Bible Encyclopedias
Literae Encyclicae

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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a term used in the Roman Catholic Church to denote letters addressed by the pope to the whole Church, but primarily to the clergy at large, as representatives of the Church. They are to be distinguished from apostolical briefs and bulls as never being applicable to local or individual cases only. They relate to some general need or tendency of a moral or doctrinal kind within the Church, or to any supposed dangers from without, and contain the pope's views on the matters alluded to, with exhortations to cooperation on the part of the clergy and the Church at large in the course of conduct advised. (See ENCYCLICA).