1975 · Vatican City
Evangelii Nuntiandi Apostolic Exhortation
In 1975, Pope Paul VI issued Evangelii Nuntiandi, widely considered the most important modern document on evangelization, arguing that proclaiming the Gospel is the essential mission of the Church and that every baptized person — not just missionaries — is called to share the faith.
The document emerged from the 1974 Synod of Bishops on evangelization, which had ended without a final statement because the bishops could not agree on one. Paul VI took their work, distilled it, and produced something better than any committee document could have been. Evangelii Nuntiandi asked a deceptively simple question: what does it mean to evangelize? Paul VI's answer was comprehensive. Evangelization is not just preaching. It includes the witness of a Christian life, explicit proclamation of the Gospel, the building of community, participation in the sacraments, and action for justice. All of these together make up evangelization — none of them alone is sufficient. The document insisted that evangelization and human development are connected but not identical. You cannot preach the Gospel to hungry people without also working to feed them. But social work alone, without reference to Christ, is not evangelization. This balanced position cut against both those who reduced the Gospel to social activism and those who treated concern for justice as a distraction from 'real' religion. Paul VI also addressed the relationship between evangelization and culture. The Gospel must be inculturated — expressed in the forms and language of each people — without being reduced to any single culture. He warned against what he called 'the drama of our time': the split between the Gospel and culture. Evangelii Nuntiandi was Pope Francis's stated inspiration for Evangelii Gaudium and remains the single most influential papal document on the Church's missionary identity since Vatican II.
Why it matters
Provided the Church's most comprehensive modern theology of evangelization, insisting that proclamation, witness, community, sacraments, and justice are all essential components, and directly shaped the missionary emphasis of every subsequent papacy.
What Happened
After the 1974 Synod of Bishops failed to produce its own statement on evangelization, Paul VI wrote Evangelii Nuntiandi himself. He defined evangelization broadly — not just preaching but witness, community building, sacraments, and justice — and insisted that every baptized person shares responsibility for it. He argued that the Gospel must be expressed in each culture's own terms without being reduced to any one cultural form.
Why It Still Matters
Evangelii Nuntiandi is the document behind the document. Pope Francis's Evangelii Gaudium draws directly on it. John Paul II's 'new evangelization' builds on it. Every serious Catholic discussion of mission and outreach since 1975 starts here. Its insistence that faith and justice go together — that you cannot have one without the other — remains the Church's settled position.