Church History in Plain Language (Plain Language Series)

by Bruce L. Shelley

Vatican II was the first council not called to combat heresy, pronounce new dogmas, nor marshal the Church against hostile forces. The Council of Trent (1545–63), for example, reaffirmed the validity of indulgences— questioned by Luther—and built a doctrinal fortress against the Protestant Reformation. Pope John showed that Vatican II was called not against, but for something. The Pope’s opening speech was a mandate for a predominantly pastoral council rather than a doctrinal one. The days of the state church, he recognized, were over. In the age coming to birth, he said, the Church must not seek to maintain its authority by weapons of repression. It must “rule with the medicine of mercy rather than with severity.” The purpose of the Council, therefore, was to enable the Church “to bring herself up to date.” The modernization would bring nearer the time of the reunion of Christendom, when Christ’s prayer “that they may be one” should be fulfilled.