Evangelium Vitae (Latin)
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Overview
Pope John Paul II issued Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) in 1995. The encyclical states the Church’s teaching on the dignity and inviolability of human life. The pontiff asserts that the immorality of murder, abortion, and euthanasia is a teaching of the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Church and is therefore infallible and unchangeable. He also treats capital punishment, stating it to be normally immoral. The letter also deals with more general issues such as sexual morality, the importance of the family, and society’s duty to care for the sick and the poor. The encyclical is divided into four sections, “The Voice of Your Brother’s Blood Cries to Me from the Ground: Present-Day Threats to Human Life,” “I Came That They May Have Life: The Christian Message Concerning Life,” “You Shall Not Kill: God’s Holy Law,” and “You Did It to Me: For a New Culture of Human Life.”