Vatican II: Christmas 1961, a date to remember …

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Vatican II: Christmas 1961, a date to remember …

Jesuit Professor Norman Tanner is currently Dean of Church History and Fine Arts of the Church at the Pontifical Gregorian University here in Rome.

But he’s also author of a ‘Short History of the Councils of the Church’. So as we currently have a couple of anniversaries to remember connected to the last of these councils, the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, in an effort to shine the spotlight on that epoch Veronica Scarisbrick went round to the Gregorian University to interview this Council expert.

To mention a few dates, famously this Council was first announced by John XXIII on January 25, 1959 . But then two years later, it was the 25th of December 1961, this Pope officially summoned this Second Ecumenical Council to meet the following October. He did so with the Letter ‘Humane Salutis’, a document which as Professor Tanner defines in his book had three main aims: the better internal ordering of the Church, unity among Christians and promotion of peace throughout the world .

Looking ahead to the last of those dates just mentioned: the opening session of that Council on the 11th of October 1962 , so half a century ago , Veronica asks Professor Tanner to shine the spotlight for us on different aspects of that momentous era in the history of the Catholic Church.

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