• image
  • image
  • image
  • image
  • image
  • image
  • image
  • image
  • image
  • image
  • image

Vatican II Council, 50 years on

On 11 October 2012, the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and the 20th anniversary of publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the worldwide Church will begin a ‘Year of Faith’, to conclude on the Solemnity of Christ the King 24 November 2013. Pope Benedict XVI announced this in an Apostolic Letter Porta fidei on 11 October 2011. The Year of Faith will be an important occasion “to make Vatican Council II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church more widely and deeply known,” he said. It will be a time of reflection and rediscovery of faith for the whole Church.

The Pope writes,
“It seemed to me that timing the launch of the Year of Faith to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council would provide a good opportunity to help people understand that the texts bequeathed by the Council Fathers, in the words of Blessed John Paul II, “have lost nothing of their value or brilliance. They need to be read correctly, to be widely known and taken to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the Church's Tradition ... I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the Council as the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century: there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century now beginning.”

icon Click to download "Church Councils and Vatican II"
icon Click to download "Pope John XXIII Address on Vatican II"
THE STORY AND TEACHINGS OF VATICAN II
- 1 HOUR per WEEK ‘SHORT COURSES’

Download guide sheets for informal individual or group ‘short courses’

vaticalII full cover 350pxSHORT COURSE 1 ‘A Friendly Guide to Vatican II’ guidesheet    
2 or 4 week - one hour meetings course based on the book
A Friendly Guide to Vatican II by Fr Max Vodola.
icon Click to download Vatican II Short Course 1

SHORT COURSE 2 ‘Keys to the Council’ guidesheet
2-4 or 8-10 week – one hour meetings course based on the book
Keys to the Council: Unlocking the Teachings of Vatican II by
Richard R. Gaillardetz & Catherine E. Clifford
icon Click to download Vatican II Short Course 2

STUDY A DOCUMENT OF VATICAN II
- 1 HOUR per WEEK, 1 CHAPTER per WEEK

CONSTITUTION ON THE SACRED LITURGY   icon Click to download Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy - for small group study
SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM                     (December 4, 1963)

Introduction
Chapter I     General Principles for the Restoration and Promotion of the Sacred Liturgy
Chapter II     The Most Sacred Mystery of the Eucharist
Chapter III    The Other Sacraments and the Sacramentals
Chapter IV    The Divine Office
Chapter V     The Liturgical Year
Chapter VI     Sacred Music
Chapter VII     Sacred Art and Sacred Furnishings
[Appendix        A Declaration of the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican on Revision of the Calendar]


DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION  icon Click to download Dogmatic Constitution on divine revelation Dei Verbum
DEI VERBUM                              (November 18, 1965)

Chapter I    Revelation itself
Chapter II    Handing on Divine Revelation
Chapter III    Sacred Scripture, its Inspiration and Divine Interpretation
Chapter IV    The Old Testament
Chapter V    The New Testament
Chapter VI    Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church

DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH   icon Click to download Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
LUMEN GENTIUM                              (November 21, 1964)

Chapter I     The Mystery of the Church
Chapter II     On The People of God
Chapter III     On the Hierarchical Structure of the Church and in Particular on the Episcopate
Chapter IV     The Laity
Chapter V     The Universal Call to Holiness in the Church
Chapter VI     Religious
Chapter VII     The Eschatological Nature of the Pilgrim Church and its Union with the Church in Heaven
Chapter VIII     The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and the Church
             
PASTORAL CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH IN THE MODERN WORLD   icon Click to download Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World   icon Click to download Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Small Group Study
GAUDIUM ET SPES                        (December 7, 1965)

Preface
Introduction      The Situation of Men [Humanity] in the Modern World
PART I         THE CHURCH AND MAN'S CALLING
Chapter I     The Dignity of the Human Person
Chapter II     The Community of Mankind
Chapter III     Man’s Activity Throughout the World
Chapter IV     The Role of the Church in the Modern World

PART II     SOME PROBLEMS OF SPECIAL URGENCY
Chapter I     Fostering the Nobility of Marriage and Family
Chapter II     The Proper Development of Culture
Chapter III     Economic and Social Life
Chapter IV     The Life of the Political Community
Chapter V     The Fostering of Peace and the Promotion of a Community of Nations