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A "revolution" for the Church
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Forty years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, the deep transformation it set in motion continues to reverberate through the Church at every level, from the halls of the Vatican to the pews of local parishes.
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What Vatican II means to me
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
I grew up in a provincial city, daughter of a “mixed marriage” — Catholic father, “non-Catholic” mother who made the “promise” and faithfully stuck to it, sending me to a Catholic school from the primers through to the seventh form.
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"Full . . . and active" participation
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
Nearly 50 years ago I was taught how “to say Mass”. That meant I, along with 17 others, was near the end of our time in the seminary and would soon be ordained priest.
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Deaf community benefited greatly
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
Among the changes of Vatican II, the priest facing the congregation during Mass was a particularly big development for deaf Catholics.
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Amazing progress in lay involvement
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
When the winds of change swept through the Roman Catholic Church in the early 1960s, I hardly noticed. I had become a Catholic a few years earlier as a 20-year-old student teacher in Scotland, but when John XXlll called his council I was married and living in rural New Zealand.
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"Windbags . . . in weariness of days"
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
New Zealand’s bishops were generally unprepared for the changes that Vatican II enacted and they were expected to introduce.
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Bishops had different ideas
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
The New Zealand city where the seeds of liturgical renewal were germinating in the years before Vatican II was . . . Christchurch.
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Councils have highest authority
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — When all of the bishops of the Catholic Church are called together by the Pope to deliberate ways to safeguard and promote Church teaching and discipline, the gathering is called an “ecumenical council”.
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Ecumenical fruits still developing
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
“But you can laugh together!” observed a member of the Protestant Federation of France, in Paris.
Our delegation had once again startled, inspired, impressed — just by being who and what we were — Catholic and Protestant, Maori and pakeha, women and men, clergy and lay.
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Religious have renewed and adapted
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
On October 28, 1965, Pope Paul VI promulgated the Decree of the Second Vatican Council on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life. At the time I was preparing to make final profession as a Dominican sister. I had spent the previous five years learning how to respond generously to God’s call, and preparing for service in the apostolate of education.
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Vatican II documents in brief
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Here are the 16 documents approved by the Second Vatican Council, with their dates of promulgation and brief descriptions. The Latin name of a document, shown in parentheses, generally is taken from the document’s first line of text.
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Benedict sees council as "compass" for his papacy
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI, a man deeply influenced by the deliberations of the Second Vatican Council, now stands in a position to shape the way the Church implements its teachings.
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Basic principles in Vatican II's ecclesiology
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
According to the ecclesiologist and theologian Richard P. McBrien, in his 1980 book Catholicism, the distinctive ecclesiology of Vatican II is based on the following principles:
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Collegiality seen as crucial concept
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Of the many debates that took place during the Second Vatican Council, one of the most important and complex — and one that still goes on today — concerned collegiality, or the role of the College of Bishops in leading, guiding and teaching the Church.
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Paul reaffirmed John's renewal goal
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
WASHINGTON (CNS) — When Pope John XXIII died in June 1963, the Second Vatican Council had barely begun. The 80 cardinals who gathered to elect his successor could have chosen a man who would suspend or dissolve it.
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A friendlier face for the Church
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
It is 40 years since the Second Vatican Council came to a conclusion. It has become fashionable to reflect today upon the effects of the council, probably because 40 is a significant biblical number and was the period that Israel was in the wilderness after the exodus from Egypt.
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The "People of God", a sacrament to the world
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Most experts list Vatican II’s biggest achievement as a new way of understanding the Church — as the “People of God” and not simply a hierarchical structure, and as a “sacrament” to the world with an active mission in all sectors of human society.
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Plans of Providence reach their goal
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
In his address for the opening of Vatican II, Pope John XXIII made these remarks about one of its themes — discerning the signs of the times:
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2212 speeches were given in four sessions
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — On January 25, 1959, Pope John XXIII announced plans to convoke the Second Vatican Council — the 21st ecumenical council in Church history.
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Council experts recall highlights
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore says the Second Vatican Council transformed his understanding of what it means to break open the word of God in preaching.
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Bishops separated into shepherds and fishers
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Cardinal William H. Keeler of Baltimore, who as a priest attended Vatican II as a theological expert, dislikes the common media shorthand of classifying council members as liberals or conservatives.
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Reporters broke official secrecy
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The Second Vatican Council generated what was then unprecedented media coverage of the Catholic Church, but journalists trying to tell the council story to the world had to overcome high walls of secrecy.
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Latin shorthand proved inadequate
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
WASHINGTON (CNS) — The 1962-65 Second Vatican Council was the first in history to use electric lighting, telephones, tape recording, television and automated data processing.
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Religious freedom is a civil right
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
WASHINGTON (CNS) — One of the final documents approved by the Second Vatican Council was perhaps its most controversial text, the Declaration on Religious Freedom, which catapulted Catholicism into the modern world of Church-state relations.
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Church law "still falls short of vision"
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
TAMPA, Florida (CNS) — Church law has improved significantly since the Second Vatican Council, “but it still falls short of the vision of the council”, according to a veteran canonist.
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Focus on Scripture seen as key
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — From a very specific perspective, a Jesuit who served as a theological expert at the Second Vatican Council continues to examine its deliberations, outcome and implementation.
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To explain Vatican II takes "bridge people"
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Published on 27 November 2005 |
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Forty years after the Second Vatican Council, teachers face the challenge of conveying to most students the dramatic changes that Vatican II made on Church life and teachings.
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