Aggiornamiento

1
Aggiornamiento

• Vatican II

2
Updating

• Every other council in history had been called
  because the Church needed to deal with a
  particular challenge to its teaching or its unity
• This time the pope was telling everyone that the
  issue was aggiornamiento,
• Italian for updating
• Updating does not mean to get rid of the past but
  taking what has been received and making it
  relevant to the present
• Updating meant to looking at the world at that
  moment and discerning how the Church should be
  present in it

3
The Man behind the Call

• Pope John XXIII was elected pope when he was
  almost 77 years old
• Many people thought that he would not serve long
  or accomplish much
• His warmth, sense of humor, and kind heart
  quickly won over the entire world
• One of his first official acts was to visit
  prisoners in Rome telling them You could not
  come to me, so I came to you
• He was famous for his yokes
• On one occasion a reporter asked Holy Father,
  how many people work in Vatican City? the Pope
  responded About half of them

4
Vatican II?

• When Pope John announced the council, many clergy
  had doubts, Vatican I had happened not too long
  ago (about 90 years earlier)
• Pope John insisted on having the council because
  the Church was not only a European community but
  a worldwide Church embracing many people
• This council would not be about heresy or crisis
  in the church
• This could would be a pastoral council one of
  mercy and hope, reach out to the modern world and
  invite people to consider the joyfulness of the
  Gospel.
• Pope John said I want to throw open the windows
  of the Church so that we can see out and the
  people can see in
• He said that council was meeting not to suppress
  false teaching but to find new and better ways to
  present Church doctrine to people of modern time
• The Pope pointed out that the Church desires to
  show herself to be the loving mother of all,
  patient, full of mercy and goodness
• Two goals for the council
• Dialogue with the modern world with the goal of
  church renewal
• Vigorous efforts for Christian unity

5
The length of the council

• The council met from 1962-1965 in four separate
  sessions
• Pope John sent letters to cardinals, bishops,
  heads of religious Order, and Catholic
  universities and schools around the world asking
  what issues they thought the Church needed to
  address.
• The council was truly worldwide with bishops from
  all races and continents present.
• Observers from other religions, including
  Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant were also
  present.

6

• Pope John did not get a chance to see all the
  good the came out of the council.
• He died on June 3, 1963, just 8 months into the
  first session
• His successor, Paul VI continued the council
• Pope Paul VI made a historical gesture to
  traveling to the Holy Land
• This was the first time in centuries that the
  Pope journeyed outside of Italy
• While there, he met the Patriarch of
  Constantinople
• This symbolic move showed that the Church was
  indeed serious about Christian unity
• The second Vatican Council issued 16 documents
• All the documents treat the Church, her inner
  workings, and her relationship to the world
• The most authoritative documents issued are
• Sacrosantum Concilium (The Constitution on the
  Sacred Liturgy)
• Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the
  Church)
• Dei Verbum (Constitution on Divine Revelation)
• Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral constitution on the
  church in the Modern World)