A Thematic Summary of Gaudium et Spes

Hugh MacKenzie FAITH Magazine November – December 2012

The Editor illustrates the nine themes presented in the editorial with quotations taken mainly from the first part of Vatican II's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World

Introduction
 
The nine collections of representative quotations below capture the nine themes mentioned in our editorial. They add up to a clear call for a new synthesis of Faith and Reason, in which the implications of modern science should play a significant role.
 
N.B. Bullet points are all direct quotes from the text, except for words in square brackets. The translation we have used is from the Vatican website. Especially in theme 4 on the facing page, which contains we believe those sentences that have caused most concern among those of a conservative mindset, we have slightly retranslated a few phrases, usually making reference to the relevant Latin words. Numbers in brackets are paragraph numbers.

Contents of Gaudium et Spes

Preface (1-3)

Introduction: The Situation of Men in the Modern World (4-10)

Part I: The Church and Man's Calling (11-45)
I. The Dignity of the Human Person (12-22)
II. The Community of Mankind (23-32)
III. Man's Activity Throughout the World (33-39)
IV. The Role of the Church in the Modern World (40-45)

Part II: Some Problems of Special Urgency (46-93)
I. Fostering the Nobility of Marriage and the Family (47-52)
II. The Proper Development of Culture (53-62)
III. Economic and Social Life (63-72)
IV The Life of the Political Community (73-76)
V The Fostering of Peace and the Promotion of a Community of Nations (77-93)

1. We now Have a New Culture

We are entering "a new stage of history ... a true cultural and social transformation" (4) in which "the human race is passing from a rather static concept of the order of things to a more dynamic, evolutionary one" (5).

More specifically:

Gaudium et Spes summarises this new situation in para 41:

"Modern man is on the road to a more thorough development of his own personality, and to a growing discovery and vindication of his own rights ... the birth of a new humanism, one in which man is defined first of all by this responsibility to his brothers and to history."

2. Science Has Had a Major Impact

In its introduction Gaudium et Spes makes this foundational statement:

"Today's spiritual agitation and the changing conditions of life are part of a broader and deeper revolution. Intellectual formation is ever increasingly based on the mathematical and natural sciences and on those dealing with man himself, while in the practical order the technology which stems from these sciences takes on mounting importance. This scientific spirit has a new kind of impact on the cultural sphere and on modes of thought.....The destiny of the human community has become all of a piece, the human race is passing from a rather static concept of the order of things to a more dynamic, evolutionary one. In consequence there has arisen a new series of problems, a series as numerous as can be" (5).

Part I of the constitution, "The Church and Man's Calling", from which most of the quotations below are taken, focuses upon the nature of man who today "has won superlative victories, especially in his probing of the material world and in subjecting it to himself" (15). Part II, "Some Problems of Particular Urgency", has a section on the proper "development of culture", which provides some of the quotations below, and affirms that we now have "a culture which [has arisen] from the enormous progress of science and technology" (56). "The recent studies and findings of science, history and philosophy raise new questions which affect life" (62).

3. There are Significant Dangers in This New Culture

At the same time as these seemingly positive developments man appears "burdened down with uneasiness" (4) and "mutual distrust" (8). Before man "lies the path to freedom or to slavery" (9). So the last two chapters of Part I affirm that "Christ's Church, trusting in the design of the Creator, acknowledges that human progress can serve man's true happiness, yet she cannot help echoing the Apostle's warning: 'Be not conformed to this world' (Rom 12:2)" (37).

For there is a real temptation toward the "annihilation" of the dignity of man (41), by "losing sight" of the fact that man has a nature (61).

So it is that "growing numbers of people are abandoning religion in practice; on every side they influence literature, the arts, the interpretation of the humanities and of history and civil laws themselves. As a consequence, many people are shaken" (7). The more theoretical analyses of the first two chapters of Part I bring out that:

4. Acknowledgment of the Sincerity and Insight of Many Non-Catholics

Because of the above (cf. first sentence of Chapter IV, "The Role of the Church in the Modern World", beginning at para 40) the Council wanted to foster a respectful "dialogue" with the great mass of people outside the Church "acknowledging their positive values" (57). For, as we have seen, these people, as well as taking some very dangerous paths, have developed insights from the Christian tradition by effectively synthesising them with new discoveries about nature. This challenging, confusing reality is faced by many Catholics every day. No "New Evangelisation" can afford to ignore it.

So Part I builds up a thread which would seem a rational development, yet involves some of its most controversial statements. The Vatican website's translation may not be the most conservative interpretation of the text. We have retranslated a few parts of these, putting some of the relevant Latin in square brackets.

Paragraph 40 offers some qualification of the above: "not that there is any lack in the constitution given her by Christ", and the Church "serves as a leaven and as a kind of soul for human society".

