The Deacon and the Doc Podcast - Episode 10 - Radiant Ideals

The Deacon and the Doc concluded their discussion of Gaudium et Spes(GS) as well as the closing address of Pope St. Paul VI and the afterword to the Word on Fire Vatican II Collection by Dr. Matthew Levering. In many ways, GS encapsulates Pope Paul’s quote: "This council hands over to posterity not only the image of the Church but also the patrimony of her doctrine and of her commandments, the “deposit” received from Christ and meditated upon through centuries, lived and expressed now and clarified in so many of its parts, settled and arranged in its integrity."

Throughout the document, the council fathers largely succeed for the Church at explaining how the “patrimony of her doctrine” remains a “deposit” of faith that is “lived and expressed now.” Many of the challenges presented by the modern world—some completely unanticipated by earlier eras—are, nevertheless, cogently evaluated in GS precisely because they can be measured against an unchanging Christian anthropology and judged in light of the Incarnation.