Answer

Why Does the Proclamation Begin With Words Like "Solemnly Proclaim"?

The first sentence of the Proclamation is easy to read as throat-clearing before the real content starts. It is not. The opening words were chosen deliberately and they are doing work.

“We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles … solemnly proclaim” is not how a magazine article opens. It is how a body with authority speaks when it intends what follows to bind. If you skim the first line, you miss the announcement being made in it.

Eternal Truths

“We” means all fifteen, together. The subject of that sentence is the First Presidency and the Twelve, named as one voice (The Family: A Proclamation to the World). Nothing in the document is one man’s view, and that is established before a single doctrine is.

“Solemnly” signals obligation, not mood. Solemnity in this sense is seriousness of commitment. A solemn declaration is one the speaker accepts responsibility for, and that is a different posture from offering counsel.

“Proclaim” points outward, to everyone. Not “counsel”, not “teach”, not “remind”. To proclaim is to announce publicly to people who have not asked. That is why the document is addressed to the world rather than to the membership, and why it closes by calling on responsible citizens and officers of government rather than only on Latter-day Saints.

What Can Make This Confusing?

People still ask whether the Proclamation is scripture or policy, and that argument tends to swallow the smaller question its own first sentence already answers: what kind of speech act it is. The answer is the most binding kind fifteen apostles have available to them. Whether it is later canonised is a separate matter and does not change what was issued.

Questions to Think About

• Have I ever read the Proclamation’s first sentence as carefully as its paragraphs?
• What difference does it make to me that all fifteen signed it rather than one?
• Who was it addressed to, and does that change how I use it?

What You Can Do

Read only the first sentence this week, slowly, and mark the three words above. Then read the final paragraph and notice that it is addressed to the same audience the opening announced. The essay behind this answer works through the language in detail.

Jesus Christ leads His Church through apostles who speak with one voice, and this document is what that sounds like.