The Doctrinal and Social Implications of Vatican II
The Vatican Council II was called by Pope John 23rd for purposes of updating the Catholic Church (CC) by seeking from the council new and necessary pastoral approaches to guide the CC in the modern world.The 2500 plus church leaders congregated at Vatican II sought to devise and adjust pastoral strategies that would successfully engage its more than a billion members with a new world of institutions and life styles consonant with modern knowledge and technology. The council fathers’ approach created serious negative reactions among the minority conservative participants that were strongly backed by the curial bureaucracy. Their position confounded foundational beliefs with traditional moral precepts rooted in time-bound cultural and social conditions.
What grew out of the council was a confrontation: on one side 1500 years of a relatively change-dormant western civilization history in which CC exercised unchallenged religious power; and on the other hand emerging but challenging views of the world and human behavior. The CC in the fifty years following the Council within its own membership has been living a divisive polarization of beliefs that generating widespread spiritual harm threatens the long-term mission of the institution. One purpose of this blogsite is to explore the doctrinal and social implications of the pastoral strategy that framed the declarations of the Vatican Council II.