A prominent Italian theologian and archbishop has called Pope Francis’ new encyclical on the Sacred Heart “the key to his entire pontificate” and “the inspiring motive of [his] whole ministry and magisterium.”

Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto presented Dilexit Nos (“He Loved Us”) at a press conference at the Vatican on Oct. 24.

A prolific spiritual writer, Forte, who became a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in June, called the encyclical “extremely timely” for its attention to “the centrality of God’s love in Jesus Christ” and to the “dramatic challenges of the present time.”

Pope Francis released Dilexit Nos on Thursday, calling for a renewed understanding of devotion to the Sacred Heart in the modern era and its many pressing challenges.

Forte said Pope Francis’ magisterium is “far from being … restricted to social issues, as it has sometimes been clumsily understood,” and his message “to the entire human family stems from a single spring, presented here in a more explicit, clear way: Christ the Lord, his love for humanity.”

“It is the truth on which Jorge Mario Bergoglio has staked his whole life and continues to spend it passionately as bishop of Rome, pastor of the universal Church,” the archbishop added.

He emphasized that the encyclical “can really be considered a compendium of everything that Pope Francis, the pope that God gave the Church in these not-easy years, wanted and wants to say to every brother and sister in humanity.”

Forte presented the encyclical together with Sister Antonella Fraccaro, superior general of the Disciples of the Gospel (Discepole del Vangelo), who said: “The encyclical calls us to be missionaries.”

We are called to be “missionaries,” she added, “who transmit love, who love therefore with witness, with presence alone, with words when needed, without the need to engage in proselytism.”

This article was originally published on CNA.

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