Gaudi­um et Spes, Sec­ond Vat­i­can Coun­cil, 1965
Vat­i­can II’s The Church in the Mod­ern World is seen by many to be the most impor­tant doc­u­ment in the Church’s social tra­di­tion. It announces the duty of the Peo­ple of God to scru­ti­nize the “signs of the times” in light of the Gospel. In doing so, it finds that change char­ac­ter­izes the world. These tech­no­log­i­cal and social changes pro­vide both won­der­ful oppor­tu­ni­ties and wor­ri­some dif­fi­cul­ties for the spread of the Gospel. The Church’s duty in the world is to work for the enhance­ment of human dig­ni­ty and the com­mon good.