Gaudium et Spes
The Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution on the church in the modern world, promulgated on 7 December 1965, the day before the council closed. It addresses all people and treats marriage, culture, economic life, politics and peace.
Its opening sentence, from which it takes its name, says that the joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties of the people of the age, especially of the poor, are those of the followers of Christ (article 1). Article 4 speaks of the church’s duty to read “the signs of the times” in the light of the Gospel. A first part sets out a teaching on the human person and society; a second takes up marriage and the family, culture, economic and social life, the political community, and peace.
Article 39 speaks of the hope of a new earth, which is not to weaken but to stimulate concern for cultivating this one. Archbishop Romero read it out in his last homily; see the Assassination of Óscar Romero.
Cited in
- 25 July 1968, firm date
- 24 March 1980, firm date