During the 1950s, in the Catholic Church, especially in Europe, a strong movement for a New Theology spread rapidly both among the clergy and the laity. Fresh air and new thinking were being injected into the hearts of the faithful in theology, catechesis, patristics, liturgy and biblical studies. “New” meant more suitable for the people of today and easier to understand than the traditional scholastic theology. It was based on the Bible and the teaching of the Church Fathers - the oldest source of the Church. What was most striking and remarkable about this movement was its ability to express the mystery of the Christian faith in a new language, a language and vocabulary that was more accessible and understandable to modern people; although this approach was aimed specifically at the European community, it emphasized that evangelization had to reach out to the local people in their own language and culture wherever the Church went. The concept soon spread and became universally accepted. The renewal of the Church was a necessity.

On 25 January 1959, less than 3 months after his election, Pope John XXIII suddenly announced his intention to prepare for an ecumenical council. This sudden announcement shocked the Roman Curia, but the response, from religious leaders to heads of state, was positive. The most striking thing was that the Pope invited representatives of the Orthodox Church and other Christian churches to attend the Synod as observers. The presence of a large number of observers thus became a strong marker of the Council. This marker shows that the nature of this Council is different from that of the earlier Ecumenical Councils of Trent and the First Vatican Council.

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The Second Vatican Council was inaugurated on 11 October 1962. Nine months before its opening, the preparatory committee sent out 2,856 invitations to those entitled to participate in the Council; the voting prelates came from 79 countries worldwide: 38% from Europe, 31% from the Americas, 20% from Asia and Oceania, and 10% from Africa. For the first time in the past 20 Ecumenical Councils, the participants to attend an Ecumenical Council came from all over the world. Most of them travelled to Rome by plane, but some came by boat or train. Bishops, together with their secretaries and a team of experts, numbered 7,500, together with observers from other churches and the media from all over the world, making a total of nearly 10,000.

One could imagine the needs on manpower, material and financial resources to receive these distinguished guests. The Holy Father wanted everyone to feel at home in Rome. The organizing committee set up a very elaborate but excellent system to welcome the guests at the airport, the pier and the railway station. Some of them were staying at various Diocesan or religious institutions, others were settling in on their own.

The central hall in St. Peter’s Basilica was transformed into a huge conference hall, equipped with a modern sound system. There were coffee shops and toilets around the lobby. These cafés were attractive and practical, and many important matters were discussed and resolved there.

The major challenge of the conference was the freedom of the media; the Vatican’s tradition of demanding ‘absolute secrecy’ from all organizers and prelates, severely curtailed the freedom of the media to cover the event in the past. However, the situation gradually improved as the media, both inside and outside the Church, were free to tell the world about the Council. The stenographers, who were supposed to write down the speeches of the speakers, could listen to all the speeches on tape.

The Church is willing to have dialogue with modern society; its readiness to proclaim the mystery of Christ to all in a language that the world understood, had clearly emerged. A truly pastoral council was now beginning to emerge. In the discussions leading up to the Council, Pope John XXIII often suggested that it was time for the Church to open the windows and let in fresh air. Some, however, cynically said that when the windows were opened, it was not fresh air that came in, but a gale!

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On 13 October 1962, 2 days after the official opening of the Second Vatican Council, the work of the Council began. Some unexpected and surprising things happened. The proceedings of that day included the election of 10 committee members of the Council. It was assumed that the election would be conducted in a very formal manner and the list of candidates was prepared and distributed to the relevant Moderators. 160 members were to be elected out of the 2,500 who attended. However, Cardinal Lienart of France stood up to speak and requested that the vote be postponed because they could not elect the members of the new committee without knowing each other. The prophetic motion was approved by applause of those present and the majority voted to adjourn. Thus, the first session of the Council ended after less than fifty minutes. This was the beginning of the Second Vatican Council as we know it.

The bishops took the initiative of the Synod by electing 10 committee members, discarding the draft (Latin schemata) that the organizing committee had prepared for the prelates and starting to draw up their new agenda. This new agenda put them in a different atmosphere. The Council was prepared to allow the most basic seeds of renewal to germinate and to be included in the discussion of issues, to express in a common language the mystery of the Christian faith and the message it conveyed. Pope John XXIII was fond of using the Italian term ‘aggiornamento’ (catching up with the times) to illustrate the main goal of Vatican II: to make the Church a simple, credible and visible sign of God’s presence in the world. All of Vatican II’s documents were written in a pastoral manner. The lay people of the time were thus energized by the desire to know more so that they could live out their Christian faith in the present day. The topics discussed by the prelates of Vatican II were directly relevant to the lives of the faithful everywhere: liturgical renewal, the importance of the Word of God in the Church, the different attitudes towards brothers and sisters of other Christian denominations in the Church, new attitudes towards other religions, a deeper understanding of evangelization, the meaning of human development, and even justice in contact with in one’s daily life. The issues discussed at Vatican II have had a tremendous impact. The Second Vatican Council (commonly known as Vatican II), which lasted 3 years, led by the Holy Spirit, and after intense discussions among more than 2,000 prelates, rigorous analysis, peaceful consultation, mutual consensus and votes, promulgated to the Universal Church 16 official documents, including 4 Constitutions, 9 Decrees and 3 Declarations.

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The expression used by Pope Paul VI when he solemnly promulgated the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church (Lumen Gentium) on 21 November 1964 was most noteworthy. The first sentence of the Constitution, “Servant of God, Bishop Paul, together with the prelates in the Holy Synod, in perpetual memory,” shows that the Pope, in his capacity as Bishop of Rome, together with the bishops participating in Vatican II, negotiated and promulgated the Constitution together, and not by his papal authority. This fully demonstrated the communion and the collegial character between the Bishop of Rome and the other bishops of the Church. Through the Lumen Gentium, Vatican II also wished to clarify “the relationship between the primacy of the Pope and the universal episcopate” (LG 22).

The Church is a Communion of Communions. In order to maintain unity, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, even if we hold different positions or have different opinions, it is only natural that we learnt to accept and compromise with each other!