Monday, November 19, 2012

A Look at Vatican II

Image from Vatican Archive of the Documents of Vatican II
We are now one full month into the Year of Faith (YOF) promulgated by Pope Benedict XVI. One of the explicit instructions we have received in order to more fully participate in the YOF is to revisit the documents of Vatican II. Pope Benedict exhorted the Church to build the New Evangelization "on a concrete and precise basis, and this basis is the documents of the Second Vatican Council.” This is wholly consistent with the Pope's comments in July 2007:
And thus it seems to me that we must rediscover the great heritage of the Council, which is not a “spirit” reconstructed behind the texts, but the great conciliar texts themselves, reread today with the experiences that we have had and that have borne fruit in so many movements, in so many new religious communities. [emphasis added] 
Since we are being asked to read the documents, we should also possess an understanding of the context in which they were written. I can think of no better way to do this than to share the insights of Douglas Bushman, STL, the director of the Institute of Pastoral Theology at Ave Maria University. Here is an interview with Father Mitch Pacwa on EWTN Live. The video is nearly an hour long, but well worth the investment.


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