Then and Now
Vatican II and the People of God
This year the Church celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, which began October 11, 1962, and concluded December 8, 1965. Those of us who remember the unfolding of this event knew we were witnessing a historic moment.
In the 2,000-year history of the Church, there have only been twenty Church councils. The previous one, Vatican I, occurred in 1870; the one before that was the Council of Trent, which took place from 1545 to 1563.
Every Church council has had an important impact on the life journey of the Church, and certainly that can also be said of Vatican II. What would you expect? At times more than 2,300 bishops from all over the world took part. Compare that with Vatican I’s 730 mostly European bishops. The bishops who participated in Vatican II couldn’t help but realize that the power of the Holy Spirit was guiding them.