A new cycle of catechesis entirely dedicated to the Second Vatican Council. The event, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2025, still needs to be rediscovered. For this reason, during the Wednesday audiences, Pope Leo will re-read its history and documents “to rediscover the beauty and importance of this ecclesial event”.
Because, even if 60 years seems short, «it is equally true that the generation of Bishops, theologians and believers of Vatican II no longer exists today. Therefore, while we feel the call not to extinguish his prophecy and to still seek ways and ways to implement his intuitions, it will be important to get to know him closely again, and to do so not through “hearsay” or the interpretations that have been given, but by rereading his Documents and reflecting on their content. In fact, it is the Magisterium which still constitutes the north star of the Church’s path today.” He quotes both John Paul II and Benedict XVI who underlined the relevance of Vatican II. «When Pope Saint John XXIII opened the council meeting on 11 October 1962, he spoke of it as the dawn of a day of light for the whole Church. The work of the numerous Fathers convened, coming from the Churches of all continents, effectively paved the way for a new ecclesial season. After a rich biblical, theological and liturgical reflection that had spanned the twentieth century, the Second Vatican Council rediscovered the face of God as a Father who, in Christ, calls us to be his children; he looked at the Church in the light of Christ, the light of the people, as a mystery of communion and sacrament of unity between God and his people; he initiated an important liturgical reform by placing the mystery of salvation and the active and conscious participation of all the People of God at the center. At the same time, he helped us to open up to the world and to grasp the changes and challenges of the modern era in dialogue and co-responsibility, as a Church that wishes to open its arms towards humanity, echo the hopes and anxieties of peoples and collaborate in the construction of a more just and more fraternal society”, explains Leo XIV.
Thanks to that event, as Paul VI wrote, «the Church becomes a word; the Church becomes a message; the Church becomes a conversation.” Committing, for this reason, “to seek the truth through the path of ecumenism, interreligious dialogue and dialogue with people of good will”.
Leone, in quoting all his predecessors, including Pope Luciani who said «it may be that the excellent and copious fruits of a Council are seen after centuries and mature by laboriously overcoming conflicts and adverse situations», recalls that «we must still more fully implement ecclesial reform in a ministerial key and, in the face of today’s challenges, we are called to remain attentive interpreters of the signs of the times, joyful heralds of the Gospel, courageous witnesses of justice and peace».
And, finally, with the words of Paul VI, he explains that the Council «remains for us too, today, a criterion of orientation; he stated that the time had come to leave, to leave the conciliar assembly to meet humanity and bring it the good news of the Gospel, in the awareness of having lived a time of grace in which past, present and future were condensed: “The past: because the Church of Christ is gathered here, with its tradition, its history, its Councils, its Doctors, its Saints. (…) The present: because we leave ourselves to go towards today’s world, with its miseries, its pains, its sins, but also with its prodigious conquests, its values, its virtues (…) The future, finally, is there, in the imperious appeal of the people for greater justice, in their desire for peace, in their conscious or unconscious thirst for a higher life: precisely the one that the Church of Christ can and wants to give them”.
And it is like this for us too: by rediscovering the Council “we question ourselves about the present and renew the joy of running towards the world to bring you the Gospel of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of love, justice and peace”.
