Second Vatican Council

Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
	St. Peter's Basilica, venue of the council
Date	1 October 1962 – 8 December 1965
Accepted by	Catholic Church
Previous council	First Vatican Council
Convoked by	Pope John XXIII
President	Pope John XXIII; Pope Paul VI;
Attendance	Up to 2,625
Topics	Complete unfinished task of Vatican I, ecumenical outreach to address needs of modern world
Documents and statements	Four constitutions: Sacrosanctum Concilium (Sacred liturgy); Lumen gentium (Catholic Church); Dei verbum (Divine revelation); Gaudium et spes (Modern world); Nine decrees: Inter mirifica (Media); Orientalium Ecclesiarum (Eastern Catholics); Unitatis redintegratio (Ecumenism); Christus Dominus (Role of bishops); Perfectae caritatis (Religious life); Optatam totius (Priestly training); Apostolicam actuositatem (Role of the laity); Ad gentes (Mission activity); Presbyterorum ordinis (Role of priests); Three declarations: Gravissimum educationis (Education); Nostra aetate (Non-Christian religions); Dignitatis humanae (Religious freedom);
	Chronological list of ecumenical councils

The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the Second Vatican Council or Vatican II, was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and 12 weeks, in the autumn of each of the four years 1962 to 1965, although it had been anticipated initially that the work of the Council would have been complete after three sessions.^[2]

Pope John XXIII called the council because he felt the Church needed "updating" (in Italian: aggiornamento). In order to better connect with people in an increasingly secularized world, some of the Church's practices needed to be improved and presented in a more understandable and relevant way. Support for aggiornamento won out over resistance to change, and as a result sixteen magisterial documents were produced by the council, including four "constitutions":

Dei verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation emphasized the study of scripture as "the soul of theology"
Gaudium et spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, concerned the promotion of peace, the gift of self, and the Church's mission to non-Catholics
Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church on "the universal call to holiness"
Sacrosanctum concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy to restore "the full and active participation by all the people".

Other significant decrees and declarations included:

Apostolicam actuositatem, a decree on The Apostolate of the Laity
Dignitatis humanae, a declaration on religious freedom
Nostra aetate, a declaration about non-Christian religions
Orientalium Ecclesiarum, a decree On Eastern Catholic Churches
Unitatis redintegratio, a decree on Christian ecumenism

The documents proposed significant developments in doctrine and practice and had a significant impact on the life of the Church due to the scope and variety of the issues they addressed.^[3] Some of the most notable changes were in performance of the Mass, including that vernacular languages could be authorized as well as Latin.

^ Cheney, David M. "Second Vatican Council". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
^ O'Riordan, S, The Third Session, The Furrow, Volume 15, No. 10 (October 1964), p. 621, accessed on 5 October 2024
^ O'Malley 2008.

[1] Cheney, David M. "Second Vatican Council". Catholic Hierarchy. Retrieved 18 May 2011.

[oriordan-2] O'Riordan, S, The Third Session, The Furrow, Volume 15, No. 10 (October 1964), p. 621, accessed on 5 October 2024

[FOOTNOTEO'Malley2008-3] O'Malley 2008.

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