When John XXIII convoked the Second Vatican Council, he assigned to it the task of updating the Church. This renewal went hand in hand with the desire, as it could not be otherwise, to transmit the entire patrimony of the Catholic faith. However, according to John XXIII's intention, as expressed in the Council's opening speech , continuity with the preceding tradition was not to be a mere repetition of what had already been said. For that, a Council was not needed. Rather, his goal was to expound the Catholic faith, the Pope said, in a "pastoral" way.

The expression "pastoral" was initially interpreted as opposed to a "dogmatic" mode of exhibition, by means of binding definitions and the condemnation of errors opposed to the faith. Since Councils had usually been convened to clarify "dogmatic" questions (heresies, etc.) in this way, there was no precedent for a different style of magisterium. But a reading of the conciliar teaching highlights some characteristics. The first is that the magisterium of Vatican II is undoubtedly "dogmatic". But not in the sense usually given to such an expression, because it did not set out to make definitions or condemnations of errors, by means of clear and precise theological or juridical language. But it is obvious to the reader, from the first moment of its meeting with the conciliar texts, that what the Council is exposing is the faith believed and sustained by the Catholic Church. It so happens that this patrimony of faith (Catholic dogma) is presented without using specialized concepts and in a way that is intelligible to a reader without special theological training or even a non-believer. The various themes are presented with recourse to the Old and New Testaments, to the tradition of the Fathers of the Church of the first centuries, to the texts of the liturgy, etc. Vatican II
II presents a magisterium centered on the Word of God, read in the living tradition of the Church, and attentive to the circumstances of contemporary times.

Such a style of exposing the faith is coherent with the content transmitted. This is understandable if we consider the way people communicate with each other. There are things that cannot be said in just any old way. The way of saying them must be coherent with what is being said. An expression of affection cannot be expressed with an angry gesture, nor a rebuke with a smile. The plan of God in Jesus Christ for the whole of humanity, and the salvific message of the Gospel, which is an expression of God's love for mankind, cannot be expressed in just any way. Christian truth is not a transmission of neutral information, but is "Gospel", that is, "good news" of salvation. The form itself must be in harmony with this content.

Well then, the Council aspired that the "pastoral" way should transmit in a certain way the content of the faith, in order to have an effective impact on human existence. It did so in the awareness that "the truth cannot be imposed in any other way than by the power of the truth itself," as the Council affirms. What the Council intended was to offer the light of the Gospel, so that its salvific power could be perceived, illuminating the historical moment of humanity. By exposing it in its simple splendor, the power of truth appears. This "pastoral" intention of the magisterium of Vatican II can be translated as "missionary" intention. The Council aimed at a renewal of the life of Catholics, making them aware of the greatness of the Christian vocation and mission statement in the world. It wanted to provoke an evangelizing awakening in order to infuse into the veins of the human community the transforming power of the Gospel. This intention is a core topic reading of the Council documents. The renewal of the Church had no other meaning than to put the Church in a "state of mission statement", dispensing with everything that could be less suitable in contemporary times for the mission statement of the Church.

Among these less adequate aspects, there were many of a disciplinary and external nature internship. But the Council also made novel developments in doctrinal matters of substance, which complemented the preceding magisterium. However, novelties in the Church are always relative, since they are not the appearance of something never said before, something unknown in the Catholic tradition. The novelty is always a development of the tradition itself in aspects of the faith that, for various reasons, are better understood in a given historical time. It is the law of historical development, which never proceeds by leaps and bounds, nor does it constitute an absolute beginning.

The novelty of Vatican II consisted above all in a new presentation of the faith, which restored all the aspects of the Catholic tradition in their proper proportions, after centuries of accentuating only some of them. In doing so, the Council offered an image of the Church quite different from that of the preceding epoch. But it did not change doctrine. The apparent discontinuity was, in reality, a greater penetration of the Catholic tradition in order to the life of the Church and to advertisement the Gospel in contemporary times.