Gaudium et Spes, 7 December 1965
The pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world, the longest of the council's sixteen documents and the most outward-facing: it addresses itself to all people of good will, not Catholics alone. It proposes to read the signs of the times and to enter into dialogue with the contemporary age, reflecting on human dignity, the human community, culture, the economic and political order, and the building of peace — declaring that the Church shares the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the men and women of this age.
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