Pontifical Council for Culture Collection (4 vols.)
Overview
In Vatican II’s pastoral constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Catholic Church expressed the need for the Church to set itself before the needs of the cultures of the world. The document lays out the relationship between the Church and the cultures of the world—that they shouldn’t be alien to one another, but should enrich each other with every developing technology, artistic expression, professional sport, or socio-political framework. Through Gaudium et Spes, the Catholic Church recognized the necessity of culture in the development of the healthy human person, and established the council devoted to discovering what the relationship between the Church and the cultures of the world should look like.
This mandate quickly expanded beyond its original mission. In a world of new-age religions and cultures where apathy and consumerism are law of the land, the Catholic Church must find ways to engage with cultural identities without adopting non-Christian values itself. The Pontifical Council for Culture published a number of writings which wrestle with the means and methods through which the Catholic Church engages with the rest of humanity in culture and society. These texts reflect the Pontifical Council for Culture’s effort to participate in and uphold human culture, so that “human culture must evolve today in such a way that it can both develop the whole human person and aid man in those duties to whose fulfillment all are called, especially Christians fraternally united in one human family.” (Gaudium et Spes 56)
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- Sets the tone for the Catholic Church’s engagement with world cultures
- Studies the challenges faced with bringing the gospel to a culture of indifference
- Recognizes the importance of culture in the healthy development of the human person
Partially includedThe Pontifical Council for Culture is a department of the Roman Curia officially founded by Pope John Paul II in 1982 to foster the relationship of the Catholic Church with the cultures of the world. It was merged with the Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-Believers shortly after, and the Pontifical Council for Culture took upon itself the mandate of bringing the gospel into various cultures, especially the culture of religious indifference and apathy. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI sought to expand the council to build a dialogue with contemporary artists and engage with the cultural arts, saying “we are reminded of the urgent need for a renewed dialogue between aesthetics and ethics, between beauty, truth and goodness not only by contemporary cultural and artistic debate, but also by daily reality.” Then, in 2012, Benedict XVI (through the Motu Proprio Pulchritudinis Fidei) merged the Pontifical Commission for Cultural Goods of the Church with the Pontifical Council for Culture—giving us the pontifical council we have today.