Introduction

Author(s):  
Shaun Blanchard

The sources of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), the history of the road to the council, and the nature of theological reform and development have been the object of much scholarly energy since 1965. To this day, the meaning, significance, and interpretation of Vatican II remain contested, and these debates have great importance for the Catholic Church and for Christian ecumenism. While studies exist that link the council to the thought of the Patristic period, as well as to movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, hitherto the connection of Vatican II to the post-Tridentine but pre-nineteenth-century church has been almost completely overlooked....

1947 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waldemar Gurian

The history of the Catholic Church includes men who, after brilliant services to the Church, died outside her fold. Best known among them is Tertullian, the apologetic writer of the Early Church; less known is Ochino, the third vicar-general of the Capuchins, whose flight to Calvin's Geneva almost destroyed his order. In the nineteenth century there were two famous representatives of this group. Johann von Doellinger refused, when more than seventy years old, to accept the decision of the Vatican Council about papal infallibility. He passed away in 1890 unreconciled, though he had been distinguished for years as the outstanding German Catholic theologian. Félicité de la Mennais was celebrated as the new Pascal and Bossuet of his time before he became the modern Tertullian by breaking with the Church because Pope Gregory XVI rejected his views on the relations between the Church and die world. As he lay deathly ill, his niece, “Madame de Kertanguy asked him: ‘Féli, do you want a priest? Surely, you want a priest?’ Lamennais answered: ‘No.’ The niece repeated: ‘I beg of you.’ But he said with a stronger voice: ‘No, no, no.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 118-130
Author(s):  
Sebastian Zygmunt

Over the centuries, exercising authority in the Catholic Church had been generating many doubts and problems. The extreme understanding the Pope’s role as an absolute monarch who independently decides about all dimensions of the Church has supplanted with time the known from the Apostle’s time communal management of the Mystical body of Christ. Just the Second Vatican Council and the last few popes noticed this particular problem. And one of the given solutions was the necessity of the return to the former way of exercising power by the college of bishops united around the Saint Peter’s Successor. Synods whose provisions would be presented to the Bishop of Rome for possible corrections and acceptance could again become a tool of power. By the analysis of the patrology research results, the history of the Catholic Church and dogmatic theology as well as sources and the subject literature it was possible to answer the question what synodality is in general, where does it draw its foundations and what is its role in building of the Kingdom of God. It was also possible to outline the perspective of the further Church development in an increasingly globalised world. The reflection on the historical formation of a proper understanding of collegiality and primacy proved helpful in understanding the goals behind the ”decentralization” of power in the Church postulated today by Pope Francis.


Author(s):  
Lorelei Fuchs

The chapter considers key ecumenical developments in the period 1948–65, between the founding of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the closing of the Second Vatican Council, at which the Catholic Church finally embraced the ecumenical movement. Explaining how that period can be seen as pivotal in the history of the movement, it tracks the developing understanding of the ecumenical challenge reflected in successive assemblies of the WCC and conferences on Faith and Order, both at world level and in North America, and the growing desire for Catholic engagement in the ecumenical movement manifested particularly in the activities of the Catholic Conference for Ecumenical Questions. It then considers the teaching of Vatican II on ecumenism, for example, regarding degrees of communion, and the impact of Catholic participation on the ecumenical movement, notably in the practice of bilateral dialogues.


2013 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham A. Duncan

The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) is regarded as one of the most significant processes in the ecumenical church history of the 20th century. At that time, a younger generation of Roman Catholic theologians began to make their mark in the church and within the ecumenical theological scene. Their work provided an ecumenical bridge between the Reforming and the Roman Catholic ecclesiastical traditions, notwithstanding the subsequent negative response of the Roman church hierarchy. Despite important advances, recent pontificates significantly altered the theological landscape and undermined much of the enthusiasm and commitment to unity. Roman Catholic theological dissent provided common ground for theological reflection. Those regarded as the ‘enemy within’ have become respected colleagues in the search for truth in global ecclesiastical perspective. This article will use the distinction between the history and the narratives of Vatican II.


