Below, from the Vatican Information Service, is a report on the
Pope's remarks today about the 50th anniversary of Vatican II. In the
coming weeks, Catholic World Report will be posting about a
dozen pieces about the Council's history, its major documents and
essential themes, and related matters. CWR will also be publishing pieces on the Year of Faith and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. My editorial tomorrow will reflect on all three events, with an emphasis on the nature and place of faith in the 21st century.
Vatican City, (VIS) - "We have reached the eve of the day on which we
will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Vatican Council II and the
beginning of the Year of Faith", said Benedict XVI at the start of his
catechesis during this morning's general audience in St. Peter's Square.
"And it is about the great ecclesial event of the Council that I wish
to speak", he explained.
"The documents of Vatican Council II
are, even in our own time, a compass guiding the ship of the Church as
she sails on the open seas, amidst tempests or peaceful waves, to reach
her destination". Vatican II, in which Pope Benedict participated as a
young professor of fundamental theology at the University of Bonn, was,
he said, "a unique experience" during which "I was able to witness the
living Church ... which places herself at the school of the Holy Spirit,
the true driving force behind the Council. Rarely in history has it
been possible, as it was then, to touch almost physically the
universality of the Church at a moment of peak fulfilment of her mission
to carry the Gospel into all ages and unto the ends of the earth".
In
Church history Vatican II was preceded by many other Councils such as
Nicea, Ephesus, Chalcedon and Trent. In general though, they met to
define fundamental elements of the faith, and particularly to the
correct errors endangering that faith. This was not the case with
Vatican Council II, because at that time "there were no particular
errors of the faith to correct and condemn, nor were there specific
questions of doctrine and discipline to be clarified. ... The first
question that arose during the preparation of this great event was how
to begin, what task to give it. Blessed John XXIII in his opening
address of 11 October fifty years ago gave some general guidelines: the
faith had to speak with a 'renewed' and more incisive voice, because the
world was changing rapidly, but it had to maintain its perennial
message intact, without giving way or compromising.
"The Pope",
Benedict XVI added, "wanted the Church to reflect upon her faith and
upon the truths that guide her. But that serious and profound reflection
... had to be the starting point for a new relationship between the
Church and the modern age, between Christianity and certain essential
elements of modern thought, not in order to seek conformity, but to show
our world, which tends to distance itself from God, the requirements of
the Gospel in all its greatness and purity".
"The age in which
we live continues to be marked by forgetfulness and deafness towards
God. I believe, then, that we must learn the simplest and most
fundamental lesson of the Council: that the essence of Christianity
consists in faith in God, ... and in the individual and community
encounter with Christ Who guides our lives. ... The important thing
today, as was the desire of the Council Fathers, is for us to see -
clearly and anew - that God is present, that He concerns us and responds
to us. And when faith in God is lacking our essential foundations give
way because man loses his dignity. ... The Council reminds us that the
Church ... has the mandate to transmit God's salvific word of love, so
that the divine call which contains our eternal beatitude may be heard
and accepted".
The Pope then went on to mention the four
conciliar Constitutions, describing them as "the four cardinal points of
our guiding compass": "Sacrosanctum Concilium" on the sacred liturgy,
which speaks of the centrality of the mystery of Christ's presence in
the Church; "Lumen Gentium" which highlights the Church's fundamental
duty to glorify God; "Dei Verbum" on divine Revelation, which speaks of
the living Word of God that unites and animates the Church throughout
history, and finally "Gaudium et Spes" which deals with the way the
Church transmits to the world the light it received from God.
"Vatican
Council II", Benedict XVI concluded, "is a powerful appeal to us to
make a daily rediscovery of the beauty of our faith, to understand it
deeply through a more intense relationship with the Lord, and to live
out our Christian vocation to the full".