When was Vatican II?
Samuel Ruiz
In 1962, the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) convened, focusing on the social responsibility of Christians and on opening the Church to theological development and dialogue. Vatican II encouraged that sermons be translated and read to communities in their local languages and that the Church be more involved in addressing social problems, such as those occurring in Central and South America. For Ruiz, his participation in the Second Vatican Council allowed time for reflection on the decisions and actions carried out under his administration, which brought him a long way from the somewhat naïve enthusiasm which he’d had during his first years as bishop. It was Vatican II which inspired Ruiz to translate scripture into local indigenous languages and into practice, with an emphasis on inculturation.
Catholic Church
In 2005, following the death of John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul, was elected. He was known for upholding traditional Christian values against secularisation, and for liberalising use of the Tridentine Mass as found in the Roman Missal of 1962. In 2012, the 50th anniversary of Vatican II, an assembly of the Synod of Bishops discussed re-evangelising lapsed Catholics in the developed world. Citing the frailties of advanced age, Benedict resigned in 2013, the first pope to do so in nearly 600 years.
Papal primacy
At the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) the debate on papal primacy and authority re-emerged, and in the dogmatic constitution "Lumen gentium", the Catholic Church's teaching on the authority of the pope, bishops and councils was further elaborated. Vatican II sought to correct the unbalanced ecclesiology left behind by Vatican I. The result is the body of teaching about the papacy and episcopacy contained in "Lumen gentium".
Canon law of the Catholic Church
In the succeeding decades, some parts of the 1917 Code were retouched, especially under Pope Pius XII. In 1959, Pope John XXIII announced, together with his intention to call the Second Vatican Council a Synod of the Diocese of Rome, that the 1917 Code would be completely revised. In 1963, the commission appointed to undertake the task decided to delay the project until the Council had been concluded. After the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Vatican II) closed in 1965, it became apparent that the Code would need to be revised in light of the documents and theology of Vatican II. When work finally began, almost two decades of study and discussion on drafts of the various sections were needed before Pope John Paul II could promulgate the revised edition, which came into force on 27 November 1983, having been promulgated via the apostolic constitution "Sacrae Disciplinae Leges" of 25 January 1983. Containing 1752 canons, it is the law currently binding on the Latin Church.
Annibale Bugnini
Annibale Bugnini (14 June 1912 – 3 July 1982) was a Roman Catholic prelate. Ordained in 1936 and named archbishop in 1972, he was secretary of the commission that worked on the reform of the Catholic liturgy that followed the Second Vatican Council. Critics of the changes made to the Catholic Mass and other liturgical practices before and after Vatican II consider him a controversial figure. He held several other posts in the Roman Curia and ended his career as papal nuncio to Iran, where he acted as an intermediary during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979–1981.
George Lindbeck
Lindbeck first gained attention as a medievalist and as a participant in ecumenical discussions in academia and the church. He was a "delegate observer" to the Second Vatican Council and since that time he has been an important part of ecumenical dialogue, especially between Lutherans and Roman Catholics. From 1968 to 1987 he was a member of the Joint Commission between the Vatican and Lutheran World Federation. In 1994, Lindbeck spoke at length about his memories of Vatican II with George Weigel, and a transcript of his interview with Weigel was published in the December 1994 edition of "First Things".
Pope John Paul II
He was elected pope by the second Papal conclave of 1978, which was called after Pope John Paul I, who had been elected in August to succeed Pope Paul VI, died after 33 days.
Cardinal Wojtyła was elected on the third day of the conclave and adopted his predecessor's name in tribute to him. John Paul II is recognised as helping to end Communist rule in his native Poland and eventually all of Europe. John Paul II significantly improved the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He upheld the Church's teachings on such matters as artificial contraception, the ordination of women, and a celibate clergy, and although he supported the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he was seen as generally conservative in their interpretation.
Second Council of Constantinople
The Second Council of Constantinople is the fifth of the first seven ecumenical councils recognized by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. It is also recognized by the Old Catholics and others. Protestant opinions and recognition of it are varied. Some Protestants, such as Calvinists and Lutherans, recognize the first four councils, whereas most Anglo-Catholics accept all seven. Constantinople II was convoked by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I under the presidency of Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople. It was held from 5 May to 2 June 553. Participants were overwhelmingly Eastern bishops—only sixteen Western bishops were present, including nine from Illyricum and seven from Africa, but none from Italy—out of the 152 total.
History of the Catholic Church since 1962
The Church policies after World War II under Pope Pius XII focused on material aid to war-torn Europe, an internal internationalization of the Roman Catholic Church and the development of its worldwide diplomatic relations. His encyclicals, "Evangelii praecones" and "Fidei donum", issued on June 2, 1951 and April 21, 1957, respectively, increased the local decision-making of Catholic missions, many of which became independent dioceses. Pius XII demanded recognition of local cultures as fully equal to European culture. While the Church thrived in the West and most of the developing world, it faced most serious persecutions in the East. The communist regimes in Albania, Bulgaria, and Romania practically eradicated the Roman Catholic Church in their countries. The difficult relations of the Vatican with the Soviet Union, alias Russia, originated in the revolution in 1917 and continued through the pontificate of Pius XII. They affected relations with the Orthodox Church as well. The Catholic Oriental Churches were eliminated in most parts of the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era. Persecutions of the Church continued during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. The relations of the Holy See with China from 1939-1958. began hopefully with the long withheld recognition of Chinese rites by the Vatican in 1939, the elevation of the first Chinese cardinal in 1946, and the establishment of a local Chinese hierarchy. It ended with the persecution and virtual elimination of the Catholic Church in the early Fifties, and the establishment of a Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association in 1957
Second Vatican Council
The spirit of Vatican II is invoked for a great variety of ideas and attitudes. Bishop John Tong Hon of Hong Kong used it with regard merely to an openness to dialogue with others, saying: "We are guided by the spirit of Vatican II: only dialogue and negotiation can solve conflicts."
Sacrosanctum Concilium
Sacrosanctum concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, is one of the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council. It was approved by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 4 December 1963. The main aim was to achieve greater lay participation in the Catholic Church's liturgy. The title is taken from the opening lines of the document and means "this Sacred Council".
Dialogue between the Holy See and the Society of Saint Pius X
In February 2011, Bishop Bernard Fellay, said that reconciliation talks with the Vatican would soon be coming to an end, with little change in the views of either side. In addition to disputes over the changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council, new problems had been created by plans to beatify Pope John Paul II on 1 May 2011, which, he said, posed "a serious problem, the problem of a pontificate that caused things to proceed by leaps and bounds in the wrong direction, along 'progressive' lines, toward everything that they call 'the spirit of Vatican II.'"
