope transmits an encyclical only by e-mail

For the first time, the Pope transmits an encyclical only by e-mail

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Twenty years ago, on November 22, 2001, for the first time an official Vatican document, in particular an encyclical, the apostolic letter that the pontiff addresses to the bishops on a matter of Catholic doctrine, it was only sent via the Internet.

The Pope was John Paul II and the encyclical was Ecclesia in Oceania. The text came at the conclusion of the special assembly for Oceania of the synod of bishops, which had been held in the Vatican at the end of 1998. Before then, on the occasion of the previous continental synods, Pope Wojtyla had personally delivered the text of the exhortation apostolic, La Repubblica of November 19, anticipating the news, claimed that the Pope would have signed (not digitally, by hand) the document in the Clementine Room and then transmit it (scanned as a pdf probably) by e-mail to all the Dioceses of Oceania (“Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, November 22, 2001, the twenty-fourth of my Pontificate. JOANNES PAULUS PP. II”).

The Vatican had issued a note for underline the exceptional nature of the event: “Given the geographic dispersion of the continent, electronic communication has played an important role throughout the synodal process since its initial preparation. The electronic sending of the pontifical document by the Pope, a primacy in the history of the Church, will remarkably underline this aspect “. Note the use of the adverb remarkably.

The Vatican was not new to the Internet: the official site debuted in 1995.

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