This is the context for understanding some of document's most humble of expressions, such as: "Christian revelation contributes greatly [subsidium affert magnum] to the promotion of this communion between persons, ... a world becoming more unified every day" (23) and, the Church "contributes toward making the family of man and its history fully human [humaniorem reddendam]" (40). This might even perhaps be rendered: "the Church fosters the fully human formation of the family and history of man."

This courtesy of Vatican II towards those outside the Church is the context for understanding the invitatory and generous opening words of the whole constitution, which affirm:

"Nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in the hearts [of members of the Church], ... [which] community realises that it is truly linked with mankind and its history by the deepest of bonds ... this Council can provide no more eloquent proof of its solidarity with, as well as its respect and love for, the entire human family with which it is bound up than by engaging with it in conversation about these various problems."

5. The Urgent Need for a New Synthesis

Thus we can conclude that "there has arisen a new series of problems, a series as numerous as can be, calling for efforts of analysis and synthesis" (5). In later, more practical parts of the document some key questions are articulated:

Might it be a certain failure to answer these questions which makes this statement seem a worrying anachronism: "The number constantly swells of the people who raise the most basic questions or recognise them with a new sharpness" (10). Fifty years on the needs below would seem unmet:

6. The Church's Role in Synthesising Modern Insights With Perennial Doctrine

As we have seen (eg in para 16), this is a shared predicament. Moreover, "it is sometimes difficult to harmonise culture with Christian teaching. These difficulties do not necessarily harm the life of faith, rather they can stimulate the mind to a deeper and more accurate understanding of the faith" (62).

Yet "When God is forgotten the creature itself grows unintelligible" (36). Furthermore "faith ... directs the mind to solutions" (11).

Thus, in addition to the shared tasks of humanity outlined in the above section, we have these increasingly specialised, ecclesial tasks:

We should remember that all these contemporary tasks are the ones termed "normative for the 21st century" by Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. These duties, which might simply be termed "seeking a proper presentation of the Church's teaching" (21), are synthesised in paragraph 62:

"May the faithful, therefore, live in very close union with the other men of their time and may they strive to understand perfectly their way of thinking and judging, as expressed in their culture. Let them blend new sciences and theories and the understanding of the most recent discoveries with Christian morality and the teaching of Christian doctrine, so that their religious culture and morality may keep pace with scientific knowledge and with the constantly progressing technology....Thus they will be able to interpret and evaluate all things in a truly Christian spirit, ... and priests will be able to present to our contemporaries the doctrine of the Church concerning God, man and the world, in a manner more adapted to them so that they may receive it more willingly."

Lest this repeated and urgent call of the Ecumenical Council appear controversial the Council reminds us that:

"From the beginning of [the Church's] history she has learned to express the message of Christ with the help of the ideas and terminology of various philosophers, and has tried to clarify it with their wisdom, too" (44). Further, "the Church, living in various circumstances in the course of time, has used the discoveries of different cultures" (58).

Such "accommodated preaching of the revealed word ought to remain the law of all evangelisation" (44).

7. Overall Purpose of Such Development

Gaudium et Spes reminds us of the perennial goal of this effort. It is that, appropriately for the modern world:

8. Founding the Vision: Jesus Christ as the Recapitulation of History

The last paragraph of the Constitution's "Introductory Statement" presents the heart of the vision it proposes as the "key" to unlocking the problems it has outlined. This key is "welcoming" Christ as the recapitulation of secular and salvation history, man being "body and soul", in his image.

"[The Church] holds that in her most benign Lord and Master can be found the key, the focal point and the goal of man, as well as of all human history ... Under the light of Christ, the image of the unseen God, the firstborn of every creature, the council wishes to speak to all men in order to shed light on the mystery of man and to cooperate in finding the solution to the outstanding problems of our time" (10).

It is a theme to which the document returns towards the end of each of the four chapters in its first and main part, "The Church and Man's Calling", linking it with the theme of the chapter:

Such a vision of the Word made flesh can provide the basis for the synthetic vision that Gaudium et Spes has called for:

"Since it has been entrusted to the Church to reveal the mystery of God, Who is the ultimate goal of man, she opens up to man at the same time the meaning of his own existence, that is, the innermost truth about himself ...For by His incarnation the Father's Word assumed, and sanctified through His cross and resurrection, the whole of man, body and soul, and through that totality the whole of nature created by God for man's use" (41).

"Only God, Who created man to His own image and ransomed him from sin, provides the most adequate answer to the questions, and this He does through what He has revealed in Christ His Son, Who became man" (41).

9. Filling out this Synthesis: Our Need of God's Grace

The above is a grand task. For man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Given the needs of our time, we should have this active trust: