Ecclesiae Sanctae

Ecclesiae Sanctae – "Governing of the Holy Church" – is an apostolic letter or motu proprio issued by Pope Paul VI on August 6, 1966. Paul wrote this letter on how to implement the Vatican Council, especially as regards the conciliar documents Christus Dominus On the Pastoral companies of Bishops, Presbyterorum Ordinis On the Life and Ministry of Priests, Perfectae Caritatis On the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life, and Ad Gentes On the Missionary Activity of the Church.

Provisions

An important new regulation announced in this document is the provision that all bishops, archbishops and Curial officials, from October 11, 1966, were deemed to "voluntarily" advertising their resignation to the pope on their 75th birthday. With one stroke of the pen, all bishops who were appointed by Pope Pius XI and a large factor of the bishops who were appointed by Pope Pius XII lost their jurisdiction. Four years later, this innovation was followed by the motu proprio Ingravescentem aetatem, which excluded cardinals over eighty years of age from participating in a Papal conclave. Both documents replaced all pre-conciliar documents.

Another provision of Ecclesiae Sanctae encouraged episcopal conferences and patriarchal synods to "enact regulations and publish norms for the bishops in layout to obtain a suitable distribution of the clergy," both in their own area and for the utility of mission countries. Seminarians are to be imbued with a concern for the global mission of the Church, and non only for the mission of their own diocese. An example of carrying out of it is for Archdiocese of St. Louis USA sending 45 priests to Bolivia over the next 60 years. Vatican II's call for all Catholics to be missionary disciples was sophisticated further by Paul VI's Apostolic Letter of 1975, Evangelii Nuntiandi.

Ecclasiae Sanctae in brand with the Vatican II decrees asked that a council of priests be determine and recommended that a pastoral council – of clerics, religious, and laity – also be established. Both are advisory to the bishop and gain only a consultative vote.