Vatican II: A "Crisigenic" Council with an Unwritten Agenda

Abstract

The Second Vatican Council was like a new Pentecost which John XXIII invoked upon the Church. The Council emphasized a pastoral renewal that required attitudinal as well as structural change. Pieris offers the “Council” of Jerusalem as a precedent: it also dealt with a crisis that called for a conciliar decision. Since then, Vatican II is the first council to make crisigenic decisions which triggered both a caesura from the euro-ecclesial domination and a renewal in theology, spirituality, and sacramental life. Reform is from the center, renewal from the periphery. Fidelity to the Council demands maintaining the momentum of renewal at the periphery, so that the local churches become a “sacrament of salvation” and complete the Council’s unwritten agenda.

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Keywords

Vatican II