Monthly Archives: December 2020

Editor’s Note: To ease navigation through this site, here is a year-by-year, chronological table of contents for our stories and texts from the Second Vatican Council. If this is your first visit to “Vatican II: 50 years ago today,” make … Continue reading →

Closing Mass December 8, 1965 On Dec. 8 the Council Fathers gathered, without ceremony, in their regular council seats inside the basilica, vested in copes and miters — many of them wearing the simple gold rings Pope Paul had given … Continue reading →

The Second Vatican Council produced four constitutions, three declarations and nine decrees. To read the full texts of all 16 documents as posted on the Vatican’s website, click here.

In the four annual sessions of the Second Vatican Council the Church was enriched with four constitutions, nine decrees and three declarations. The constitutions are those on the liturgy, the nature of the Church, divine revelation and the Church in … Continue reading →

The Second Vatican Council has been summed up statistically by Vatican Radio: There were 168 general meetings and 10 plenary ones. The first session had 36 general meetings, the second 43, the third 48, and the last 41. During the … Continue reading →

    These are translations of the messages issued at the closing of the ecumenical council Dec. 8 by Pope Paul VI to council Fathers and by various cardinals to different groups of people. By Pope Paul to council Fathers The … Continue reading →

     This is a translation of the speech delivered Dec. 8 by Pope Paul VI at the closing of the ecumenical council. Your eminences, venerable brothers, representatives of governments, gentlemen of the city of Rome, authorities and citizens of the … Continue reading →

This is a translation of Pope Paul’s brief declaring the Second Vatican Council closed, read on Dec. 8 by Archbishop Pericle Felici, general secretary of the council. To the perpetual memory of the event: The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, assembled … Continue reading →

This is a translation of Pope Paul VI’s apostolic constitution declaring the post-council jubilee, issued on Dec. 7. A wondrous event to which the entire family of Catholics and even the whole of mankind turned their hearts and minds with … Continue reading →

     This is a translation of the address delivered Dec. 7 by Pope Paul VI to members of the special missions sent by more than 80 countries to the close of the ecumenical council. The audience was held in the … Continue reading →