Front-row Vatican coverage:

Yes, the Church 'in' the Modern World!

by Thomas C. Fox

View Author Profile

tfox@ncronline.org

Join the Conversation

October 28, 2009

You can always count on James Carroll to offer an insightful perspective. His latest column in the Boston Globe begins with these words:

The single most eloquent expression of the Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council in 1965 was a preposition - the word “in.’’ The title of the council declaration “The Church in the Modern World’’ could readily have been expected to be “The Church against the Modern World,’’ reiterating a long-held opposition. Or, a little more positively, it might have been “The Church and the Modern World,’’ defining a gulf between the sacred and the secular that devalues both realms. But instead, the council fathers stated their conviction that the church, neither above nor detached, is integrally a part of the contemporary human condition - happily so. The decree’s Latin title “Gaudium et Spes’’ translates as “Joy and Hope’’ - an even stronger signal of the council’s affirming mind-set.

Latest News

Pope Leo XIV greets people as he arrives in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 6, 2025, after reciting the Angelus at the Vatican. (CNS/Vatican Media)
Guest Voices
Opinion

Norah O'Donnell hopes Pope Leo XIV moves the church forward for women

Norah O’Donnell
Vatican

The Leo Chronicles: Letters for Leo

Pat Marrin
Sr. Mary Courtney visits a patient. Courtney is a member of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa. (Derrick Silimina)

Q&A with Sr. Mary Courtney, fighting HIV/AIDS, supporting mental health in Zambia

Damage can be seen next to the cross on the roof of the Holy Family Church in Gaza after it was hit in an attack July 17, 2025. At least three people died and another 10 were injured, including the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, who sustained a slight injury to his right leg. (CNS/Courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need, UK)
Vatican News
Vatican

Palestinian leader calls pope as Gaza pastor recounts Israeli shelling of church

Justin McLellanOSV News

Advertisement