Francis X. Murphy
As a journalist, Murphy attended the Second Vatican Council which met at the Vatican from 1962-1965. Under the pseudonym Xavier Rynne, combining his middle name and his mother's maiden name, he revealed the inner workings of Vatican II to "The New Yorker". He is credited with setting the tone for the popular view of the council, depicting it as "conservative" versus "liberal".
Achille Silvestrini
In 2010, he provided his assessment of the actions during World War II of Pope Pius XII, with whom he worked for many years beginning just after the war. He said:
Following the election of Pope Francis in 2013, he said the Church needs to "start from the Second Vatican Council, from all that has not yet been implemented and must still be accomplished". He called the work of the Council and the plans of Pope John XXIII "an unfinished task" and said the Church needs "a new language to talk to humanity today, and in particular to the new generations, and to give adequate answers to modernity".
Pastoral council
In a 1988 address to the bishops of Chile, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger spoke of Vatican II as a "pastoral council" with a modest intent, and not as a "rupture with tradition" as described by Marcel Lefebvre.
Emanuel Galea
Along with his duties at a high level of responsibility in Malta, Bishop Galea took part in a number of sessions of the Second Vatican Council that lasted from 1962 until 1965. He addressed the plenary and the individual specialized sessions in a masterly way and contributed especially to the discussions on the Episcopal Collegiality and on the role of the Church in the modern world.
Bombing of the Vatican
Bombing of Vatican City occurred twice during World War II. The first occasion was on the evening of 5 November 1943, when a plane dropped bombs on the area south-west of Saint Peter's Basilica, causing considerable damage but no casualties. The second bombing, which affected only the outer margin of the city, was at about the same hour on 1 March 1944, and caused the death of one person and the injury of another.
Catholic theology of Scripture
Vatican II's "Dei Verbum" ("Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation"), promulgated in 1965, opened the door to acceptance within the Church for much of the scholarly study of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures that had taken place since the 19th century. Developments within the Catholic Church can be traced through documents of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which oversees scriptural interpretation as it pertains to Catholic teaching. Until Vatican II the decrees of this commission reflected the Counter-Reformation effort to preserve the tradition unchanged, lest errors arising during the Protestant Reformation enter into Catholic belief. Consequent on Vatican II, the Counter-Reformation mentality in the Catholic Church diminished and the ecumenical spirit of openness to what is good in modern studies was embraced. The Council Fathers reiterated what was dogmatic in the previous teaching of the Church, "that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation." This is the substance of what church dogma (infallible teaching) says. The Council document went on to show an openness to development of doctrine (teaching), since historically growth in understanding has led to more developed theologies – in this case of scriptural interpretation within the Church. The Council Fathers continued: 
However, since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, the interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words. To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to "literary forms" ... in accordance with the situation of his own time and culture. For the correct understanding of what the sacred author wanted to assert, due attention must be paid to the customary and characteristic styles of feeling, speaking and narrating which prevailed at the time of the sacred writer, and to the patterns men normally employed at that period in their everyday dealings with one another. But, since Holy Scripture must be read and interpreted in the sacred spirit in which it was written, no less serious attention must be given to the content and unity of the whole of Scripture if the meaning of the sacred texts is to be correctly worked out. The living tradition of the whole Church must be taken into account along with the harmony which exists between elements of the faith. It is the task of exegetes to work according to these rules toward a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture, so that through preparatory study the judgment of the Church may mature. 
In these words and in the ensuing decrees of the Biblical commission, the contextual interpretation of scripture was endorsed, as distinguished from the fundamentalist approach which would hold to the verbal accuracy of every verse of scripture. Catholics, however, remain free to interpret Scripture in any way that does not contradict Catholic dogma.
Second Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops
The synod opened with Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on the morning of 24 November 1985, the Feast of Christ the King. The pope and 165 bishops, all wearing choir dress, processed through the basilica on the same path as during the opening ceremony of the first session of the Second Vatican Council. The bishops took their seats on elevated platforms facing the pope, amidst choirs singing liturgical music. In his homily, Pope John Paul II encouraged the bishops to revive the Spirit of Vatican II, saying:"We start the synod process in this eucharistic celebration with the same willingness to listen to the Holy Spirit, with the same love for the Church, with the same gratitude to Divine Providence that were present in the council Fathers twenty years ago. During the next two weeks all the members of the synod, among whom there are many people who lived in the exceptional grace of the council, they will walk together with the council to revive the spiritual atmosphere of this great ecclesiastical event and to promote, in the light of key documents then issued and the experience gained over the next two decades, the full flowering of new life aroused by the Holy Spirit and ecumenical attention at this, for the greater glory of God and for the coming of his Kingdom."Later in the homily, he expressed his desire for greater unity both within the Catholic Church and amongst all Christians, specifically acknowledging the presence of the observer-delegates from other denominations. After Mass, Pope John Paul II gave his inaugural address to open the synod. In the address, the pope presented a spiritual theme, but did not deliver specific instructions, appearing to give the bishops flexibility in choosing the synod's direction. He encouraged them to forge new "vistas" for the Church's mission. The pope said:"In this time of ours, when from various sides the primacy of man is set up in opposition to the primacy of God, the Council in a convincing manner makes aware that the 'kingdom of man' can find its proper dimension only in the Kingdom of God."Many bishops praised the pope's opening address, appreciating his commitment to the ideals of Vatican II and his hope for its continued realization. The American Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, described the speech as optimistic and encouraging, saying, "My hope is that the synod will motivate us all to continue this kind of reflection and evaluation." In addition to the pope's speech, Cardinal John Krol, one of three delegate-presidents, also gave an opening speech, described by one Catholic magazine as "magnificent." Cardinal Gabriel-Marie Garrone, the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, gave a reflective address discussed the Second Vatican Council. Following the opening ceremony, Pope John Paul II addressed the hundreds of young people who had gathered in St. Peter's Square, many of them congregated around a large wooden cross that the pope had gifted to the "youth of the world."
Catholic Church and ecumenism
"The search for Christian Unity was one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council."
This was attested to even from the moment the Council was announced, by Pope John XIII, during the vespers closing the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity, on 25 January 1959, at the Basilica of Saint Paul's Outside the Walls.
Religious law
Pope John XXIII initially called for a Synod of the Diocese of Rome, an Ecumenical Council, and an updating to the 1917 Code. After the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (Vatican II) closed in 1965, it became apparent that the Code would need to be revised in light of the documents and theology of Vatican II. After multiple drafts and many years of discussion, Pope John Paul II promulgated the revised Code of Canon Law (CIC) in 1983. Containing 1752 canons, it is the law currently binding on the Latin (western) Roman Church.
Vatican City in World War II
Vatican City pursued a policy of neutrality during World War II, under the leadership of Pope Pius XII. Although the city of Rome was occupied by Germany from 1943 and the Allies from 1944, Vatican City itself was not occupied. The Vatican organised extensive humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the conflict.
