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1. 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. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in
their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of men. United in
Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the
Kingdom of their Father and they have welcomed the news of salvation
which is meant for every man. That is why this community realizes that
it is truly linked with mankind and its history by the deepest of
bonds.
2. Hence this Second Vatican Council, having probed more
profoundly into the mystery of the Church, now addresses itself
without hesitation, not only to the sons of the Church and to all who
invoke the name of Christ, but to the whole of humanity. For the
council yearns to explain to everyone how it conceives of the presence
and activity of the Church in the world of today.
Therefore, the council focuses its attention on the world of men, the
whole human family along with the sum of those realities in the midst of
which it lives; that world which is the theater of man's history, and
the heir of his energies, his tragedies and his triumphs; that world
which the Christian sees as created and sustained by its Maker's
love, fallen indeed into the bondage of sin, yet emancipated now by
Christ, Who was crucified and rose again to break the strangle hold
of personified evil, so that the world might be fashioned anew
according to God's design and reach its fulfillment.
3. Though mankind is stricken with wonder at its own discoveries and
its power, it often raises anxious questions about the current trend of
the world, about the place and role of man in the universe, about the
meaning of its individual and collective strivings, and about the
ultimate destiny of reality and of humanity. Hence, giving witness
and voice to the faith of the whole people of God gathered together by
Christ, this council can provide no more eloquent proof of its
solidarity with, a, well as its respect and love for the entire human
family with which it is bound up, than by engaging with it in
conversation about these various problems. The council brings to
mankind light kindled from the Gospel, and puts at its disposal those
saving resources which the Church herself, under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, receives from her Founder. For the human person
deserves to be preserved; human society deserves to be renewed. Hence
the focal point of our total presentation will be man himself, whole
and entire, body and soul, heart and conscience, mind and will.
Therefore, this sacred synod, proclaiming the noble destiny of man
and championing the Godlike seed which has been sown in him, offers to
mankind the honest assistance of the Church in fostering that
brotherhood of all men which corresponds to this destiny of theirs.
Inspired by no earthly ambition, the Church seeks but a solitary
goal: to carry forward the work of Christ under the lead of the
befriending Spirit. And Christ entered this world to give witness to
the truth, to rescue and not to sit in judgment, to serve and not to
be served.[2]
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