The 22nd February 1992 saw the publication of a pastoral instruction on social communications entitled Aetatis Novae (At the dawn of a new era). This document marked the twentieth anniversary of the Pontifical Commission's very first document, Communio et Progressio (1971). The former document opens with an introduction titled A Revolution in Human Communications. Its body is divided in five parts which include; The Context of Social Communications, The Work of the means of Social Communications, Current Challenges, Pastoral Priorities and Responses, and The need for pastoral planning. Aetatis Novae closes with the conclusion followed by the appendix.

The document Aetatis Novae systematically draws an outline in the propagation of Social Communications media for the pastoral purpose of spreading the Good News of the Lord. It is also based and established from other previous documents of the Catholic Church on social communications media such as the Inter Mirifica and Communio et Progressio. The latter document Aetatis Novae is more like an application of the need for a responsible use of social communications media specifically explained in the ecclesial document Inter Mirifica.