Pope Pius XII
During World War II Pius saw his primary obligation as being to ensure the continuation the "Church visible" and its divine mission. Pius XII lobbied world leaders to prevent the outbreak of World War II and then expressed his dismay that war had come in his October 1939 "Summi Pontificatus" encyclical. He followed a strict public policy of Vatican neutrality for the duration of the conflict mirroring that of Pope Benedict XV during World War I, but preached against selfish nationalism and, through the use of diplomacy, sermons and radio broadcasts and the creation of the Vatican Information Service, worked to ameliorate the suffering of the victims of the war. He permitted local churches to assess and formulate responses to the Nazis, and instructed them to provide discreet aid to Jews.
Pope John XXIII
He did not live to see the Vatican Council to completion. His cause for canonization was opened on 18 November 1965 by his successor, Pope Paul VI, who declared him a Servant of God. On 5 July 2013, Pope Francis – bypassing the traditionally required second miracle – declared John XXIII a saint, based his virtuous, model lifestyle, and because of the good which had come from his having opened the Second Vatican Council. He was canonised alongside Pope John Paul II on 27 April 2014. John XXIII today is affectionately known as the "Good Pope" and in Italian, "il Papa buono".
Catholic Church and ecumenism
The Catholic Church recognizes 21 Ecumenical or General Councils: Nicaea I (325), Constantinople I (381), Ephesus (431), Chalcedon (451), Constantinople II (553), Constantinople III (680–681), Nicaea II (787), Constantinople IV (869–870), Lateran I (1123), Lateran II (1139), Lateran III (1179), Lateran IV (1215), Lyons I (1245), Lyons II (1274), Vienne (1311–1312), Constance (1414–1418), Florence (1438–1445), Lateran V (1512–1517), Trent (1545–1563), Vatican I (1869–1870), Vatican II (1962–1965).
Major Seminary of Bogotá
In 1960 Archbishop Luis Concha Córdoba entrusted the administration of the seminary to the Society of Saint-Sulpice, a religious order headquartered in France. The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, came to an end in December 1965 and produced noticeable changes in the way Catholic priests were being formed. In the years that followed, there was a significant decline in the number of vocations to the Catholic priesthood, and a large number of priests left the priesthood. At that time the Seminary of Bogotá became notable nationally because few dioceses in the time after Vatican II had enough vocations to support their own seminary. The seminary benefited from professors from foreign countries, as a result of its sponsorship by the Sulpicians, as well as seminarians from many different areas of Colombia, often places that could not support a seminary of their own. Indeed, from around 1965 until 1985, the seminary served students from the departments of Santander, Boyacá, Cauca, Amazonas, Putumayo, Cundinamarca, Valle del Cauca, Tolima, Meta, and other regions. There were also seminarians from Venezuela, Peru and Central America.
Second Vatican Council
After adjournment on 8 December, work began on preparations for the sessions scheduled for 1963. These preparations, however, were halted upon the death of Pope John XXIII on 3 June 1963, since an ecumenical council is automatically interrupted and suspended upon the death of the Pope who convened it, until the next Pope orders the council to be continued or dissolved. Pope Paul VI was elected on 21 June 1963 and immediately announced that the Council would continue.
Pope John Paul II
On 25 January 1983, with the Apostolic Constitution "Sacrae disciplinae leges" John Paul II promulgated the current Code of Canon Law for all members of the Catholic Church who belonged to the Latin Church. It entered into force the first Sunday of the following Advent, which was 27 November 1983. John Paul II described the new Code as "the last document of Vatican II". Edward N. Peters has referred to the 1983 Code as the "Johanno-Pauline Code" ("Johannes Paulus" is Latin for "John Paul"), paralleling the "Pio-Benedictine" 1917 code that it replaced.
Pope Paul VI
Pope Saint Paul VI (; ; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini (); 26 September 1897 – 6 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in 1978. Succeeding John XXIII, he continued the Second Vatican Council which he closed in 1965, implementing its numerous reforms, and fostered improved ecumenical relations with Eastern Orthodox and Protestant churches, which resulted in many historic meetings and agreements. Montini served in the Holy See's Secretariat of State from 1922 to 1954. While in the Secretariat of State, Montini and Domenico Tardini were considered as the closest and most influential advisors of Pius XII, who in 1954 named him Archbishop of Milan, the largest Italian diocese. Montini later became the Secretary of the Italian Bishops' Conference. John XXIII elevated him to the College of Cardinals in 1958, and after the death of John XXIII, Montini was considered one of his most likely successors.
Thomism
While the Second Vatican Council took place from 1962-1965 Cornelio Fabro was already able to write in 1949 that the century of revival with its urgency to provide a synthetic systematization and defense of Aquinas' thought was coming to an end. Fabro looked forward to a more constructive period in which the original context of Aquinas' thought would be explored.
Pope John Paul II and Judaism
In 1994, John Paul II established formal diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel, acknowledging its centrality in Jewish life and faith. In honour of this event, Pope John Paul II hosted The Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust. This concert, which was conceived and conducted by American Maestro Gilbert Levine, was attended by the Chief Rabbi of Rome, the President of Italy, and survivors of the Holocaust from around the world.
Catholic Church and ecumenism
The aim of the Second Vatican Council, as its initiator, Pope John XXIII, stated, was to seek renewal from within the Church itself, which would serve, for those separated from the see of Rome, as a "gentle invitation to seek and find that unity for which Jesus Christ prayed so ardently to his heavenly Father." The Council opened up an era of earnest endeavour not only to explain to others the Church's teaching, but also to understand their outlook.
Spirit of Vatican II
In an address at Milan Cathedral on 7 June 1963, before the opening of the papal conclave of 1963, papabile Cardinal Montini said of Pope John XXIII who had died four days earlier, "If we still wanted to fix our gaze on the tomb, now sealed, we could speak about his legacy which that tomb cannot contain, about the spirit which he infused into our era and which death cannot suffocate".
History of the papacy
The continuing strength of the forces within the church favoring theological innovation and energetic reform became unmistakably evident at the Second Vatican Council, convened by Pope John XXIII (1958–1963), and found expression especially in its decrees on ecumenism, religious liberty, the liturgy, and the nature of the church. The ambivalence of some of those decrees, however, and the disciplinary turmoil and doctrinal dissension following the ending of the council, brought about new challenges to papal authority.
Christian mission
Vatican II made a deep impact on Catholic missions around the world. The Church's relations to non-Christian religions like Judaism and Islam were revisited.
Pope John Paul II's relations with the Eastern Orthodox Church
With regard to relations with the Serbian Orthodox Church, Pope John Paul II could not escape the controversy of the involvement of Croatian Catholic clergy with the Ustasa regime of World War II. In 1998, he beatified Aloysius Stepinac, the Croatian war-time Archbishop of Zagreb, a move seen negatively by those who believe that he was an active collaborator with the Ustaše fascist regime, which committed genocide against Serbs as well as Jews. On 22 June 2003 he visited Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a city inhabited by many Catholics before the 1992-1995 war, but since then predominantly Orthodox. He held a mass at the Petrićevac monastery, a place of considerable controversy and distress, both during World War II and during the Yugoslav wars.
