Vatican Council II

17 Pages 4169 Words

Catholicism

The Second Vatican Council

The 20th century was a time of change. Technologically speaking; horses were exchanged for cars, which were exchanged for airplanes, World War I and II changed war was to be fought, all with great steps in technology. Minds of intellectuals were churning, whether it was Einstein’s theory of relativity or Carl Jung’s theories about synchronicity. Politics were being pushed to new limits, with women’s right activists springing up along side civil right activists, change was happening everywhere you looked. Change is nothing new to the Holy Roman Catholic Church, it has seen over 2,000 years of change thus far and will continue to adapt to its surroundings. The Church went through a large change during and after the Second Vatican Council, and is still evolving from it and into it.
Pope Pius XII died on October 8, 1958, after a long time as the Supreme Pontiff his twilight years were plagued by various illness’. He was a good and Holy man who was admired by millions, and the first Pope to be known widely by radio and television. Pope Pius XII was know as the “Pope of Peace” who had an authoritarian style which he showed often during WWII, where he denounced the war. Cardinal Roncalli was awarded the position of Pope John XXIII, as Pope Pius passed on October 8, 1958, and officially took the position on October 28, 1958 when he was permanently elected.
The Second Vatican Council was a big surprise to the entire world. Today the Catholic Church reaches all across the world and has over 1,000,000,000 members far larger than any other private organization and nearly four time the size of the United States of America(Web4). There is no doubting the fact that the Catholic Church is very large and some would argue very powerful, throughout history the Church has been in situations in which it was given power, more by default than demand.
It was January 25, 1959 where Pope John...