Author(s):  
John A. Radano

This chapter discusses the origin and work of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) as the major instrument of the Holy See for ecumenical matters. Established in 1960, it was first an instrument of the Second Vatican Council, assisting the Council especially, but not exclusively, in decisions relating to ecumenism and inter-religious matters. Constituted part of the Roman Curia after Vatican II, it has continued in light of the Council’s Decree on Ecumenism to promote the goal of Christian unity by engaging in ecumenical dialogue and collaboration with other Christians and ecumenical organizations, by advancing ecumenical formation and education within the Catholic Church, and by cultivating, with ecumenical partners, the reception of achievements resulting from dialogue. Related to the PCPCU, though with different goals, is the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, tasked with implementing Vatican II’s decree, Nostra Aetate, n. 4.


2013 ◽  
pp. 486-495
Author(s):  
Editorial board Of the Journal

The first chapter titled “The Second Vatican Council: religious studies paradigm aggiornamento” contains articles that survey the achievements, problems and prospects of the Catholic Church in the post-Vatican II period and foreseeable future. The content of these materials has different aspects: philosophical, sociological, historical, and theological.


2013 ◽  
pp. 279-286
Author(s):  
Daryna Marcinovska

The history of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the theological and archpastoral activities of Karol Wojtyla are inextricably linked, because it was with the participation in the Cathedral of the life of the bishop that a new stage began - he became one of the leaders of the movement for the renewal of the Catholic Church. In 1962-1963, Bishop Karol Wojtyla participated in the work of the 1 st and 2 nd sessions of the Second Vatican Council. It was at this time in Rome that he met with Cardinal Franz König, one of the most influential and intellectual figures in the church in Europe. This was the beginning of an extremely important shift in the career of Bishop C. Wojtyla1. In October 1962, he participates in the work of the first session of the Second Vatican Council as one of his youngest and most active members1 2. Next year, at the closing of the second session, he is appointed archbishop, Metropolitan Krakowski.


2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-86
Author(s):  
Celeste McNamara

The creation of new saints often has a political edge; the Catholic Church molds saints’ lives to fit its needs, and individual popes have particular priorities in saint-making. In the early modern Church, this was particularly important after the Council of Trent. The Tridentine decrees (1563) instructed bishops to reform the Church but provided few practical suggestions for how to do this. One solution was to hold up exemplary post-Tridentine bishops as models through beatification and canonization. Historians have noted the importance of model bishops but have not fully considered the process of creating them and its implication for the histories of Catholic Reform and of canonization. The case of Cardinal-Bishop Gregorio Barbarigo of Padua (bp. 1664–1697) tells a complicated and interesting story about the intersection of Catholic Reform and canonization. Barbarigo was beatified in 1761 during the Catholic Enlightenment and was finally canonized in 1960, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council. Examining the construction of his image from 1699–1960, this article argues that the Catholic Church in both the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries molded Barbarigo into the model bishop needed at those particular times, in response to the issues facing contemporary bishops and clergy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-123
Author(s):  
Martin Ganeri

From the time of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has sought to develop a positive approach to other religions and to interreligious relations in its official teaching. This article outlines the main themes of this teaching in Conciliar and subsequent Papal documents. The Church’s approach is seen to be rooted in the affirmation of the unity of all humanity and is always Christological and ecclesiological in character. The consequent call for dialogue and collaboration becomes a means by which Christians can share in and extend God’s own saving dialogue with humanity. The scope of dialogue has also been deepened so that it encompasses the whole of the lived relation Christians have with members of other religions. The article also considers the main ways in which Catholic theologians have extended official teaching in their more systematic approaches.


2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (157) ◽  
pp. 110-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
James P. Bruce

AbstractIn 1963 the Second Vatican Council voted overwhelmingly to introduce the vernacular into Roman Catholic worship. The Irish hierarchy decided that both Irish and English speakers should be catered for in the reformed liturgy. Within a few years John Charles McQuaid, archbishop of Dublin, had gained a widespread reputation as having gone further than his fellow bishops in the provision of masses in Irish. At the same time he was criticised for his lack of enthusiasm towards other areas of liturgical reform. This dichotomy stemmed from McQuaid’s deep dismay at the church’s new ecumenical direction and the possibility that it would lead to shared worship between Catholics and Protestants. Yet, as a senior prelate in the Catholic Church, he was obliged to implement each of the Council’s decrees, including those concerning the liturgy. McQuaid’s response was to introduce Vatican-approved changes to the mass, while simultaneously protecting the traditional liturgy he cherished. So he tried to re-establish the Latin rite on the same terms as those he had arranged for the Irish mass. Had he succeeded, the result would have been a reduction in the use of an English vernacular which he found offensive to his Catholic sensibilities.


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