Answered By: Katie Hutchison
Last Updated: Sep 29, 2016     Views: 8792

MLA does not have a citation style for Encyclicals or other official Church documents. This is a commonly used format:

Hard copy: Latin title (if applicable), English translation. Promulgator. [Publication city]: Publication Date.

Online copy: Latin title (if applicable), English translation. Promulgator. [Publication city]: Publication Date.Web. Retrieval Date. <web address>.

Examples

Hard copy:

Pastoral Constitution On The Church In The Modern World — Gaudium et Spes Promulgated by Pope Paul VI. [Vatican City]: 1965.

Online copy:

NOTE: MLA no longer requires the use of URLs in MLA citations. Because Web addresses are not static (i.e., they change often) and because documents sometimes appear in multiple places on the Web (e.g., on multiple databases), MLA explains that most readers can find electronic sources via title or author searches in Internet Search Engines.

For instructors or editors that still wish to require the use of URLs, MLA suggests that the URL appear in angle brackets after the date of access.

Pastoral Constitution On The Church In The Modern World — Gaudium et Spes Promulgated by Pope Paul VI. [Vatican City]: 1965. Web. 16 March 2010. <http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html>.

In-text citation: 

It is generally agreed that well known texts can be cited simply by customary Latin title (or the first few words), followed by what paragraph is being used.

Example:

(Gaudium et Spes par. 4)

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