CSDC 96

The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes ¹⁷² Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1025-1120. of the Second Vatican Council is a significant response of the Church to the expectations of the contemporary world. In this Constitution, “in harmony with the ecclesiological renewal, a new concept of how to be a community of believers and people of God are reflected. It aroused new interest regarding the doctrine contained in the preceding documents on the witness and life of Christians, as authentic ways of making the presence of God in the world visible”¹⁷³ Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 24, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 28.. Gaudium et Spes presents the face of a Church that “cherishes a feeling of deep solidarity with the human race and its history”¹⁷⁴ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 1: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1026., that travels the same journey as all mankind and shares the same earthly lot with the world, but which at the same time “is to be a leaven and, as it were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into the family of God”¹⁷⁵ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 40: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1058.. Gaudium et Spes presents in a systematic manner the themes of culture, of economic and social life, of marriage and the family, of the political community, of peace and the community of peoples, in the light of a Christian anthropological outlook and of the Church's mission. Everything is considered from the starting point of the person and with a view to the person, “the only creature that God willed for its own sake”¹⁷⁶ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 24: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1045.. Society, its structures and development must be oriented towards “the progress of the human person”¹⁷⁷ Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 25: AAS 58AAS — Acta Apostolicae Sedis (official gazette of the Holy See)Volume 58 (1966) at vatican.va — scanned PDF (1966), 1045.. For the first time, the Magisterium of the Church, at its highest level, speaks at great length about the different temporal aspects of Christian life: “It must be recognized that the attention given by the Constitution to social, psychological, political, economic, moral and religious changes has increasingly stimulated ... the Church's pastoral concern for men's problems and dialogue with the world”¹⁷⁸ Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Church's Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 24, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988, p. 29..