Pope, in audience on Vatican II, reflects on the human community

September 16, 2026

Continuing his series of Wednesday general audiences on the Second Vatican Council and its documents, Pope Leo XIV today spoke about the human community.

Today’s audience (video), which took place in St. Peter’s Square, was the twenty-sixth audience in the series and the third devoted to the Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965). Today’s audience was devoted to the audience’s second chapter, “The Community of Mankind” (nos. 23-32).

“By dedicating the second chapter to the human community,” Gaudium et Spes “invites us to consider the growing interdependence of men as one of the salient features of the modern world,” Pope Leo began. “This reality must, however, find fulfilment on the deeper level” of “communion between persons, for which a mutual respect for the full spiritual dignity of the person is essential.”

The Council’s teaching has “taken on even greater urgency,” the Pope continued, explaining:

On the one hand, technological development, the spread of the mass media and social media, and the ever-increasing use of artificial intelligence are opening up new possibilities, breaking down barriers and bridging distances; on the other hand, relationships are tending to become less and less personal, more virtual, and there is a risk of becoming accustomed to delegating to algorithms decisions that are the sole preserve of the human conscience.

Ensuring that social relationships have real substance and personal depth is, in this regard, the contribution that the Christian community seeks to offer.

As he reviewed the chapter’s teaching on the interdependence between “the perfection of the human person and the development of society,” Pope Leo recalled the principle that “every social group must take account of the needs and legitimate aspirations of other groups, and even of the general welfare of the entire human family.”

From that principle, he offered four consequences:

• respect for the human person
• “respect and love for adversaries or for those who think and act in ways different from our own”
• “ the fundamental equality of all human beings, which demands social justice”
• the need to “overcome the individualistic mindset and to adopt an attitude of responsibility and participation”

The Pontiff concluded:

Dear brothers and sisters, this vision of humanity as a “community of people” is a valuable legacy that the Second Vatican Council has left us. It helps us all to engage in personal and communal discernment, so that we may responsibly evaluate today’s social and political projects, based on the criteria of the dignity of the human person, social justice and free participation in constructing the common good. For the future of humanity depends on each person’s commitment to collaborate with God and with their brothers and sisters in building a more humane world.

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Audiences in series “Vatican Council II through its Documents”

• Introductory catechesis (1/7/26)

On Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (1965):

• God speaks to men as to friends (1/14/26)
• Jesus Christ reveals the Father (1/21/26)
• A single sacred deposit: The relationship between Scripture and Tradition (1/28/26)
• The Sacred Scripture: the Word of God in human words (2/4/26)
• The Word of God in the life of the Church (2/11/26)

On Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (1964):

• The mystery of the Church, sacrament of the union with God, and the unity of all humanity (2/18/26)
• No audience on 2/25 (Pope, Roman Curia on retreat)
• The Church, a Visible and Spiritual Reality (3/4/26)
• The Church, people of God (3/11/26)
• The Church, a Priestly and Prophetic People (3/18/26)
• On the foundation of the Apostles: The Church in her hierarchical dimension (3/25/26)
• Living stones in the Church and witnesses in the world: The laity in the People of God (4/1/26)
• Holiness and evangelical counsels in the Church (4/8/26)
• No audience on 4/15 and 4/22 (in Africa), followed by a special general audience on his apostolic journey to Africa (4/29/26)
• The Church, pilgrim in history towards the heavenly homeland (5/6/26)
• The Virgin Mary, model of the Church (5/13/26)

On Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963):

• The liturgy in the mystery of the Church (5/20/26)
• The reform of the liturgy: tradition and development (5/27/26)
• Rite, sign, and symbol (6/3/26)
• No audience on 6/10 (in Spain), followed by a special general audience on his apostolic journey to Spain (6/17/26)
• The mystery of the Eucharist (6/24/26)
• No audiences in July
• The prayer of the Church (8/5/26)
• The liturgical year (8/12/26)
• Sacred music (8/19/26)
• Motivations for liturgical reform (8/26/26)

On Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (1965):

• The Church: Listening to and Serving the World (9/2/26)
• Human dignity: gift and responsibility (9/9/26)
• The human community (9/16/26)

 

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Further information:

• General Audience (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 9/16/26)
• General Audience (Holy See Press Office, 9/16/26)
• Pope: Humanity’s future depends on collaboration in building more humane world (Vatican News, 9/16/26)