Catholic Church in the 20th century
In May 1999, John Paul II traveled to Romania: the first pope since the Great Schism to visit an Eastern Orthodox country. Upon greeting John Paul II, the Romanian Patriarch Teoctist stated: "The second millennium of Christian history began with a painful wounding of the unity of the Church; the end of this millennium has seen a real commitment to restoring Christian unity." Pope John Paul II visited other strongly Orthodox areas such as Ukraine, despite lack of welcome at times. He said that healing the divisions between Western and Eastern Christianity was one of his fondest wishes.
Vatican and Eastern Europe (1846–1958)
The Vatican and Eastern Europe (1846–1958) describes the relations from the pontificate of Pope Pius IX (1846–1878) through the pontificate of Pope Pius XII (1939–1958). It includes the relations of the Church State (1846–1870) and the Vatican (1870–1958)
with Russia (1846–1918), Lithuania (1922–1958) and Poland (1918–1958).
Florian Abrahamowicz
On 5 February 2009, the day after the publication of a note by the Holy See's Secretariat of State stating that "an indispensable condition for any future recognition of the Society of Saint Pius X is their full recognition of Vatican Council II and of the Magisterium of Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI", Abrahamowicz, speaking on the Canale Italia television network declared: "The Second Vatican Council was worse than a heresy [...] Saint Pius X tells us that modernism is the 'cloaca maxima' of heresies. [...] So I say that the Second Vatican Council is a cloaca maxima".
Anti-religious persecution in Communist Romania
When the Second Vatican Council was opened in 1962, the Romanian Orthodox Church was the only church in the communist bloc that refused to send representatives, and the pope was criticized. The Romanian church also refused to participate at the contemporary. historic meeting between the Pope and Ecumenical Patriarch.
Remi De Roo
De Roo attended all four sessions of Vatican II. This experience deeply affected him and he still refers to himself as "a pilgrim of the Second Vatican Council". He describes attending the sessions as "a voyage of discovery that would radically alter my whole outlook on reality" and "it was indeed a time of euphoria". Since his retirement, De Roo has continued to travel and lecture about Vatican II and gave the keynote address, "Rebuild my church – a Vatican Council Father Shares an Inspired Vision", at a Call to Action conference in 2008.
Pope Clement II
Pope Clement II (; born Suidger von Morsleben; died 9 October 1047), was Pope from 25 December 1046 until his death in 1047. He was the first in a series of reform-minded popes from Germany.
Pope John Paul II
In 1984 President Ronald Reagan opened diplomatic relations with the Vatican for the first time since 1870. In sharp contrast to the long history of strong domestic opposition, this time there was very little opposition from Congress, the courts, and Protestant groups. Relations between Reagan and John Paul II were close especially because of their shared anti-communism and keen interest in forcing the Soviets out of Poland. Reagan's correspondence with the pope reveals "a continuous scurrying to shore up Vatican support for U.S. policies. Perhaps most surprisingly, the papers show that, as late as 1984, the pope did not believe the Communist Polish government could be changed."
Pope John Paul II
On 7 April 1994, he hosted the "Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust". It was the first-ever Vatican event dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews murdered in World War II. This concert, which was conceived and conducted by American conductor Gilbert Levine, was attended by the Chief Rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff, the President of Italy Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, and survivors of the Holocaust from around the world. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, actor Richard Dreyfuss and cellist Lynn Harrell performed on this occasion under Levine's direction. On the morning of the concert, the pope received the attending members of survivor community in a special audience in the Apostolic Palace.
Luis Antonio Tagle
Pope John Paul II appointed Tagle to the International Theological Commission, where he served from 1997 to 2002 under its President, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. From 1995 to 2001 he was a member of the editorial board of the "History of Vatican II" project.
Papal fanon
The fanon was regularly used until the Second Vatican Council but then fell into disuse, with Pope John Paul II wearing it once in the early 1980s during a visit to Roman convent.
Catholic Church in the 20th century
A major event of the Second Vatican Council, known as Vatican II, was the issuance by Pope Paul VI and Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras of a joint expression of regret for many of the past actions that had led up to the Great Schism between the Western and Eastern churches, expressed as the Catholic-Orthodox Joint declaration of 1965. At the same time, they lifted the mutual excommunications dating from the 11th century.
Second Vatican Council
Of those who took part in the council's opening session, four have become popes: Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, who on succeeding John XXIII took the name Pope Paul VI; Bishop Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I; Bishop Karol Wojtyła, who became Pope John Paul II; and Joseph Ratzinger, present as a theological consultant, who became Pope Benedict XVI.
History of the Catholic Church in Mexico
The Vatican likely sensed a sea-change and in 1990 John Paul II visited Mexico, his first since 1979 for the Puebla conference of Latin American bishops. After the announcement of his intentions, the Mexican Minister of the Interior ("Gobernación") stated flatly that the government would not amend Article 130. Nonetheless, the Mexican government began moves to normalize diplomatic relations with the Vatican. The pope's second 1990 trip in May put increased pressure on the Mexican government to take steps to normalization, particularly after the Vatican and the Soviet Union did so that year. Although Salinas planned a trip to the Vatican in 1991, the Catholic hierarchy in Mexico did not want normalization of relations with the Vatican without discussion of significant changes to the constitution.
Julio Xavier Labayen
Msgr. Labayen, as was the tradition of calling bishops monsignor during the Pre-Vatican II period, was installed as the second Prelate of Infanta on 12 September 1966 at the Cathedral of Infant Jesus of Prague and St Mark the Evangelist in Infanta, Quezon. With the title monsignor, and like many of his contemporaries, Bishop Labayen, OCD was trained in the mindset of the Pre-Vatican II Church. He related with his priests and the faithful with letters and memoranda. But the younger priests who were already sharing the vision of the Vatican II threw straight to the bin his correspondences as they preferred dialogue! This was the turning point of Bishop Labayen, OCD, an event he described "I felt like Saul knocked off his horse." He continues, "The urge to get back on my high horse was strong. But thank God, the grace of that moment has prodded me to remain with my feet on the ground." That is the kickstarter of the pastoral style that characterized Bishop Labayen's ministry.
The Church in the Philippines declared during the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (informally known as the PCP-II convoked in 1991) that "As we approach the year 2000, Christ bids this community—ourselves, the laity, religious and clergy of the Catholic Church in the Philippines—to be a Church of the Poor." This vision, first arose during the Second Vatican Council, upholding Catholic social teachings, were adapted by local conferences such as the Episcopal Conference of Latin America (CELAM) when they declared the "preferential option for the poor" and the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) declaring the same in 1975.
First Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council () was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This, the twentieth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned on 20 October 1870. Unlike the five earlier general councils held in Rome, which met in the Lateran Basilica and are known as Lateran councils, it met in the Vatican Basilica, hence its name. Its best-known decision is its definition of papal infallibility.
Roman Catholic (term)
But as the prominent theologian at the Council Karl Rahner pointed out, by the 1960s the Church had made its second major transition. The first had been from Jewish to Western-Gentile. And now this Western church had become a world church. With Vatican II's decision to allow the liturgy in the vernacular, not everything would be so "Roman" anymore. The word "Roman" would be used mainly to designate the liturgy in Latin with its Roman origins. And by fifty years after Vatican II, with only one third of the Catholic church's 1.2 billion members living in the Western world, the large contingent of the hierarchy from the non-Western world was making it truly a world church.
Thomas Roberts (bishop)
Roberts attended the Second Vatican Council ("Vatican II"), held from 1962 to 1965, but he never managed to speak on the council floor. In the secnd period (autumn 1963), Roberts submitted a paper asking for reform in ecclesiastical procedures affecting marriage and divorce which he claimed were cruel and unnecessarily drawn out. 
In the third period (autumn 1964), in the session on "The Church in the Modern World", Roberts submitted a shortened version of his "Continuum" paper and asked for Catholic support for conscientious objection to wars that were immoral. He cited the recently publicised case of Franz Jägerstätter executed by the Germans in World War II. He was not called to speak and conscientious objection and the question of obedience that made World War II possible were not discussed. The statement which eventually emerged in "Gaudium et Spes" fell short of a demand for unilateral nuclear disarmament but left little scope for any real conviction that the use of nuclear weapons could be justified.
Pope Leo II
Pope Leo II (611 – 28 June 683) was Pope from 17 August 682 to 28 June 683. He is one of the popes of the Byzantine Papacy.
Gregorio Pietro Agagianian
Agagianian sat on the Board of Presidency of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), which took place from 1962 to 1965. He was appointed by Pope Paul VI as one of the four moderators who directed the course of the debates, along with Leo Joseph Suenens, Julius Döpfner, and Giacomo Lercaro. Agagianian was the only one of these four from the Curia, and represented the Eastern Catholic Churches. He had a special role in the preparation of the missionary decree "Ad gentes" and "Gaudium et spes", the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World.
Episcopal Conference of Scandinavia
It should be noted here that the erection of episcopal conferences was as yet by no means obligatory. This, then, was a freely agreed-upon instrument of mutual help and cooperation. And as such it was in advance of most European Conferences, which were only established in connection with the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). Rome, though praising the Scandinavian initiative by sending a high-level congratulatory telegram, did not formally recognise this or any of the existing conferences. Nor did the Holy See as yet use them as consultative bodies, but all this was to come. The necessities arising from Vatican II brought about the change.
Pope John Paul II
During his pontificate, Pope John Paul II made trips to 129 countries, travelling more than while doing so. He consistently attracted large crowds, some among the largest ever assembled in human history, such as the Manila World Youth Day, which gathered up to four million people, the largest Papal gathering ever, according to the Vatican. John Paul II's earliest official visits were to the Dominican Republic and Mexico in January 1979.
While some of his trips (such as to the United States and the Holy Land) were to places previously visited by Pope Paul VI, John Paul II became the first pope to visit the White House in October 1979, where he was greeted warmly by then-President Jimmy Carter. He was the first pope ever to visit several countries in one year, starting in 1979 with Mexico and Ireland. He was the first reigning pope to travel to the United Kingdom, in 1982, where he met Queen Elizabeth II, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. While in Britain he also visited Canterbury Cathedral and knelt in prayer with Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at the spot where Thomas à Becket had been killed, as well as holding several large-scale open air masses, including one at Wembley Stadium, which was attended by some 80,000 people.
Christianity in the modern era
On 11 October 1962 Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council, the 21st ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council was "pastoral" in nature, emphasising and clarifying already defined dogma, revising liturgical practices, and providing guidance for articulating traditional Church teachings in contemporary times. The council is perhaps best known for its instructions that the Mass may be celebrated in the vernacular as well as in Latin
Vatican City in World War II
The Allies liberated Rome on 4–5 June 1944.. During the liberation, many Catholic Allied troops visited the Vatican for Mass and to hear the Pope speak, including some who drove tanks into St. Peter's Square.
Pope Lucius II
Pope Lucius II (; died 15 February 1145), born Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso, was Pope from 9 March 1144 to his death in 1145. His pontificate was notable for the unrest in Rome associated with the Commune of Rome and its attempts to wrest control of the city from the papacy.
History of papal primacy
At the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) the debate on papal primacy and authority re-emerged, and in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church "Lumen gentium", the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on the authority of the pope, bishops and councils was further elaborated. Vatican II sought to correct the unbalanced ecclesiology left behind by Vatican I. The result is the body of teaching about the papacy and episcopacy contained in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, "Lumen gentium".
Spirit of Vatican II
Pope John Paul II calls in 1994 for what he describes as the "authentic" spirit of the Council to be respected.
Pope John Paul II
In December 1989, John Paul II met with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the Vatican and each expressed his respect and admiration for the other. Gorbachev once said "The collapse of the Iron Curtain would have been impossible without John Paul II." On John Paul II's death, Mikhail Gorbachev said: "Pope John Paul II's devotion to his followers is a remarkable example to all of us."
St. John Paul II Catholic Secondary School
He visited 129 countries during his pontificate, beatified 1,340 people, and canonised 483 saints, more than in all of the preceding five centuries. He named many cardinals, consecrated or co-consecrated many bishops, and ordained many priests. A stated goal of his papacy was to transform and reposition the Catholic Church, and "to place his Church at the heart of a new religious alliance that would bring together Jews, Muslims and Christians in a great [religious] armada". On 19 December 2009, John Paul II was proclaimed venerable by his successor Benedict XVI; he was beatified on 1 May 2011 and canonised, together with John XXIII, on 27 April 2014, Divine Mercy Sunday.
History of the papacy
With the accession of Pope John Paul II after the mysterious death of Pope John Paul I (who only survived as pope for 33 days), the church had, for the first time since Pope Adrian VI in the 16th century, a non-Italian pope. John Paul II has been credited with helping to bring down communism in eastern Europe by sparking what amounted to a peaceful revolution in his Polish homeland. Lech Wałęsa, one of the several founders of the Solidarity worker movement that ultimately toppled communism, credited John Paul with giving Poles the courage to rise up. The last Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged publicly the role of John Paul II in the fall of Communism. The pope himself stated after the fall of Communism that "the claim to build a world without God has been shown to be an illusion" (Prague, April 21, 1990).
