Sacramentum Caritatis

The blogosphere's a-twitter with the recently published apostolic exhortation from the Pope.

What exactly is an exhortation, you might ask, and how does it differ from an apostolic letter, a conciliar constitution, an encyclical, or motu proprio?

In my amateur shorthand, here's how I make sense of them in my head:

An apostolic letter and an encyclical are basically topical, written documents. One is addressed to a particular group or individual- the apostolic letter- or addresses a particular purpose in passing on the faith or elucidating a topic. An encyclical is to be circulated generally, to the whole people of faith, and it tends to be much more instructive. Encyclicals come from the Pope, and very often pertain to matters of faith and doctrine that are binding upon the faithful. Apostolic Constitutions come from the magisterium of a sacred Council, and are more juridical in nature than instructive; they more definitely set down a decision that the council has made. An exhortation is precisely that- a document that exhorts the faithful not from a conciliar standpoint and not particularly from the pope and less interested in teaching the faithful (as an encyclical does) as it is in getting certain things to happen. A motu proprio is a juridical document issued from the pope directly to a particular person or group directly, perhaps most like the 'papal bull' of yesteryear.

Let's see if I can russle up more expert opinions:

1. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains the papal bull, among other things, and

2. Here's a great resource that takes each one of the aforementioned documents in stride.

The important thing to remember is that no matter what type of document or what its status, it should be read, listened to, and obeyed as coming from the Lord.