List of encyclicals of Pope Pius XII

Pius XII promulgated 41 papal encyclicals, during his reign as pope for over 19 years, from his election of March 2, 1939, until his death on October 9, 1958.

Pope Pius XII held that papal encyclicals, even when they are not ex cathedra, can nonetheless be sufficiently authoritative to end theological debate on a particular question.

He wrote in Humani generis: It is not to be thought that what is set down in Encyclical letters does not demand assent in itself, because in this the popes do not exercise the supreme power of their magisterium.

On matters of war and peace, Pope Pius XII issued ten encyclicals, most of them after 1945, three of them (Datis nuperrime, Sertum laetitiae, and Luctuosissimi eventus) protesting the Soviet invasion and crackdown of the Hungarian revolution in 1956.

On social issues, Pope Leo XIII promulgated Rerum novarum, followed by Quadragesimo anno by Pius XI, and Centesimus annus by John Paul II.