Pope John Paul II's political views
Pope John Paul II's political views were considered conservative on issues relating to reproduction and the ordination of women during his 26-year reign as pope of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City. A series of 129 lectures given by John Paul during his Wednesday audiences in Rome between September 1979 and November 1984 were later compiled and published as a single work entitled "‘Theology of the Body’", an extended meditation on the nature of human sexuality. He also extended it to condemnation of abortion, euthanasia and virtually all uses of capital punishment, calling them all a part of the "culture of death" that is pervasive in the modern world, advocating instead what he understood to be a "culture of life". He campaigned for world debt forgiveness and social justice.
Beatification of Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II reigned as pope of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State for 26 years from October 1978. Since his death on 2 April 2005, many thousands of people have been supporting the case for beatifying and canonising Pope John Paul II as a saint. His formal beatification ceremony took place on 1 May 2011.
Pope Marinus II
Pope Marinus II (; or Martin III; d. May 946) was Pope from 30 October 942 to his death in 946.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The text was approved by John Paul II on 25 June 1992, and promulgated by him on 11 October 1992, the 30th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, with his apostolic constitution, "Fidei depositum". Cardinal Georges Cottier, Theologian emeritus of the Pontifical Household and later cardinal deacon of "Santi Domenico e Sisto", of the University Church of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, "Angelicum" was influential in drafting the encyclical.
Beatification of Pope John Paul II
The beatification ceremony of Pope John Paul II was held on 1 May 2011 and was presided over by Pope Benedict XVI. A vigil in preparation for the celebration was held the night before in the Circus Maximus. The casket in which he was interred was exhumed and placed before Saint Peter's tomb on 29 April 2011. It was placed in front of the main altar for public veneration during the ceremony. After the ceremony, the casket was reinterred in the Chapel of St Sebastian. A vial containing the Pope's blood, taken during the final days of his life, was displayed as a relic for veneration. The reliquary in which the vial was kept during the ceremony was carried by Sister Marie, and Sister Tobiann (who nursed the Pope during his illness).
History of Catholic Mariology
Marian devotions were the hallmark of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II and he reoriented the Catholic Church towards the renewal of Marian veneration. In March 1987 he went further than Paul VI in extending the Catholic views on Mary beyond Vatican II by issuing the encyclical Redemptoris Mater. Rather than being just a new presentation of the Marian views of Vatican II, "Redemptoris Mater" was in many aspects a re-reading, re-interpretation and further extension of the teachings of Vatican II.
Pope John Paul II
The single fact of John Paul II's election in 1978 changed everything. In Poland, everything began. Not in East Germany or Czechoslovakia. Then the whole thing spread. Why in 1980 did they lead the way in Gdansk? Why did they decide, now or never? Only because there was a Polish pope. He was in Chile and Pinochet was out. He was in Haiti and Duvalier was out. He was in the Philippines and Marcos was out. On many of those occasions, people would come here to the Vatican thanking the Holy Father for changing things.
Roberto de Mattei
Among de Mattei's most recent publications is a history of Vatican Council II ("Il Concilio Vaticano II. Una storia mai scritta", Lindau, Turin 2010) wherein, without touching onto the theological debate on the hermeneutics of the Council, he suggests an historical view on the event which is antithetical to that proposed by the School of Bologna. Reviewers have noted the book's "archival discoveries from the ultra-traditionalist Lefebvrians" and its new information concerning the role of the traditionalist Coetus Internationalis Patrum at the Council. They also described it as "critically flawed", however, for its denigration of the Council's presiding Popes, John XXIII and Paul VI, and of the Council members who followed their reform agenda, as following a "conspiracy-driven Lefebvrian interpretation" and "essentially useless" for developing an understanding of Vatican II. It has been translated into English as "The Second Vatican Council - An Unwritten Story" with Michael M. Miller as editor.
Theology of Pope Francis
It is suggested that the pontificate of Pope Francis will be looked back upon as the "decisive moment in the history of the church in which the full force of the Second Vatican Council's reformist vision was finally realized". Francis returned to the Vatican II theme of "ressourcement," making the church "more faithful to the original sources in scripture and early traditions than to the social, political, and cultural aspects of more recent times". In contrast to John Paul II who emphasized continuity with the past in Vatican II's teachings, and reconciling discontinuities, Francis' papacy from the start emphasized discontinuities: a "church that is poor and for the poor"; "disposal of the baroque trappings" in liturgical celebrations; revision of the institutional aspects of the church, and emphasizing mercy; the need to go into the margins of the world, with a bias toward appointing cardinals from the southern hemisphere; and implementing "one of the original proposals of Vatican II" in constituting a council of eight cardinals who would be above the Roman Curia.
Pope Paul II
He was elected to succeed Pope Pius II by the accessus in the first ballot of the papal conclave of 1464 with a majority of fourteen of the nineteen cardinals present. Beforehand, to secure to the cardinals a greater share of power than they had enjoyed under Pius II, a capitulation was subscribed by all except Ludovico Trevisan. It bound the future Pope to continue the Turkish war, but he was not to journey outside Rome without the consent of a majority of the cardinals, nor to leave Italy without the consent of all. The maximum number of cardinals was limited to twenty-four, and any new Pope was to be limited to only one cardinal-nephew. All creations of new cardinals and advancements to certain important benefices were to be made only with the consent of the College of Cardinals. Upon taking office, Paul II was to convene an ecumenical council within three years. But these terms of subscription were modified by Paul II at his own discretion, and this action lost him the confidence of the College of Cardinals. The justification for setting aside the capitulations, seen to be under way by the Duke of Milan's ambassador as early as 21 September, lay in connecting any abridgement of the Pope's absolute monarchy in the Papal States with a consequent abridgement of his sole authority in spiritual matters. Almost from his coronation, Paul withdrew and became inaccessible: audiences were only granted at night and even good friends waited a fortnight to see him. His suspiciousness was widely attested.
Theology of Pope Benedict XVI
This Ratzinger quote on the liturgical reform of the council is symbolic for his interpretation of Vatican II. He has spoken only positively about the Vatican II council, but differentiated between the council and a spirit of the council, which has nothing in common with its texts and resolutions. As noted above, believes that essential elements of the Council, such as the spirit if liturgy still need to materialize and has shown no evidence that he intends to reverse or limit the decisions of that council. He has, however, stated in books and interviews that Vatican II did not represent a radical break; a new age, but a more pastoral reformulation of old truths earlier doctrine, but applied the teachings of the Apostles and church fathers to the contemporary world. Indeed, the council documents quoted 205 times the allegedly conservative Pope Pius XII more than any other person. Benedict has also spoken out against some post-conciliar innovations, especially liturgical novelties, which forget their purpose, and he continues to remind the faithful that the Council did not entirely do away with the former rite and many of its noble features.
