This contribution reconsiders the rejected but often overlooked “Malines text” (September 1963) as the missing link in the redaction history of Gaudium et Spes and as a key witness to the document’s Christian anthropology. Applying the three hermeneutical principles of content, style, and “pastorality” (pastoralité) to this text and its redaction history, a basis is laid for a reading of Vatican II that respects its embrace of diversity.