SEMPITERNUS REX

« SEMPITERNUS REX ». — Encyclical of Pio XII for the fifteenth centenary of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (8 Sept. 1951).

The Council of Chalcedon is the third of the great Christological Councils, after that of Nicaea (commemorated in the Holy Year 1925) and that of Ephesus (encycl. Lux Veritatis, 25 Dec. 1931), which respectively defined the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and the unity of person in Christ. After this brief reminder, the encyclical recalls the historical circumstances and the theological climate in which the Council of Chalcedon took place, emphasizing the request made by the Eastern bishops and the acceptance of the intervention of Pope s. Leone Magno. Within the framework of

this important solemn affirmation of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff presents can. 28 in its true significance. Although it did not, according to the intentions of its authors, contain a genuine denial of the primacy, it was rejected by the Pope and subsequently by the Emperor and by the bishop of Constantinople himself, who judged it invalid because it had been drawn up in the absence of the papal legates. The second part of the encyclical explains the meaning of the dogmatic formula of Chalcedon, warning against errors now current that compromise the unity of person in Christ. The Supreme Pontiff intends not merely to address the kenotic theory widespread among non-Catholics, but also alludes to certain currents within Catholic theology itself.

The distinguished document concludes with an appeal to dissident Orientals to return to the unity of the fold and to union with the Apostolic See, whose primacy had been admirably acknowledged by their fathers at the ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (AAS, 43 [1951], pp. 625-44).