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Aggiornamento () is an Italian word meaning "bringing up to date", "updating". It was made famous by Pope John XXIII, and was one of the key words at the Second Vatican Council, used by both and the media.
In his first encyclical letter, Ad Petri cathedram, 29 June 1959, speaking of the upcoming Council, he said (§61): "The will consider, in particular, the growth of the Catholic faith, the restoration of sound morals among the Christian flock, and appropriate adaptation ( aggiornamento) of Church discipline to the needs and conditions of our times."
On 28 June 1961, in an address to a group of Blessed Sacrament Fathers, John XXIII said:
On 1 August 1962, in a speech to a pilgrimage of "ministers of the altar", he said: (translation) "The Ecumenical Council ... seeks to be a Council of updating, mainly for a deeper knowledge and love of revealed truth, for fervent religious piety, and for holiness of life."
It was a term he used when he was patriarch (archbishop) of Venice. In a letter to the people of Venice of 8 October 1957 about an upcoming diocesan synod, he wrote: (translation) "You have already heard the word "aggiornamento" repeated so many times. You see, our Holy Church, forever young, takes the attitude of following the various twists and turns of the circumstances of life, in order to adapt, to correct, to improve and to become more fervent. That is the nature of the synod, that is its purpose."Peter Hebblethwaite, John XXIII: Pope of the Century, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005 (), p. 129)Andrea Tornielli, Giovanni XXIII : vita di un Padre Santo, Gribaudi, 2000 (), p. 80
In a French encyclopedia article on aggiornamento, Émile Poulat, sociologist of religion and Church historian, claims that John XXIII chose that word to characterize his vision of the Council, because "modernization" would have suggested modernism, and "reform" would have sounded Protestant.
the intuition that Blessed John XXIII summarized in that word was and remains exact. Christianity must not be considered as 'something of the past', nor must it be lived with our gaze ever turned back. ... Christianity is always new. We must never look at it as though it were a tree, fully developed from the mustard seed of the Gospel, that grew, gave its fruit, and one fine day grows old as the sun sets on its life force. Christianity is a tree that is, so to speak, ever “timely”, ever young. And this trend, this aggiornamento does not mean a break with tradition, but expresses its ongoing vitality; it does not mean reducing the faith, debasing it to the fashion of the times, measured by what pleases us, by what pleases public opinion. ... The Council was a time of grace in which the Holy Spirit taught us that the Church, in her journey through history, must always speak to the people of today.
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