John XXIII, listening to the signs of the times, proposed to the Catholic Church an aggiornamento with reforms and dialogue, based on the principle of continuity-and-progress with the Vatican Council II, which Paul VI put into practice. It was a proposal to renew Catholicism. This article raises theological-ecclesial-pastoral aspects in an ecumenical-dialogical perspective with the objectives of how they can be found in the conciliar texts and how they relate to the ecumenical learning desired by Vatican Council II. The method is to return to conciliar theology and to consider the introductory remarks of three of the conciliar constitutions: Dei Verbum, Lumen Gentium, and Gaudium et Spes, since these indicate to the Catholic Church fundamental principles of its self-understanding and of the way Catholicism is to proced vis a vis the pluralistic world. At the end of the article it observes a hermeneutic indication; a suggestion of a way forward in openness to new initiatives of the Spirit, to better address the conditions of our time; the voice of John XXIII in his Moonlight Speech.