Gaudium et Spes is one of the most important documents from the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council.“Gaudium et Spes” means “Joy and Hope.”The Latin title of Church documents comes from the first few words of the document.In this case, the document begins, “THE JOYS AND THE HOPES, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”The English title is “Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.”
Most people assume that the main message of Vatican II is that the Church needs to modernize in order to become more relevant to the modern world.While reform is one major theme of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI (in his encyclical Ecclesium Suam) warned against seeing reform and renewal in this way.Reform and renewal, the Holy Father reminds us, means returning to the Church that Christ instituted, becoming truer to our mission.Gaudium et Spes reflects this understanding of reform.The document is much more about what how the modern world needs the Church than it is about how the Church must change to become relevant to the modern world.The Church can answer the desires, needs, and questions of the modern world by leading the modern world to Jesus Christ.
This course on Gaudium et Spes includes a PDF study guide for each chapter.You can either fill out each study guide on your computer and print out the study guide with your answers (sorry, Adobe Reader doesn’t allow your answers to be saved), or you can print out the study guide and fill it out with pen or pencil.This course also includes educational commentary that attempts to explain certain concepts that are assumed in the document, or that the document touches on but does not explain.
