RS 3: C

Catholic Social Teaching

Lesson 3: Teachings of Vatican II and of Pope Blessed Paul VI

VATICAN COUNCILS (I and II)

The first session was held in St. Peter’s Basilica on 8 December 1869 in the presence and under the
presidency of the Pope Pius IX. The purpose of the council was, besides the condemnation of contemporary
errors, to redefine the Catholic doctrine concerning the Church of Christ.

The Second Vatican Council (or Vatican II) was the twenty-first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. It
was convened by Saint John XXIII and lasted for four sessions from 1962 through 1965. It produced a series
of documents to direct the life of the Church in the twentieth century and beyond.

As a result of Vatican II, the Catholic Church opened its windows onto the modern world, updated the liturgy,
gave a larger role to laypeople, introduced the concept of religious freedom, and started a dialogue with other
religions. Some results are as follows:
 Vatican II decreed that altars should be turned around, and priests faced the newly recognized people
of God — that is, the entire community of Catholic believers, not just the clergy or church hierarchy.
 The Second Vatican Council allowed priests to celebrate Mass in the local language, thus making a
key sacrament more accessible in the contemporary world.
 The Second Vatican Council assert that justice in human society will only be possible if the HUMAN
PERSON be respected first.

Pope Paul VI head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State
from 21 June 1963 to his death in 1978. He is one of the major figures who releases 4
major encyclicals addressing the results of Vatican Council II.

GAUDIUM ET SPES (HOPE AND JOY)

Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World
This document was released last December 7, 1965. Gaudium et Spes was issued when the Second Vatican
Council ended in 1965. The document summarizes the council and gives an outline of the Church’s social
teachings in a changing world. The encyclical emphasizes the dignity of each human being as created in the
image of God which comes from their call to communion with God.

God did not create people to live in isolation, but to develop society and community. We are to treat one
another, the Pope reminds us, in the spirit of brotherhood. Basic equality is required because all people
possess a rational soul, were created in God’s likeness, and have been redeemed by Christ. Finally, the
nations of the world should work together to create a peace based on justice and love. For this to happen, we
must respect others and their dignity. War must be avoided and members of a nation’s military ought to think
of themselves as agents of security and freedom for the people.

POPULORUM PROGRESSIO (THE DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLES)

Encyclical on the Development Of Peoples
Pope Paul VI wrote the encyclical Populorum Progressio on March 26, 1967, to address the world economy
and its effect on peoples around the world. The growing gap between rich and poor nations and increasing
signs of social unrest demonstrate the severity of the situation. It emphasized that true development will likely
take place when all aspects of life – personal, economic, technological, social, and religious – become more
humane. This development is taking place alongside the development of everyone.

Populorum Progressio was a call to all people of good will to be scandalized by poverty and inequality in the
world. The encyclical’s core message was that the Church cannot be indifferent to this reality, and that those
who ignore it do so at their own risk. Fifty-six years after its promulgation, considering that extreme poverty
has not gone away and inequality has become even more outrageous, the papal wake-up call still rings loud
and clear.

The 1967 encyclical’s vision of development as a holistic process centered on the human being, and not
merely on economic growth, was an early tributary to a current of thought that has become an international
consensus. To develop human being holistically. Head, Heart, and Hand. Different faculties constitute an
integral person: mind for a sharp deliberation, heart for expression of compassion, and hand for translating
compassion into a concrete action. Everyone is highly encouraged to attend to his holistic development: an
opportunity to repackage himself and get transformed into his best form, making him fit to be labeled as a
well-rounded individual. To achieve this target, one must develop his HEAD to think good, HEART to feel
good, and HAND to do good.

OCTAGESIMA ADVENIENS (THE EIGHTIETH ANNIVERSARY)

Apostolic letter addressed to the President of the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace, Cardinal
Maurice Roy.

Pope Paul VI wrote this last May 14, 1971, as a letter to Cardinal Maurice Roy, the President of the Council of
Laity and of the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace on the eightieth anniversary of the encyclical
Rerum Novarum.
Although it is not a social encyclical, Octogesima Adveniens is one of the major Catholic Social Teaching
documents. It commemorated the eightieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum.

