Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, was an Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965.

Background

By the 1950s, Roman Catholic theological and biblical studies had begun to move away from the neo-scholasticism and biblical literalism that the reaction to the Modernist heresy had enforced from after the First Vatican Council well into the 20th century. This liberalism sprang from theologians such as Yves Congar, Karl Rahner, and John Courtney Murray who looked to integrate modern human experience with Christian dogma, as well as others such as Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) and Henri de Lubac who looked to what they saw as a more accurate understanding of scripture and the early Church Fathers as a source of renewal.

Related Topics:
1950s - Modernist - Heresy - First Vatican Council - 20th century - Yves Congar - Karl Rahner - John Courtney Murray - Joseph Ratzinger - Henri de Lubac

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At the same time the world's bishops faced tremendous challenges driven by political, social, economic, and technical change. Some of these bishops sought changes in church structure and practice to address those challenges. The most organised of these was a group of Dutch and German bishops known as the Rhine Bishops. The First Vatican Council had been held nearly a century before but had been cut short by the effects of the Franco-Prussian War. As a result, only deliberations on the role of the Papacy were completed, with examination of pastoral and dogmatic issues concerning the whole church left undone.

Related Topics:
Bishop - First Vatican Council - Franco-Prussian War

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Pope John XXIII, however, gave notice of his intention to convene the Council less than three months after his election in 1959. While he expressed his intentions in many messages over the next three years in formal detail, one of the best known images is of Pope John, when asked why the Council was needed, reportedly opening a window and saying, "I want to throw open the windows of the Church so that we can see out and the people can see in." He invited other Christian Churches to send observers to the Council. Acceptances came from both Protestant and Orthodox Churches. The Russian Orthodox Church, in fear of the Communist Soviet Government, accepted only when assured that the Council would be apolitical in nature.

Related Topics:
Pope John XXIII - 1959 - Orthodox - Russian Orthodox Church

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