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With his fine sensitivity to read the “signs of the times,” G. B. Montini perceived, when he served pastorally in the Archdiocese of Milan, that one of the great difficulties faced by Christians at that time was the darkening of the awareness about the Church and the growing loss of their own identity. Not only did he identify this problem as one of the main pastoral chal-lenges of his ministry, but in his episcopal magisterium he offered diagnoses, reflections and proposals for solutions. The analysis of this doctrinal corpus , which is performed here, serves at the same time to enhance the richness of his somewhat forgotten theological thought and is presented as a suggestive quarry for the “here and now” of the Church.