Just after one Synod (on the Middle East), the results of the previous one are published. The post-synodal apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini is the most important Catholic church document on Scripture since the Second Vatican Council’s groundbreaking Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, known as Dei Verbum, in 1965.

Verbum Domini – available here — follows the 2008 Synod of Bishops on the theme, “The Word of God in the Life and the Mission of the Church”. Even though it was published today, it bears the date of 30 September, feast of St Jerome (who translated the Bible into Latin).

 

 

 

Austen Ivereigh is a fellow in Contemporary Church History at Campion Hall, at the University of Oxford, and a biographer of Pope Francis. In 2020 he collaborated with Pope Francis on Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future, published by Simon & Schuster. His most recent book is First Belong to God: On Retreat with Pope Francis, published by Loyola Press.