In today’s time of really problematic documents issued by the so-called “Pope Francis” and the actions and words of his successor “Pope Leo”, it is easy to forget that the current crisis did not start with them, but goes back decades.
In 1979, “John Paul II”, published his first encyclical with the title “Redemptor Hominis” (RH). Even though this document is over four decades old, I think there is value in reexamining it.
There are various problems with this encyclical, some of them very serious. In this two-part article series, I am going to comment on parts of this document. All emphases were added by me.
In this series, I am referring to a book by the German priest Johannes Dörmann (1922-2009). He published a 4-volume book series in the 1990s called “Der theologische Weg Johannes Pauls II. zum Weltgebetstag der Religionen in Assisi” (English title: “Pope John Paul II’s Theological Journey to the Prayer Meeting of Religions in Assisi”).
I am using “Part II, Volume I” of the English translation, entitled “First Encyclical: Redemptor Hominis”.
John Paul II starts off his encyclical:
“THE REDEEMER OF MAN, Jesus Christ, is the centre of the universe and of history. To him go my thoughts and my heart in this solemn moment of the world that the Church and the whole family of present-day humanity are now living. In fact, this time, in which God in his hidden design has entrusted to me, after my beloved Predecessor John Paul I, the universal service connected with the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome, is already very close to the year 2000.”
Screenshot from a Youtube video on the 1986 Assisi prayer meeting.
“The New Advent”
In the encyclical, Wojtyla references a concept he calls the “new Advent”, which he claims started with the II. Vatican Council.
“What should we do, in order that this new advent of the Church connected with the approaching end of the second millennium may bring us closer to him whom Sacred Scripture calls ‘Everlasting Father’, Pater futuri saeculi?” (RH 7)
Later on in the document, he says:
“Nevertheless, it is certain that the Church of the new Advent, the Church that is continually preparing for the new coming of the Lord, must be the Church of the Eucharist and of Penance. Only when viewed in this spiritual aspect of her life and activity is she seen to be the Church of the divine mission, the Church in statu missionis, as the Second Vatican Council has shown her to be.” (RH 20)
Here, Wojtyla not only mentions his New Advent again, but now writes about a “Church of the new Advent”.
As Dörmann observes, this does not reference the Second Coming at the end of time. Although this document doesn’t say what exactly Wojtyla “expects”, it seems to Dörmann that it is about some vision of world peace.
Wojtyla describes the situation of the Church: paragraphs 2-6
It is very interesting that “John Paul II” refers multiple times in the text to his predecessors “Paul VI” and “John XXIII”.
“I chose the same names that were chosen by my beloved Predecessor John Paul I. […] By following the example of my venerable Predecessor in choosing them, I wish like him to express my love for the unique inheritance left to the Church by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI and my personal readiness to develop that inheritance with God’s help.
Through these two names and two pontificates I am linked with the whole tradition of the Apostolic See and with all my Predecessors in the expanse of the twentieth century and of the preceding centuries. […] John XXIII and Paul VI are a stage to which I wish to refer directly as a threshold from which I intend to continue […]” (RH 2)
He does mention the “whole tradition of the Apostolic See”, but in the end, he constantly refers to these two people. In paragraphs 3 and 4, he talks about the current (1979) situation of the Church and her new “openness”.
“Entrusting myself fully to the Spirit of truth, therefore, I am entering into the rich inheritance of the recent pontificates. This inheritance has struck deep roots in the awareness of the Church in an utterly new way, quite unknown previously, thanks to the Second Vatican Council, which John XXIII convened and opened and which was later successfully concluded and perseveringly put into effect by Paul VI, whose activity I was myself able to watch from close at hand.” (RH 3)
So, there he admits that what his two predecessors did, was done “in an utterly new way, quite unknown previously”. He admits the novelty, which stands against over 1900 years of Church history.
Dörmann observes that the claim to the “present-day consciousness of the Church”, which John Paul II uses in paragraph 3, is simply “a buzzword behind which lurks an updated understanding of the Church, which will soon begin to take shape, like the famous slogan ‘spirit of the Council,’ and which everyone can interpret as he pleases.”
“In spite of all appearances, the Church is now more united in the fellowship of service and in the awareness of apostolate. This unity springs from the principle of collegiality, mentioned by the Second Vatican Council. Christ himself made this principle a living part of the apostolic College of the Twelve with Peter at their head […]” (RH 5)
He also said he wanted to encourage “all my brothers and sisters and for recalling with heartfelt gratitude the work of the Second Vatican Council and my great Predecessors, who set in motion this new surge of life for the Church, a movement that is much stronger than the symptoms of doubt, collapse and crisis.” (RH 5)
Reading this document from 1979 in 2026: it is undeniable how badly this has aged.
When it comes to the “the principle of collegiality”: it was first made up at the Second Vatican Council. This topic is too long to go into here. Traditionally, Catholic doctrine stated that a bishop governs his diocese and the pope governs the universal Church. The Second Vatican Council insinuates in Lumen Gentium, that the pope and the bishops together lead the Church.
