Dialogue and the Spirit of Vatican II: Reading Gaudium et Spes Fifty Years Later

It is November of 2014, and I just attended a panel discussion at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in New York City. The subject was the synod of bishops that was held in Rome in October, 2014, to reflect on “the family.” Ordinarily, the thought of yet another such gathering of celibate men in the Catholic Church to discuss things such as marriage and sexuality would make me cringe. Throughout the years of the papacies I knew as an adult (John Paul II and Benedict XVI), Church pronouncements on these topics seemed consistently regressive. As someone who has long been involved in the Church-reform movement and who has dedicated much of my academic work to the struggles of gay Catholics, I was leery whenever Church leaders issued statements about family life. It would inevitably demonstrate the ever-widening gap between the bishops’ views and what was going on with families in the “real” world, but some notable differences were apparent this time around. First, we have in charge Pope Francis, who seems to have a more progressive point of view than his predecessors (a low bar to surmount, I realize); second, the bishops asked for input from lay Catholics beforehand. Granted, this was not carried out in any consistent way globally, but it was a nice gesture toward listening to what everyday Catholics have to say; third, and perhaps most astonishingly, the final document was issued with transparency about how the bishops voted on each of the paragraphs. So, even though progressive content welcoming gay Catholics and reconsidering the treatment of those who are divorced and remarried was ultimately defeated, it remained in the released text so that we could all know what was discussed—and that many bishops favor change in these areas.

There is still a great deal to criticize about this synod and the way the Church does its business. One need only observe the usual problem that there were no women in the synod to realize that we still have a long way to go. I am also not holding my breath for any substantive changes in the near future. But, I want to use this event as the starting point for thinking about the possibility of recovering some of the positive energy of the Second Vatican Council, which both John Paul II and Benedict XVI tried so hard to suppress. We are celebrating the fiftieth year of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies at the same time that we are marking fifty years since the closing of Vatican II. What an exciting moment in time to be celebrating the work and legacy of Leonard Swidler, who has been a champion of keeping the spirit of Vatican II alive! Indeed, his work in ecumenism and interreligious dialogue is an outgrowth of the Church’s engagement with the modern world at Vatican II. In light of this convergence, I thought it would be helpful to return to the final document of the council, Gaudium et spes (The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World), to reflect upon what it has to say and how it speaks to us fifty years after its first appearance.

Promulgated at the very end of the council, Gaudium et spes is perhaps the most intriguing and significant of its documents. One of only four constitutions drafted during the council, such a treatise was not even part of the initial agenda of possible topics and concerns. As the bishops consulted with one another, they gradually realized the need to look beyond the Church itself and theologically to address the world or, as they put it, “the whole of humanity.” As such, it was entirely the product of conciliar reflection and debate, and it became the symbol of modern Catholicism’s desire to be in dialogue with the world. It represents better than any other document the council’s spirit of optimism and dialogue in the...