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            The Second Vatican Council, to quote the opening words of its first document, "set out to impart an ever-increasing vigour to the Christian life of the faithful" (SC 1). The renewal envisaged by the Council was to be pastoral; in other words, it was to be a renewal of the Church's role in caring for souls, as it carries on the work of Christ the Eternal Pastor (cf. CD 1). A pastorally renewed Church, according to the mind of the Council, should therefore be a Church where souls are cared for better, where the care they receive is more according to the fullness of Christ's design.

            Three major themes characterizing the thinking of the Second Vatican Council offer a key to the renewal it envisaged: an ecclesiology of "communio" and of the "People of God"; a philosophy of "Christian personalism" which emphasizes the personal dignity, rights and duties of each member of Christ's faithful; a spirit of "diakonia" or service as distinguishing the call to follow Christ, and especially the vocation of his ordained ministers. It is important to see the harmony and interaction between these three concepts: communion, personalism, service.