Conciliar Church perpetually reforms itself to better serve the world

Pope Paul VI wrote a great deal about the "self-awareness of the church" in his encyclical Ecclesiam suam. This is personalist philosophy: applying the characteristics of individual persons to the Church Militant as though the mystery of the Church were a single, self-reflecting person:

I. SELF-AWARENESS
18. We believe that it is a duty of the Church at the present time to strive toward a clearer and deeper awareness of itself and its mission in the world, and of the treasury of truth of which it is heir and custodian. Thus before embarking on the study of any particular problem and before considering what attitude to adopt vis-a-vis the world, the Church must here and now reflect on its own nature, the better to appreciate the divine plan which it is the Church's task to implement. By doing this it will find a more revealing light, new energy and increased joy in the fulfillment of its own mission, and discover better ways of augmenting the effectiveness and fruitfulness of its contacts with the world. For the Church does indeed belong to the world, even though distinguished from it by its own altogether unique characteristics .
Pope Paul VI, Ecclesiam suam

 Here, the Pope makes two fundamental assertions:
(1) Self reflection will make the Church more effective in her divinely appointed mission;
(2) the Church belongs to the world.

This is the 'spirit of Vatican II' - instead of turning upward to God and the supernatural goods of heaven, we turn inward to reflect on our own experiences (anthropocentrism). And then we belong to the world - an astonishing contradiction of Apostolic teaching:

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ..."(Philippians 3:20)

 Pope Paul VI continues:

"...We consider it timely and urgent and relevant to the needs of the Church in our day. With a richer understanding of the Mystical Body, we will be enabled to appreciate its theological significance and find in it a great source of spiritual strength. In this way we will notably increase our application to the task of fulfilling our own mission of serving mankind." [emphasis mine]

Here we may see the council's preoccupations with:

(1) it's own epoch;
(2) an increase of the Church's effectiveness in her divinely assigned mission;
(3) a radically re-oriented mission focus from serving God to serving mankind.

This is the encyclical [Ecclesiam suam] John Paul II refers to in the opening of his encyclical Redemptor hominis:

"Entrusting myself fully to the Spirit of truth, therefore, I am entering into the rich inheritance of the recent pontificates. This inheritance has struck deep roots in the awareness of the Church in an utterly new way, quite unknown previously, thanks to the Second Vatican Council..."

 And how better to serve mankind in this present world than to strive for peace on earth? This is the theme of another encyclical John Paul II refers to in Redemptor hominis - Pacem in Terra by John XXIII.  Thus, John Paul II could triumphantly declare after the spectacle of praying with the adherents of all religions in Assisi that,

“The day of Assisi, showing the Catholic Church holding hands with our brothers of other religions, was a visible expression of [the] statements of the Second Vatican Council.” 

The interfaith event at Assisi was thus described by John Paul II not as a tragic misrepresentation of Vatican II, but as the glorious realization of its teaching.

Pope John Paul II went on to celebrate the inter-religious prayer meeting at Assisi as a new direction for the future, 
“The event of Assisi” he said, “can thus be considered as a visible illustration, an exegesis of events, a catechesis intelligible to all, of what is presupposed and signified by the commitments to ecumenism and to the inter-religious dialogue which was recommended and promoted by the Second Vatican Council.”
Toward the end of the speech, the Pope urged his Cardinals to continue on the same new path, “Keep always alive the spirit of Assisi as a motive of hope for the future.”
- Pope’s Christmas Address to Roman Curia,” L’Osservatore Romano, January 5, 1987, pp. 6-7.

 These two foci - personalist philosophy and anthropocentric orientation defined the Council and are still the driving philosophical and theological theories behind the Church's official action. Indeed, rather than any chaotic or incoherent pattern since Vatican II, we may observe a remarkable coherence in the sweep of change initiated by John XXIII and continuing to deepen through Francis: The Church sees herself as a human being would see herself and criticizes, amends, and reforms her self thereby; and the Church serves mankind in a greatly expanded mission that may spring from the Gospel proclamation but is in no way restricted to it any longer.