VA T I C A N C O U N C I L F A S T F A C T S

WHEN:

Start: October 11, 1962,

End: December 8, 1965.

The council met over 4 years.

They convened every Autumn for a few

months at a time over the four years.
 WHO
• Pope John XXIII (pope from
October 28, 1958, to June 3,
1963) first convened the Council
(he passed away),
• and Pope Paul VI (pope from
June 21, 1963, to August 6,
1978) oversaw the Council’s
completion and adjourned it..

…Continued next slide …….

 WHO ATTENDED
CONT….

• attended by nearly 2,500 bishops

Click icon to add picture
from all over the world,
• Other attendees,:
• nearly 500 theologians,
• 80 observers from Orthodox and
mainline Protestant Churches and
• 52 lay auditors (29 men and 23
women, including 10 women
religious).
• first Council attended by reporters
and journalists, not allowed to
attend the Council sessions
Click icon to add picture WHERE?

St. Peter’s Basilica,

Vatican City, Rome.
 WHAT IS AN
ECUMENICAL
COUNCIL:

• Vatican II – was an

“ecumenical council,”
• Means: a gathering of all the
bishops of the whole world,
• 21 such councils in the
Church’s history.
 WHAT HAPPENED?

• The Council reached agreement on 16

major documents.
• Covered these topics:
• Liturgy
• The Church
• How God is revealed to us
• The modern world (marriage and family, cultural,
social and economic life, war and peace)
• Modern means of communication
• Eastern Catholic Churches
• Other Christian Churches
• The role of bishops
• The role of priests
• Training of priests
• Lay people in the church
• Missionary activity in the church
• The life of religious men and women
• Non-Christian religions
• Christian education
• Religious freedom
 WHAT

• From the 16 Documents there

were:
• 4 Foundational Constitutions:
1. Sacrosanctum Councilium:
Sacred Liturgy
2. Gaudium et Spes: Church
in the Modern World
3. Lumen Gentium: The
Constitution of the Church
4. Dei Verbum: On Revelation
W H AT W E R E S O M E O F T H E C H A N G E S ?
 HOW

• The Council met over four consecutive years

during the years 1962, 1963, 1964 & 1965
• lively discussion and debate,
 WHY DID VATICAN II
TAKE PLACE??
• renew the Church and to look at the
“signs of the times”
• to dialogue more effectively with the
modern world.
• To ‘bring up to date’
• He used the metaphor of:

‘opening a window to let in some fresh

air’

To understand this further later we will look at what was

happening in the world at the time
 So, what’s with the Latin titles?
• The Second Vatican Council promulgated 16
Click icon to add picture documents, each of which has a Latin title
• The title translated into English is more descriptive.
• The Council document on the liturgy, for example, is
titled Sacrosanctum Concilium, literally translated
“sacred council,” and its English title is the
Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
• The longest of the Council’s documents is called
Gaudium et Spes, which translates as “joy and hope.”
• Its English title is the Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World.
 REFERENCE

Miss Moore Created this PPT

Moore R (2016) Vatican II: Fast Facts, Prendiville Catholic College. Ocean Reef,
WA.

Content gathered to complete this PPT came from:

LaReau R. (2005) ‘Vatican II for Gen-Xers’,’ retrieved from http://

www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Nov2005/Feature2.asp#F6 in February 2016