Catholics have a weird and unhealthy attitude towards papal encyclicals. We shouldn't need to comb thru documents to find points that bolster our ideology. It is papolatry, even from people who otherwise disdain the Holy Father

Granted, I find even the best encyclicals inferior in kind. They are generally not erudite enough to be satisfying, nor concise enough for ready edification. Since Vatican II they are largely just attempts to develop "precedent" around the VII docs rather than real education

Even the best encyclicals are heavily reliant on the Fathers (Casti conubii is just updated Augustine) and the Syllabus of Errors is a compendium of smaller documents. The ones since VII, largely because of JPII, are pedantic disasters.

We risk confusing Church teaching and distorting the Magisterium largely for individualistic literary efforts (notice the lack of the old "we") which could be better handled by more serious theologians and recourse to the Fathers.

The pope is not, per se, a wise man or a literary figure. He is the king of the Church. Let him change the law if he sees fit. Enough of these wimpy glorified sermons. Actually *do something* for your flock, don't just expatiate on it

With every lauded encyclical we turn the Church more and more away from a governing body to a mere body of opinion. She more and more resembles a Protestant denomination rather than an institution formed by Christ.

Just the very notion of the papal encyclical is funny...imagine caring about the "pornocracy" popes' personal opinions! But all these lofty opinions just hide the fact that the institutional Church is collapsing--I'd actually read an encyclical about that!

Perhaps the worst aspect of this is that the Church is no longer characterized by bright line rules, but the particular attitudes of the (very mediocre) post-VII popes. Even Francis does not claim his encyclicals are the Faith, but too many lazy thinkers say otherwise