This Apostolic Exhortation of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI is a response to the 2008 Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, whose theme was The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church. One of the goals of the Synod was to review the implementation of the directives on Scripture found in the Second Vatican Council, especially its Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, and to confront new the challenges of our day. The continuation of this task is one of the main objectives of Verbum Domini (no. 3).



The document consists of three parts, entitled Verbum Dei (The Word of God), Verbum in Ecclesia (The Word in the Church), and Verbum Mundo (The Word to the World).