The 2nd Vatican Council

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Recommended: The Roman Catholic Church from1500 to present

The 2nd Vatican Council

Starting with the First Council of Nicaea in 325 the Catholic Church established a tradition of ecumenical Council meetings to help decide on and shape the future of the Church. The most recent Council, called Vatican II, is considered to be both the largest ever in scope and also the most ground breaking in the amount of change it yielded. The changes in doctrine, dogma and procedure they enacted had major effects both inside and outside the Catholic Church and continue to today.

Before the Vatican II the Catholic Church was an aging dinosaur, still crippled by the Reformation and unable to relate to contemporary man. It emerged from it a modern Church, tolerant and accepting of other religions, accessible to the laity and ready to grip with this age of reason over faith. I contend that the Vatican II council, while not being perfect or perhaps as progressive as it should have been, was just what the Catholic Church needed if it intended to maintain its status as one of the largest denominations on Earth.

This paper is divided up in to two portions, the first a historical account of events of the council and the second an analysis of the most important of the 16 documents approved by the assembled Fathers and their effect on the Catholic Church.

WHAT HAPPENED

On January 25th 1959, Pope John XXIII announced that he was assembling what was to be the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. He proclaimed to his closest advisors that the purpose of the council would be “to proclaim the truth, bring Christians closer to the faith, and contribute at the same time to peace and prosperity on earth.” Pope John immediately made it very clear that his papal reign, which up until this point was considered rather inconsequential, was going to make a difference.

Councils of the church are called to contemplate and reevaluate the church’s position on matters such as church administration, doctrine and discipline. An ecumenical council is a worldwide council that can only be called by the pope. All bishops and other high-ranking members of the whole church are to be present. This was to be the first major council in the Church since the original Vatican Council that was convened in 1869-1870.

Immediately after the pope’s order the Vatican’s bureaucracy of religious leaders, which is known as the Curia, sprung...

... middle of paper ...

...ly did little more than grant official consent to the beliefs that were already present by that time in the minds of the majority of Fathers. It still was a necessary step and required a lot of bravery on the part of those involved. Without it the Church may well have become a trivial antiquity too stuck in its old ways to be in any way relevant to the modern world.

Works Cited

Basset, Bernard. Preist in the piazza. Goal line tribute to a council, with illustrations by Penelope Harter. Fresno: Academy Guild Press, 1963.

Berkouwer, G.C. The Second Vatican Council and the new Catholicism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965

Caporale, Rock. Vatican II: Last of the councils. Balitmore: Helicon, 1964.

Catholic Church: Pope John XXIII. Apostolic letter of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II: on the 25 anniversay of the promulgation of the conciliar Constitution “Sacrosanctum Concilium” on the Sacred Liturgy. Washington D.C.: United States Catholic Conference, 1988.

MacEoin, Gary. What Happened at Rome? The Council and Its Implications for the Modern World. Garden City: Doubleday, 1966.

Ratzinger, Joseph. Theological Highlights of Vatican II. New York: Paulist Press, 1967.

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