Verbum Domini


Verbum Domini is a post-synodal apostolic exhortation issued by Pope Benedict XVI which deals with how the Catholic church should approach the Bible. He issued it following the XII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which had met in October 2008 to discuss "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church." Verbum Domini is dated September 30, 2010, for the Feast of St. Jerome, the patron saint of Biblical studies.
The document use the Prologue of John's Gospel as a guide because it reveals Jesus, the "Word made flesh" who "dwelt among us".
Its structure is:
  1. Introduction
  2. Part One - Verbum Dei
God seeks dialogue with humankind. At the Incarnation, the Word became flesh and lived among us.
  1. Part Two - Verbum In Ecclesia
  2. Part Three - Verbum Mundo
Its general theme of the "Word of God" had been dealt with previously in the Magisterium, notably by Pope Leo XIII in Providentissimus Deus, by the Second Vatican Council in its Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation: Dei Verbum, by Pope Pius XII in Divino afflante Spiritu and by the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church.