Octogesima Adveniens was a call to action, urging Catholics to take responsibility for Christian action in all
dimensions of their lives. It affirms two aspirations that Paul VI saw growing “stronger as human beings
become better informed and better educated: the aspiration to equality and the aspiration to participation” (n
22). Other issues addressed by the letter include:
– urbanization (n 8 – 12) – the right to emigrate (n 17)
– the role of women (n 13) – social communications (n 20)
– discrimination (n 16) – and the environment (n 21).

The action it asks of Christians starts from the local and the rather than from universal and unchanging
principles. It advocates an inductive approach to taking up responsibility for Christian action in social life. Paul
VI does not regard all morality as contingent and changeable. He recognizes continuity and universality in
Church teaching but grounds his reflections in experience in context.

Octogesima Adveniens affirmed the possibility of a plurality of Catholic options for action. It assigned an
unprecedentedly strong role to the local churches in reading the signs of the times and responding in their
own places. Because situations varied so much, Paul VI said that it was often difficult to make universal
pronouncements. This develops further Leo XIII’s social teachings on the massive problematic effects of an
industrialized society, using these contexts to work for our aspiration for equality and participation among all
people.

EVANGELII NUNTIANDI (IN PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL)

Apostolic Exhortation on the Evangelization (spread the good news of God) in the Modern World
This document is issued on 8 December 1975 by Pope Paul VI on the theme of evangelization. Written 10
years after Vatican II, in a direct effort to reverse the collapse of missionary zeal that unfortunately happened
after the Council, Evangelii Nuntiandi clearly explains what evangelization is and how to go about
evangelizing in the modern world.

Evangelii Nuntiandi confirms that evangelization has a social dimension:

“… evangelization would not be complete if it did not take account of the unceasing interplay of the Gospel
and of man’s concrete life, both personal and social. This is why evangelization involves an explicit message,
adapted to the different situations constantly being realized, about the rights and duties of every human being,
about family life without which personal growth and development is hardly possible, about life in society, about
international life, peace, justice, and development – a message especially energetic today about liberation.”

In this Apostolic Exhortation Paul VI discusses:

– an authentic Christian understanding of liberation – the relationship between development and
– the relationship of political liberation and evangelization
salvation – respect for religious liberty and evangelization
– interfaith dialogue.
Paul VI demonstrates a praxis (practice) approach to theology. He suggests an ‘interplay’ or two-way
interaction or dialogue between the Gospel and concrete experience. Evangelization is not just the application
of the Gospel to each experience of life. We can discover and understand more deeply the story of God
amongst us by examining life itself. God’s on-going action in history continues to transform personal and
social relations. Faith and life are not separate and must be integrated.
To this day Evangelii Nuntiandi remains a landmark document in understanding the different dimensions of
the mission of the Church. It affirms that the witness of life is the first means of evangelization. Working for
social justice is not just a preparation for evangelization, but an essential part of it.

Stages of Faith Development:

In his book Stages of faith (1981), Professor James W. Fowler, proposed a series of stages of faith
development across the life span of a believer.
These stages of faith are as follows:
1. Primal or Undifferentiated Faith (ages of 0 to 2): This lowest stage of faith develops in an infant
basic trust and mutuality with the ones providing him care.

2. Intuitive-Projective faith (ages of 3 to 7): The basic about faith is learned mainly through
experiences, stories, images, and the people that a child encounters.

3. Mythic-Literal Faith (ages of school children): The child starts sorting out the real from the make-
believe. He is more able to take the perspective of another person, but his view of reciprocity is rather
literal, "If I pray, God will grant my wish."

4. Synthetic-Conventional Faith (arising in adolescence; aged 12 to adulthood): The believers in this

stage conform to religious authority. Also, they embrace a set of beliefs which seems to be the norms
of the religious community they belong. Moreover, they see themselves as believing what "everybody
else" believes and would be reluctant to stop believing it because of the need they feel to stay
connected with their group.