Legal history of the Catholic Church
In 1959, Pope John XXIII announced, together with his intention to call the Second Vatican Council and a Synod of the Diocese of Rome, that the 1917 Code would be completely revised. In 1963, the commission appointed to undertake the task decided to delay the project until the Council had been concluded. After Vatican II closed in 1965, it became apparent that the Code would need to be revised in light of the documents and theology of Vatican II. After decades of discussion and numerous drafts, the project was nearly complete upon the death of Paul VI in 1978. The work was completed in the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. The revision was promulgated by the apostolic constitution "Sacrae Disciplinae Leges" on 25 January 1983, taking effect on 27 November 1983. The subjects of the "Codex Iuris Canonici" (CIC, Code of Canon Law) are the world's 1.2 billion Catholics of what the Code itself calls the Latin Church. It has 7 books and 1,752 canons.
Pope Paul VI
After his election as Bishop of Rome, Paul VI first met with the priests in his new diocese. He told them that in Milan he started a dialogue with the modern world and asked them to seek contact with all people from all walks of life. Six days after his election he announced that he would continue Vatican II and convened the opening to take place on 29 September 1963. In a radio address to the world, Paul VI recalled the uniqueness of his predecessors, the strength of Pius XI, the wisdom and intelligence of Pius XII and the love of John XXIII. As "his pontifical goals" he mentioned the continuation and completion of Vatican II, the reform of the Canon Law and improved social peace and justice in the world. The Unity of Christianity would be central to his activities.
Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria
On 8 May 2013 (30 Parmouti 1729), Pope Tawadros II met with Pope Francis, bishop of Rome and supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, in Vatican City. This was the first meeting of the two recently elected church leaders and only the second gathering of popes in Italy in 1,500 years. The last visit of a Coptic pope to the Vatican occurred on 10 May 1973 (2 Pashons 1689) when then-Pope Shenouda III met with then-Pope Paul VI where they signed an important Christological declaration with the ambition to initiate ecumenical dialogue between the two ancient churches. On 10 May/2 Pashons, Pope Tawadros II and Pope Francis held a shared prayer followed by a reception with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and other dicasteries of the Roman Curia. Pope Tawadros II also visited the tombs of the Apostle Peter, the first bishop of Antioch, who Roman Catholics hold to be the first pope of the Roman Catholic Church, and the Apostle Paul. Additionally, Pope Tawadros II visited the Coptic community in Rome.
Corita Kent
Kent produced her oeuvre during her time at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles in response to the Catholic reform in the 1960s by the Vatican Council II as well as several political and social issues happening at the time. Her work itself aided in the Vatican II movement, a movement to modernize and make relevant the Catholic Church. Kent’s use of English church texts in her work, for example, made an impact on the Vatican II’s efforts to normalize conducting Mass in English. Because of her strongly political art, she and others left their order to create the Immaculate Heart Community in 1970 to avoid problems with their archdiocese.
List of dignitaries at the funeral of Pope John Paul II
This is a list of dignitaries at the funeral of Pope John Paul II. After the death of Pope John Paul II on April 2, 2005 in Vatican City, and before official invitations were sent by the College of Cardinals, almost 200 countries expressed interest in sending representatives to the funeral of Pope John Paul II. The funeral took place on April 8, 2005, and was one of the largest gathering of statesmen and world leaders in history. Some of the dignitaries later attended the installation of Pope Benedict XVI on April 24, 2005.
Little Sisters of Jesus
The opening of the second Vatican Council in 1962 brought many bishops to Rome (many of whom took the opportunity to visit Tre Fontane). Vatican Council II would affirm some of Little Sister Magdeleine's intuitions, above all her desire for unity between the Churches. Already in 1948 she made her first contact with Brother Roger of Taizé. She met the Patriarch Athenagoras several times and Metropolitan Bartholomew who later became Ecumenical Patriarch.
Secrets of the Vatican
The film covers the period after the death of John Paul II up to the first year of Pope Francis while positing a theory of what made Pope Benedict XVI resign from the papacy in 2013. It presents a return of trust in the Vatican and its new Pope, Francis, by millions of Roman Catholics after a long period of controversy regarding sexual abuse by Church authorities. It delves into reports of the existence of a "gay mafia" inside the Church, and highlights the scandal involving Legionnaires of Christ founder Marcial Maciel who allegedly had the backing of John Paul II.
Christian–Jewish reconciliation
The Second Vatican Council, commonly known as "Vatican II", which closed in 1965, was instrumental in producing the document called "Nostra aetate", which read in part:
Unitatis redintegratio
Unitatis redintegratio (Latin for "Restoration of unity") is the Second Vatican Council's decree on ecumenism. It was passed by a vote of 2,137 to 11 of the bishops assembled, and was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 21 November 1964. Its title is taken from the opening words of the Latin text. The opening of the document's English translation is: "The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council."
Pope John Paul II Day
On October 16, 1978, the Archbishop of Kraków Cardinal, Karol Wojtyła was elected as Pope and took the name John Paul II. He was the first Pope in 455 years who was not Italian.
Spirit of Vatican II
In the 1985 book "The Ratzinger Report", the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger distinguishes the true spirit of the Council from false interpretations, blaming the disappointed hopes for renewal on "those who have gone far beyond both the letter and the spirit of Vatican II", and calling for a "return to the authentic texts of the original Vatican II".
Catholic Church in the 20th century
At the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) the debate on papal primacy and authority re-emerged, and in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church "Lumen gentium", the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on the authority of the Pope, bishops and councils was further elaborated. Vatican II sought to correct the unbalanced ecclesiology left behind by Vatican I. The result is the body of teaching about the papacy and episcopacy contained in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, "Lumen gentium".
Vatican City in World War II
One of Pius XII's main diplomatic priorities was to prevent the bombing of Rome; so sensitive was the pontiff that he protested even the British air dropping of pamphlets over Rome, claiming that the few landing within the city-state violated the Vatican's neutrality. Before the American entry into the war, there was little impetus for such a bombing, as the British saw little strategic value in it. After the American entry, the US opposed such a bombing, fearful of offending Catholic members of its military forces, while the British then supported it. Pius XII similarly advocated for the declaration of Rome as an "open city", but this occurred only on 14 August 1943, after Rome had already been bombed twice. Although the Italians consulted the Vatican on the wording of the open city declaration, the impetus for the change had little to do with the Vatican.
Evelyn Waugh
Waugh had welcomed the accession in 1958 of Pope John XXIII and wrote an appreciative tribute on the pope's death in 1963. However, he became increasingly concerned by the decisions emerging from the Second Vatican Council, which was convened by Pope John in October 1962 and continued under his successor, Pope Paul VI until 1965. Waugh, a staunch opponent of Church reform, was particularly distressed by the replacement of the universal Latin Mass with the vernacular. In a "Spectator" article of 23 November 1962, he argued the case against change in a manner described by a later commentator as "sharp-edged reasonableness". He wrote to Nancy Mitford that "the buggering up of the Church is a deep sorrow to me... We write letters to the paper. A fat lot of good that does."
