It was fifty years ago today that Roman Catholicism launched what
many consider to be the most ambitious of its 21 ecumenical councils.
Called the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, the three-plus-year
series of gatherings began under Pope John XXIII on October 11, 1962,
and concluded under Pope Paul VI on December 8, 1965. Half a century
later, Vatican II remains the most recent of Catholicism’s official
worldwide councils.
For those of us younger than 50, all we’ve experienced of Roman
Catholicism, whether from within or without, comes to us through the
lens and practices of Vatican II. It’s an important reality to be aware
of as we try to make sense of the (appropriately) deep rift between
Protestants and Catholics on many central issues, and as we learn to get
over our chronological snobbery and become aware of the full history of
the church in her first fifteen centuries, and her unusual last half
millennium.
Why Vatican II?
In October 1958, Italian cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was
elected pope at the age of 77. Ascending to the papacy at such an old
age, he was expected to be a mere caretaker and bridge the short gap to
the next ecclesiastical head. But less than three months into office, in
January of 1959, he surprised many by calling for the convening of an
ecumenical council. Over two years of formal preparations went into
launching the meetings on October 11, 1962. It was the first council to
be called in almost a century (Vatican I ended in 1870), and only the
third since the Reformation (the Council of Trent spanned 1545 to 1563).
Many have summarized the core purpose of the council as adapting
Roman Catholicism to the modern world. Summoning and beginning the
council proved to be John XXIII’s most significant work as pope, as he
died midway through the council on June 3, 1963. Continue at David Mathis
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