Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, was one of the chief accomplishments of the Second Vatican Council. Approved by a vote of 2,307 to 75 of the bishops assembled at the council, and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965. As is customary with Catholic documents, the title is from the first sentence and means "Joy and Hope" in Latin. (The full text in English is available through the Holy See's website.) The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, was an Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965. ... A bishop is an ordained member of the Christian clergy who, in certain Christian churches, holds a position of authority. ... His Holiness Pope Paul VI, born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (September 26, 1897 – August 6, 1978), reigned as Pope and as sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. ... December 7 is the 341st day (342nd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1965 was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...
Contents
The numbers given correspond to section numbers within the text.
Preface(1-3)
Introduction: The Situation of Men in the Modern World(4-10)
Part 1: The Church and Man's Calling(11-45)
The Dignity of the Human Person (12-22)
The Community of Mankind (23-32)
Man's Activity Throughout the World (33-39)
The Role of the Church in the Modern World (40-45)
Part 2: Some Problems of Special Urgency(46-93)
Fostering the Nobility of Marriage and the Family (47-52)
The Proper Development of Culture (53-62)
The Circumstances of Culture in the World Today (54-56)
Some Principles for the Proper Development of Culture (57-59)
Some More Urgent Duties of Christians in Regard to Culture (60-62)
Economic and Social Life (63-72)
Economic Development (64-66)
Certain Principles Governing Socio-Economic Life as a Whole (67-72)
The Life of the Political Community (73-76)
The Fostering of Peace and the Promotion of a Community of Nations (77-93)
GaudiumetSpes ("Joy and Hope"), the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, was the decree at the heart of the Second Vatican Council's message, its tone differing from many earlier Church documents in that it did not warn or condemn but expressed sympathy and understanding for the world.
In important ways GaudiumetSpes was also "triumphalistic," asserting the Churchs superiority over the culture--the gist of its message being that, so long as human beings rely merely on their own resources to achieve good, they will always be disappointed.
Insofar as GaudiumetSpes was revolutionary, it was in its failure to acknowledge the full power of evil in the world, particularly the reality of evil motives in human affairs.
GaudiumetSpes, it has been argued, is a radical and daring document, both for its scope and for significantly departing from the usual custom of addressing only Catholics in Church documents by speaking also to all persons of good will.
GaudiumetSpes puts this in the following way:Man's social nature makes it evident that the progress of the human person and the advance of society itself hinge on one another [12], and further on, .God did not create man for life in isolation, but for the formation of social unity [13].
GaudiumetSpes argues that the living conditions of modern life and the advances in the natural, human and social sciences have profoundly changed the way in which we think about what it is to be human.
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