to carrying out the missionary mandate in today's world. As Christ sent forth his apostles in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, so too, renewing that same mandate, I extend to all of you my apostolic blessing, in the name of the same Most Holy Trinity. Amen. Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on December 7, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Conciliar Decree Ad Gentes, in the year 1990, the thirteenth of my Pontificate. JOHN PAUL II
1. Cf. Paul VI, Message for World Mission Day, 1972, Insegnamenti X, (1972), 522: "How many internal tensions, which weaken and divide certain local churches and institutions, would disappear before the firm conviction that the salvation of local communities is procured through cooperation in work for the spread of the Gospel to the farthest bounds of the earth!"
2. Cf. Benedict XV, Apostolic Letter Maximum Illud (November 30, 1919): AAS 11 (1919), 440-455; Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Rerum Ecclesiae (February 28, 1926): AAS 18 (1926), 65-83; Pius XII, Encyclical LetterEvangelii Praecones (June 2, 1951): AAS 43 (1951), 497-528; Encyclical Letter Fidei Donum (April 21, 1957):AAS 49 (1957), 225-248; John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Princeps Pastorum (November 28, 1959): AAS 51 (1959), 833864.
3. Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis (March 4, 1979), 10: AAS 71 (1979), 274f. 4. Ibid.: loc. cit., 275. 5. Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: DS 150. 6. Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, 13: loc. cit., 283. 7. Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 2.
8. Ibid., 22. 9. Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia (November 30, 1980), 7: AAS 72 (1980), 1202. 10. Homily for the celebration of the Eucharist in Krakow, June 10, 1979: AAS 71 (1979), 873. 11. Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Mater et Magistra (May 15, 1961) IV AAS 53 (1961), 453. 12. Declaration on Religious Freedom Dignitatis Humanae, 2.