In paragraph 6, Wojtyla mentions ecumenism and tries to explain away the fears of faithful Catholics. He claims that “[t]rue ecumenical activity means openness, drawing closer, availability for dialogue, and a shared investigation of the truth in the full evangelical and Christian sense; but in no way does it or can it mean giving up or in any way diminishing the treasures of divine truth that the Church has constantly confessed and taught.” (RH 6) This is again a classic example of the post-Vatican II habit of stating something problematic and immediately afterwards relativizing it somewhat.
After talking about ecumenism, Wojtyla shifts to the other religions at the end of paragraph 6:
“What we have just said must also be applied-although in another way and with the due differences-to activity for coming closer together with the representatives of the non-Christian religions, an activity expressed through dialogue, contacts, prayer in common, investigation of the treasures of human spirituality, in which, as we know well, the members of these religions also are not lacking.” (RH 6)
What previously was unthinkable now encouraged by the so-called pope.
“Does it not sometimes happen that the firm belief of the followers of the non-Christian religions – a belief that is also an effect of the Spirit of truth operating outside the visible confines of the Mystical Body – can make Christians ashamed at being often themselves so disposed to doubt concerning the truths revealed by God and proclaimed by the Church and so prone to relax moral principles and open the way to ethical permissiveness.” (RH 6)
Wojtyla claims that the Holy Spirit is responsible for the belief of the adherents of false religions.
Paragraphs 10-13: universal salvation
There was one book published before Wojtyla’s election, which clarifies some of his thoughts in the encyclical. It is a series of 22 speeches that Wojtyła gave at the 1975 Lenten retreat of “Paul VI” and his Curia. (Wojtyła was elected in 1978.) The following year, they were published in book form in Italy with the title “Segno di contraddizione”. After his election, the book was translated into English.
“The itinerarium mentis in Deum [journey of the human spirit to God] emerges from the depths of created things and from a man’s inmost being. […] The concept of infinity is not unknown to man. […] So there certainly is room in him, in his intellectual understanding, for Him Who is infinite, the God of boundless majesty […]. This God is professed in His silence by the Trappist or the Camaldolite. It is to him that the desert Bedouin turns at his hour for prayer. And perhaps the Buddhist, too, rapt in contemplation as he purifies his thought, preparing the way to Nirvana. God in His absolute transcendence, God who transcends absolutely the whole of creation, all that is visible and comprehensible…The Church of the living God gathers together all men, who in one way or another share this marvellous [sic] transcendence of the human spirit.” (p. 15-17)
Here, he claims that the different religions are all striving towards God (D 55).
Screenshot from a Youtube video on the 1986 Assisi prayer meeting.
“The Church of our day has become particularly conscious of this truth; and it was in the light of this truth that the Church succeeded, during the second Vatican Council, in re-defining her own nature.” (p. 17)
If the church of the Second Vatican Council has a different nature, then it isn’t the Catholic Church!
Quoting the Second Vatican Council document Gaudium et Spes, Wojtyła writes:
“Thus the birth of the Church, at the time of the messianic and redemptive death of Christ, coincided with the birth of ‘the new man’ — whether or not man was aware of such a rebirth and whether or not he accepted it. At that moment man’s existence acquired a new dimension, very simply expressed by St Paul as ‘in Christ’.” (p. 91)
Father Dörmann observes: “The God-Man Jesus Christ has, through His vicarious satisfaction and the merits of His Redemption, accomplished the reconciliation of humanity with God. This objective universal redemption must, however, be received by and applied to each individual before subjective redemption comes to pass. The act of applying the fruits of the Redemption to each man individually is called justification (dikaioosis, justificatio) or sanctification (hagiasmos, sanctificatio), the fruit of Redemption being the grace of Christ.” In other words, Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross would have been enough to save every human being, but not all humans accept God’s grace. Thus, some people go to Hell.
There are many other statements in the book which sound innocent, but take on a new meaning when viewed in the context of universal salvation.
Paragraph 10
“Man cannot live without love. […] This, as has already been said, is why Christ the Redeemer ‘fully reveals man to himself’ [Gaudium et Spes 22]. If we may use the expression, this is the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity.” (RH 10)
Christ revealed the Father to us, not human nature itself!
“In reality, the name for that deep amazement at man’s worth and dignity is the Gospel, that is to say: the Good News. It is also called Christianity. This amazement determines the Church’s mission in the world and, perhaps even more so, ‘in the modern world’. This amazement, which is also a conviction and a certitude-at its deepest root it is the certainty of faith, but in a hidden and mysterious way it vivifies every aspect of authentic humanism-is closely connected with Christ.” (RH 10)
So, the Gospel is identical with man’s amazement at himself?! Apparently, according to Wojtyla, the mission of the church is also a consequence of this self-centered “amazement”. This mission was entrusted by Christ Himself to His Church: “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”! (Mt 28:19-20)
Paragraphs 11-12
In these two paragraphs, there is only one thing I would like to mention. “John Paul II” claims that “we can together come close to the magnificent heritage of the human spirit that has been manifested in all religions, as the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration Nostra Aetate says”. (RH 12).
So the Aztec religion, where priests sacrificed human victims by cutting their hearts out, is part of the “magnificent heritage of the human spirit”?