Originally published at The Catholic Thing
The publication of Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) 30 years ago marked a high-water mark of the pontificate of St. John Paul the Great. Signed on the Solemnity of the Annunciation (March 25, 1995), the 11th of his 14 encyclicals was a publishing sensation. Paperback copies of the text appeared at supermarket checkouts. Newsweek gave it a cover story in which religion editor Kenneth Woodward praised Evangelium Vitae as the “clearest, most impassioned and most commanding encyclical of the pontificate.”
