Pope's Encyclical Sends a 'Lovely' Message

The fact that the Pope's first encyclical was a message of love perhaps softened his image as a stern enforcer in his former capacity of Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. We at the Pope Blog feel that this document is a truer representation of the Pope's personality and heart than any 'image' the mainstream media projects, anyway.

The Guardian reports:

The 78-year-old pontiff devoted much of the first half of his treatise to the relationship between Eros - erotic love - and Agape, the Greek word for unconditional and selfless love...

The encyclical says both forms are interrelated: "The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realised."

Read the Guardian story, or the actual encyclical.