The Second
Charles
P. Poole, Jr.
Vatican II was the 21st Ecumenical
Council in history. To obtain a list of
the previous 20 Councils click on Prior
Councils on the sidebar. Vatican II
accomplished two seemingly contradictory tasks, namely to bring the Church
closer to its roots in the distant past (ressourcement or ad fontes),
and to update it or adapt it to the modern world (aggiornamento). Its aim was
pastoral rather than dogmatic. Its
concerns were mainly how the Church and its members should worship and live
their lives in the modern world. There
was much more interest in how Christians should worship, behave and act in a
manner consistent with the precepts of the Commandments and the admonitions of
the Beatitudes, rather than on what they should believe. The fundamental beliefs of the Church had
been agreed upon many centuries ago.
There were four proclamations or documents of especial importance issued
by the Council called Constitutions, nine less solemn Decrees, and three
Declarations of lesser significance.
There was a more fundamental Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium),
and a more practical Pastoral Constitution on the Church (Gaudium et Spes) which
together set the tone for the remaining proclamations. There was a Dogmatic Constitution on Divine
Revelation (Dei Verbum)
which made the Church much more biblically oriented, and a Constitution on the
Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium)
which was pastoral in tone, and resulted in the Mass, the administration of the
Sacraments, and other Church practices being subsequently conducted in
vernacular languages instead of Latin.
Six of the decrees were mainly
concerned with internal affairs of the Church, namely bishops, priests (2),
religious orders, the role of the laity, and Eastern Rite Catholics, The remaining three decrees on ecumenism,
social communications, and missionary activity plus the three declarations on
Christian education, Non-Christian religions, and religious freedom concern the Church in the world. The latter declaration on Religious Liberty
was the only Council document addressed to the entire world. The official name of each document, which is
given in italics for the four constitutions, is the first two or three words in
its Latin text.
To
obtain information on what was proclaimed in each of these Council documents
click on the name of the corresponding document on the sidebar. Also listed on the sidebar are an Introduction to the Council proceedings, and comments
on the Implementation of the Council
proclamations.
One of
the controversial statements made by Vatican II (Lumen Gentium #8) is
that the Church of Christ "subsists in" the Catholic Church, which
replaces the ancient understanding that the Church of Christ "is" the
Catholic Church. The ancient adage “Outside the Church there is no salvation”
can now be replaced by ”Outside the Church there is ample salvation.” For more details click on Subsists
in on the sidebar.