5. Individualize- Reflective Faith (usually mid-twenties to late thirties): In this stage, the faithful take
personal responsibility for their beliefs and feelings. As they can reflect on their own beliefs, it just
means that they are more able to govern themselves without the need for external conventions.

6. Conjunctive Faith (mid-life crisis): Here, the believers are willing to engage in dialogue with those of
other faiths hoping that they might learn something that will allow them to correct their own truths. They
begin to expand their world beyond the "either/or" toward a "both/ and" orientation where the answers
(and the power of the rational mind to figure them out) are not so clear. But the way they approach
truths in faith is inclusive: they are open to other worldviews, Compare these views with theirs to arrive
at a better spiritual perspective.

7. Universalizing Faith: Believers manifesting this type of faith are men of radical difference They stand
out above the rest, committing their total being to help the helpless in a radical way, even this puts their
own safety at risk. Moreover, they treat any person with compassion as they are fueled by the universal
principles of love, justice, and brotherhood.

A POCKET GUIDE FOR DIFFERENT PAPAL DOCUMENTS

Ramzi Bishtawi, 2020
When the POPE speaks, we listen. Anytime the Holy Father releases a document, it carries with it a strong
sense of authority and significance. After all, the pope, as Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor, is our
pastor, and has universal power over the whole Church. A papal document allows the pontifex maximus, the
bridge-builder, to communicate with his flock, and guide the faithful. Necessarily, it is important to understand
the differences between the various types of papal documents, and their respective authority.
1. Apostolic Constitutions are the most solemn papal document and are typically addressed to the
public. This form of legislation is important in dealing with doctrinal and disciplinary matters of a local
church or the Church as a whole. Many influential documents, like The Code of Canon Law, have been
promulgated as constitutions.

2. Encyclicals are letters of pastoral or theological content, meant to be read by all the faithful. These
letters are typically longer reflections, on topics of importance to the pope. While an encyclical does not
hold the weight of a constitution, it nevertheless holds high papal authority for a given issue. Take, for
example, Pope St. Paul VI’s encyclical, Humanae Vitae, which provides clear teachings on God’s plan
for married love and the transmission of human life, reaffirming the teachings of previous popes.

3. Apostolic Exhortations are addresses emphatically urging the faithful to consider a particular spiritual
matter or activity, of importance to the Pontiff. Despite the similarities, apostolic exhortations carry less
authority than encyclicals, and are not considered legislative. The Holy Father frequently issues an
exhortation following a Synod of Bishops.

4. Apostolic Letters are written by the Pontiff in response to a specific need or addressed to a specific
group of people. These letters are pastoral in nature, but not legislative. A notable example is Pope
Francis’ recent letter, Admirabile Signum, which discusses the meaning of the Nativity scene.
5. Motu Proprio, which translates to “by one’s own initiative,” is a legislative document dealing with
specific issues relevant to the Church in each time in history. A motu proprio is issued by the pope
himself and can be on any topic. For example, Pope Emeritus Benedict’s motu proprio, Summorum
Pontificum, specified the circumstances in which priests could celebrate the Tridentine Mass and
administer sacraments in the form used prior to the reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council.

6. Papal Bulls are official declarations or announcements issued by the pope. These documents are
named after the round, lead seal, called a bulla in Latin. Portraits of Saints Peter and Paul appear on
one side of the bulla, and the name of the pope on the other. A papal bull was used by St. John Paul II
to announce the Jubilee Year of 2000.

7. Papal Rescripts are usually written in response to a petition placed before the Roman Curia, the
administrative institutions of the Holy See, or the pope himself. These papal rescripts are meant to
make new laws or modify existing ones.

8. Decretal Letters are letters of a pope containing a decretum, a pontifical decision. Canonizations and
dogmatic definitions, for example, are often decreed in the form of a decretal letter.

9. Breva, or Apostolic Briefs, are lowest on the hierarchy of papal messages, and they deal with matters
of relatively minor importance.
Armed with the knowledge of all the different types of documents the pope can issue, we can have a
better understanding of why the Holy Father may have released a document, and its significance.
Moreover, we can understand the implications past, and future papal documents have on our faith, and
develop a deeper appreciation for the Church’s magisterium.