Kevin Keating examines the major writings of the Roman Pontiffs from Pius IX in the last half of the nineteenth century to the most recent writings of Francis. He explores the shift in papal focus from internal church matters and attacks on modern thought to concern for matters affecting all of humanity–not just spiritually, but socially, politically, and economically as well. Looming over all of these teachings is the specter of the doctrine of infallibility. First defined in 1870 to cover only...
