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Vatican II the 2Nd Vat Council Began on October 11, 1962 and Ended on December 8/1965

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Vatican II the 2Nd Vat Council Began on October 11, 1962 and Ended on December 8/1965 Vatican II The 2nd Vat Council began on October 11, 1962 and ended on December 8/1965. John XXIII made the announcement that there would be a council on January 25 1959. But of course it did not begin right after the announcement because time was needed for preparation, etc. Also, the Council was not in session for 3-4 straight years without any interruption. There were actually 4 sessions during the council (usually from Sept/Oct till Nov/Dec); and there were intersessions in between. 16 documents were produced as a result of the work of the council in those 3 years (1962-65). These documents have the greatest weight when it comes to the question of teaching authority in the Church. DIFFERENT OFFICIAL CHURCH DOCUMENTS: there are many types of Church documents. Below are just a few. 1. Vatican II documents: these documents have the greatest weight because they were approved and promulgated as by the pope, with all the votes/deliberation of the bishops worldwide. 2. Code of Canon Law (1983): The function of the Code was to apply conciliar teaching in terms of church laws. Certainly the Code must be read/interpreted in light of the Council, not vice-versa. 3. Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC): Again, the Catechism must be read in light of the Council. The CCC began when Pope JP II formed a commission of bishops and cardinals in 1986 to compose a Catechism. Not all the bishops of the world were consulted; thus the CCC cannot override the Council. 4. Papal encyclicals: these are letters from the Pope in his capacity as the bishop of Rome. They are authoritative, but by the fact that they come from one bishop (the pope), they are not as important as conciliar documents (which came from all the bishops, the pope being one of them). 5. Documents from the different congregations in Rome: Again, these must be read in light of the Council and cannot contradict the teaching of the Council. 6. Documents from Different Bishops’ Conferences: there are different national episcopal (bishops’) conferences. The documents resulting from each conference, of course, cannot contradict the conciliar teaching. Moreover, these documents only have weight in their own conference, and cannot impose their teaching authority on other conferences. For example, the documents from the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops are only binding on Catholics in the US: they are not necessarily binding on European/Asian Catholics. As is evident, Vat II presents the highest teaching authority in the Church. Definitions of papal infallibility, when defined by the Pope in his capacity as Successor of Peter and Pastor of the Universal Church, also have the same teaching weight as the documents of the Council. However infallible definitions are proclaimed differently from conciliar documents; and up to this point in history, papal infallibility has been exercised only once—in 1950 when Pope Pius XII solemnly defined the Doctrine of the Assumption of Mary. Even then, he did not do so without first having consulted his brother bishops. CONCEPTION OF HISTORY: The Judeo-Christian understanding of history is linear, rather than circular. History does not repeat itself. For Judaism as well as for Christianity, history began at a certain point. There is also a central point; and finally there is an end point. The beginning point for both religions is the creation story (Genesis). The central point for Judaism is the event of the Exodus (God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt and the giving of the Mosaic Law—the Law being the most important aspect of life for the Jews). The end point for the Jews is the coming of the long-awaited Messiah. For Christians the central point of human history is the event of the Incarnation—the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, Son of God. The Incarnation is the central aspect of the Christian faith. And the end point on the historical line for Christians is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ—also known as the eschatology in Christian theology. Since history is linear, everything that happened on the historical line has its “befores” and “afters.” Thus we cannot talk about the Vat II in and of itself. We also have to have a general picture of what took place before the Council, all the events leading to the Council, all the persons involved, etc. Below, I present a short list (by no means exhaustive) of the persons/things/events that we CANNOT not discuss when we want to speak about the Council: i. The 1st half of the 20th century: when there was an increasing need for the Church to dialogue with the modern world. The world had witnessed 2 devastating wars that could have threatened the whole of humanity. The world has changed in many ways: more industrialized, more advanced in technology, more progress in human development, etc. How would the Church deal with all these changes? Also, Catholic theology/scholarship tended to be behind Protestant scholarship, especially in terms of biblical studies. Catholic theologians/thinkers who advocated new ways of thinking to deal with the modern world were looked upon with suspicion from Roman authorities. Some famous names were actually censored by Rome; had their teaching licenses revoked; only rehabilitated during/after the Council. ii. The Modernist crisis: This referred to the early part of the 20th cent, especially under the pontificate of Pope St. Pius X (d. 1914). Many Catholic thinkers were suspected of having been influenced by “modernist” ideas. Anything “modern” was considered bad and opposed to Catholic teaching. As a result of this, Catholic theology really fell behind. iii. The First Vatican Council (1869-70): convoked and approved by Pope Pius IX (d. 1878). This council took place when Europe experienced the severe crisis/threat of separation between Church and State. The Papal States were being lost in Italy—thus reducing the role of the popes to spiritual leaders (before the loss of the Papal States, popes were temporal leaders as well). Vat I strengthened the (spiritual) authority of the popes by having defined the doctrines of papal infallibility and papal primacy of jurisdiction. The Council never officially ended because Rome was invaded in 1870. iv. The Council of Trent (1545-1563): in many ways, Trent was even more important than Vat I when we want to discuss Vat II. The Church up to the 1960’s was the Church of Trent, the Tridentine Church. Along with the Council of Trent, we have to mention the Protestant Reformation in the 16th cent. v. The Medieval Councils vi. The Councils of the Early Church: we might as well go back and discuss briefly the councils of the Early Church in order to arrive at Vat II. vii. The 3 popes—Pius XII (1939-58), John XXIII (1958-63), Paul VI (1963-78): the names of these 3 popes are always associated with the 2nd Vat Council… Christianity as a religion began with the person of Jesus Christ. Early followers of Jesus believed that he was the Son of God, sent for the salvation of the world; born of the Virgin Mary, died and rose from the dead. Those who had the first-hand experience of the preaching/teaching of Jesus were known as the Apostles—the 12 men he chose to carry out his task of proclaiming the Gospel. After the death of Jesus, it was related that the Apostles went their separate ways to preach the Good news and to form their own church communities. The apostles were the recipients of God’s revelation, fully manifested in the person of Jesus. In this sense they were the first “teachers” of the Christian faith. Together the apostles formed a so-called body, or college. Peter undoubtedly held the honor of primacy among this college. Unfortunately for the early Church, problems arose. Different communities of believers had disagreements over different issues. This is where the councils came into play. The Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) was a gathering of “apostles and presbyters” to decide on the question of whether or not Gentile converts to Christianity had to undergo circumcision and other precepts of the Jewish Mosaic Law. After debates and consultations, the answer was in the negative. Peter, Paul, James of Jerusalem, and Barnabas were some of the figures involved. The classical formula from Acts 15 is: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit, and ours also…” Later, bishops would appeal to this formula at councils when they formulated rules/teachings for the Church. After the death of the apostles, the ministry continued through their successors—the so- called bishops of the Church. The Christian Church continued to grow in the first few centuries, despite severe persecutions from the Roman Empire. Christianity breathed a sigh of relief in 313, the fateful year for Christians when the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine tolerated the religion with the Edict of Milan—though Constantine himself did not embrace Christianity until the end of his life. He moved from Rome to the eastern part of the Empire, Constantinople, a city named after himself, which was to be an altera Roma (the 2nd Rome, or the other Rome). Constantinople was to be the capital of the East, while Rome was the center of the West. Already in the early Church, there were differences between Latin-speaking Christians of the West (west of Rome, like Spain, France, etc) and Greek-speaking Christians of the East (modern-day Turkey, Greece, Mediterranean area). These differences would eventually result in the Schism and separation in later centuries between West and East.
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