Nostra aetate
Nostra aetate () is the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions of the Second Vatican Council. Passed by a vote of 2,221 to 88 of the assembled bishops, this declaration was promulgated on 28 October 1965 by Pope Paul VI. It is the shortest of the 16 final documents of the Council and "the first in Catholic history to focus on the relationship that Catholics have with Jews." It "reveres the work of God in all the major faith traditions." It begins by stating its purpose of reflecting on what humankind have in common in these times when people are being drawn closer together.
Calcata
In reality, it was more than two years before 11 October 1962, the date when the Second Vatican Council began, that a 25 July 1960 decree of Pope John XXIII enacted a wide-ranging revision of the General Roman Calendar, which included changing the name of the 1 January feast from "Circumcision of the Lord and Octave of the Nativity" to "Octave of the Nativity", with no change of the Gospel reading about the circumcision of the child Jesus.
History of the Catholic Church in Mexico
Two other major clerics influenced by Vatican II were Adalberto Almeida y Merino, bishop of Zacatecas at the time of Vatican II, and Manuel Talamás Camandari, head of the Mexican Social Secretariat, an entity under the control of the hierarchy that dealt with social issues. Both men attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council and the two drafted a major critique of Mexican social policy. "The Development and Integration of our Country" was a pastoral letter that addressed marginalization of Mexicans and income inequality during Mexico's rapid period of growth, the so-called Mexican Miracle. Bishop Almeida participated in the 1968 meeting of the Conference of Latin American Bishops in Medellín, Colombia, which Pope Paul VI attended. Significant documents articulating liberation theology were drawn up at the meeting, with Almeida helped draft documents on justice and peace.
The bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Samuel Ruiz also became an important advocate for liberation theology in his poor, southern Mexican diocese. He attended Vatican II, as well as a 1971 bishops' retreat attended by Peruvian cleric Gustavo Gutiérrez, who wrote the seminal text on liberation theology; Sergio Méndez Arceo, bishop of Cuernavaca; and Salvadoran bishop Óscar Romero. Ruiz's diocese had a high proportion of indigenous Mayan parishioners. As he came to know his diocese better, he paid increasing attention to the marginalization and oppression of the Maya. In keeping with the move toward the formation of grassroots ecclesial base communities, Bishop Ruiz actively promoted them. In 1989 he founded the Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas Center of Human Rights, as a step to push back against violence against indigenous and poor peasants. When the 1994 rebellion in Chiapas erupted, Ruiz was named as a mediator between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation or EZLN, and the Mexican government. His role was a significant departure from government practice of working with the Catholic hierarchy, but not giving them power.
Pope
On 11 October 2012, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council 60 prominent theologians, (including Hans Küng), put out a Declaration, stating that the intention of Vatican II to balance authority in the Church has not been realised. "Many of the key insights of Vatican II have not at all, or only partially, been implemented . . . A principal source of present-day stagnation lies in misunderstanding and abuse affecting the exercise of authority in our Church."
Holy See–Soviet Union relations
John Paul II has long been credited with being instrumental in bringing down communism in Catholic Eastern Europe by being the spiritual inspiration behind its downfall and a catalyst for a peaceful revolution in Poland. In February 2004, the Pope was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize honoring his life's work in opposing communism and helping to reshape the world after the fall of the Soviet Union. However, there has been much debate among historians about the realistic significance of John Paul II’s opposition to communism in the Soviet regime’s eventual downfall. While most scholars agree that Pope John Paul II’s intervention was an influential in ending the Polish Communist Party’s rule, there remains much disagreement in his role in the collapse of the USSR. Historians differ on their opinions on the significance of John Paul II’s influence as opposed to that of other economic and political factors. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the relative importance of John Paul II’s role in the collapse of Eastern European communism by analyzing the historical events beginning with his election to the papacy in 1978 and ending with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Teachings of Pope John Paul II
John Paul II, who was present and very influential at the 1962–65 Second Vatican Council, affirmed the teachings of the Council and did much to implement them. John Paul II continued to declare that contraception, abortion, and homosexual acts were gravely sinful, and, with Joseph Ratzinger (future Pope Benedict XVI), opposed Liberation theology.
He believed in the Church's exaltation of the marital act of sexual intercourse between a baptised man and woman within sacramental marriage as proper and exclusive to the sacrament of marriage that was, in every instance, profaned by contraception, abortion, divorce followed by a further marriage, and by homosexual acts. He explained and asserted in 1994 the Church's lack of authority to ordain women to the priesthood. This was deemed a repudiation of calls to ordain women to the priesthood. (Apostolic Letter 'Ordinatio Sacerdotalis') In addition John Paul II did not end the discipline of mandatory priestly celibacy, although he allowed a few married clergymen of other Christian traditions who later became Catholic to be ordained as Catholic priests.
Pope Sixtus II
Pope Sixtus II (died 6 August 258) was the Pope or Bishop of Rome from 31 August 257 until his death on 6 August 258. He was martyred along with seven deacons, including Lawrence of Rome during the persecution of the Catholic Church by Emperor Valerian.
Franklin McMahon
He was in Rome on October 11, 1962 for Opening Day of the Second Vatican Council, and went on to chronicle that major event through 1965. His film "The World of Vatican II" covers the opening and closing of Vatican II; and is a literal "travelogue in drawings" of many countries where Catholicism was facing new challenges at that time; and how and by whom they were being met. He followed Papal journeys, Council activations, and ministries in the Church world through the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, he was in Chicago and South Africa with the Parliament of the World's Religions. Drawings he made in South Africa were published by "Notre Dame" Magazine and accompanied an article by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in "U.S. Catholic" Magazine.
Have No Fear: The Life of Pope John Paul II
He became an ordained priest, and eventually Krakow's archbishop, where he began his fight against Communism and its oppression. On October 16, 1978, Karol Wojtyla became the 264th pope of the Roman Catholic Church, and now called himself John Paul II.
History of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
In 1929 Mussolini signed the Lateran Pacts with the Roman Catholic Church (with which Italy had been in conflict since the annexation of Rome in 1870), leading to the formation of the tiny independent state of Vatican City. He was initially on friendly terms with France and Britain, but the situation changed in 1935–36, when Italy invaded the Ethiopian Empire despite their opposition (Second Italo-Abyssinian War); because of this and of the ideological affinities with the Nazi party led by Hitler. It was a main part of the Axis Powers in World War II with allies being Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany as the "Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis".
Catechism of the Catholic Church
The decision to publish a catechism was taken at the Second Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that was convened by Pope John Paul II on 25 January 1985 for the 20th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council, and in 1986, put a commission composed of 12 bishops and cardinals in charge of the project. The commission was assisted by a committee consisting of seven diocesan bishops, experts in theology and catechesis.