The Aggiornamento Framework

The official social teaching of Popes John XXIII and Paul VI and the Second Vatican Council embraced secularization—what they called the “legitimate autonomy” of the world. It also recognized the intrinsic value of human work and humankind’s increasing mastery over the created world. The “aggiornamento framework” proposed in their teaching envisions the church as open to the modern world. This framework proposes a humanistic vision of development, including the human person’s material, social, and spiritual dimensions. The aggiornamento framework also presents a historical view of social development, recognizing both that humankind can transform the institutions of society and that God is present in history and leads humankind onward through history to the Kingdom of God.