Unit V: Vatican II and Post-Conciliar Social Teaching

Introduction 

Historians identify five documents as constituting the classic Vatican II and post-Vatican II formulation of Catholic social teaching (in Deck, p.295):

1. Gaudium et spes,
2. Populorum progressio,
3. Octogesima adveniens,
4. Evangelii nuntiandi, and
5. Justice in the World.

With his election to the papacy on October 16, 1978, John Paul II would—as he placed his own mark on the tradition—begin a distinct era in Catholic social thought, the era that has perhaps just closed.

Several characteristics mark this collection of documents:

• introduction of the idea of integral human development (not simply economic development but development with attention to culture, spirituality, the family, protection for political and social rights; and ecological responsibility);

• stress on the need for social structures to reflect the fundamental equality of all persons; movement away from redistribution of wealth  toward wealth generation/productivity as means to address global poverty;

• introduction of a “preferential option for the poor”;

• optimism toward the potential of developments in science, technology, communication and social science to address global problems;

• self-conscious awareness of pluralism;

• appreciation for the enduring, ambiguous legacy of colonialism;

• a growing sense of urgency with respect to efforts to ensure a global peace.

Chapter II of Curran’s Catholic Social Teaching: 1891 – Present, which you read for this week, gives a good analysis of the innovations and developments in theological and ethical method that we see in these documents. Here I will give some brief background on each of the documents assigned for this week.

Gaudium et spes

Gaudium et spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, issued December 7, 1965) is one of the four major constitutions of Vatican II. The driving force behind a constitution addressing the problems of the day in light of the Church’s values is said to have been auxiliary bishop of Rio de Jineiro, Dom Helder Camara. It was Camara who repeatedly asked of the council: “Are we to spend our whole time discussing internal Church problems while two-thirds of mankind is dying of hunger? Will the council express its concern about the great problems of mankind?” (Mich, p. 12).

GS exhibits the openness toward the world characteristic of the Council; it begins with a reading of “signs of the times in light of the Gospel and human experience” and it is the only constitution addressed to “all people of good will.” Fourteen laypeople, men and women, were involved in the drafting process. The document went through six drafts, involving more than 20,000 amendments. The most hotly debated issues were atheism, birth control and war.

David Hollenbach captures well both the central inspirations of GS and its fundamental concerns:

the Council was convoked in years when many in the West were experiencing new levels of prosperity, with new hope for human rights and for the overcoming of poverty in a world beginning to see new relations with emerging nations. As the Council opened, the world was mostly at peace. Yet it was also the time of the deep political tensions of the Cold War. All lived in the shadow of the Holocaust and many under the constant threat of nuclear annihilation. It was a time of profound political, economic, and cultural shifts, some achieved through bloody wars and independence movements and others through slow and complex political processes. Change was the order of the day and the critical questions concerned who would direct this change and to what ends. The Council sought to present a Christian framework for response to these questions in GS (Hollenbach, pp. 266).

Populorum Progressio

PP was issued by Pope Paul VI in 1967 and is often called his “magna carta on development.” It aimed both to continue the strong tradition of concern for social justice inspired by John XXIII and to give a theological foundation to arguments for economic progress and development. The distinctive contribution of this encyclical is in its insistence that economic and technological advancement alone are insufficient for true humanistic development – true development must attend to the life of the spirit. PP is also introduces the principle of “solidarity” and links it with true development: “There can be no progress toward complete development of man without the simultaneous development of all humanity in the spirit of solidarity” (#43). In this context, solidarity will be expressed in practical terms, e.g., in fair trade relationships between economically strong and economically weak nations.

As novel as Paul VI’s concept of integral human development, PP would come under attack, particularly by the Latin American liberation theologians. They argued that Paul VI failed to appreciate the political dimension of development. As Alan Figueroa Deck notes, “the very concept of ‘development’ will become problematical in the 1970’s and beyond ... when it becomes identified with dependency and neocolonial international economic policies” (p. 333). Eight years later, when he issues Evangelii nuntiandi, Paul VI will link liberation with development. 

Justice in the World

JW is a statement issued at the 1971 world-wide Synod. Attending the Synod were 190 bishops, 25 papal appointees, 14 representatives from the Eastern churches, 19 Vatican administrators, representatives of major religious orders, and 36 lay and clerical observers, including four women. Most significant, more than half of the bishops came from developing nations.

JW is usually described as a “call to action” rather than a doctrinal statement; as Ken Himes puts it, “the bishops were concerned with stirring up a new resolve to eliminate the social evils caused by injustice” (p. 335). JW contains one of the most often quoted lines in CST: “action on behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel.”

JW’s brevity precludes much in the way of a fully developed method or position. The movements of the statement are worth noting, however: it begins with an analysis of concrete realities in the world; reflects on those conditions in the light of the Gospel; and proposes pastoral solutions. In both language and movement, JW shows the influence of the Medellin documents, the documents issued by the 1968 Conference of Bishops of Latin America in Medillin, Colombia. 

References

Deck, Allan Figueroa. "Commentary on Populorum Progressio", in Modern Catholic Social Teaching, ed. Kenneth Himes. (Washington, DC:  Georgetown University Press, 2005).

Himes, Kenneth. "Justitia Mundo" in Modern Catholic Social Teaching, ed. Kenneth Himes.

Mich, Marvin L. Krier. Catholic Social Teaching and Movements. (Mystic, CT:  Twenty-Third Publications, 2001).