Interfaces da missão:

uma leitura das encíclicas missionárias pré-conciliares

Abstract

This essay aims to analyze the theological and missionary metamorphosis of the Church, before the Second Vatican Council, from the missionary encyclicals. The research begins with the model of the plantatio Ecclesiae, which understood mission mainly as the geographical expansion of the Church, passing through the exclusivist theological orientation. The first major missionary encyclical was Maximum Illud, which addressed the universality of mission, the separation between evangelization and colonialism, the formation of the local clergy, the competence of missionaries, and missionary cooperation. The popes who succeeded Benedict XV until Vatican II all published missionary encyclicals, inspired by Maximum Illud, incorporating new elements to respond to the needs of the Church's missionary activity. In such a way that Pius XI wrote Rerum Ecclesiae (1926), Pius XII Evangelii Praecones (1951) and Fidei Donum (1957), John XXIII Princeps Pastorum (1959). Gradually, these encyclicals have changed the practice of mission ad gentes, enriching the notion of evangelization and, at the same time, contributing to the reconfiguration of the Church in view of the universal mission, in the changing panorama of the contemporary world.