In his speech of 25 January 1959, announcing his intention of calling a Council,[1] Pope John used the word aggiornamento, but only in reference to his planned revision of the Code of Canon Law.
In his first encyclical letter, Ad Petri cathedram, 29 June 1959,[2] speaking of the upcoming Council, he said (§61): "[The bishops] 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:[3]The ecumenical council will reach out and embrace under the widespread wings of the Catholic Church the entire heritage of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
In his first encyclical, Ecclesiam suam, Paul VI recalled the term's association with his predecessor (§50): We cannot forget Pope John XXIII's word aggiornamento which We have adopted as expressing the aim and object of Our own pontificate.
[8] On 12 October 2012, in a short address on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II,[9] Pope Benedict XVI said that, while some people have criticized the choice of the term “aggiornamento”, he believed that the intuition that Blessed John XXIII summarized in that word was and remains exact.