The (re)discovery of the Second Vatican Council is the first stage that Pope Francis established on the path of preparation for the Jubilee of 2025. The series Jubilee 2025 – Quaderni del Concilio responds to this desire, revealing the beauty and continuing relevance of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), which still challenges our faith today. At this point, the question naturally arises: What is the Second Vatican Council? We have certainly heard of it, but do we know its history and background?
With his book The Second Vatican Council. History and Significance for the Church, Elio Guerriero opens an unprecedented door to let us enter the heart of this still relevant event.
The Second Vatican Council. History and Significance for the Church
This is the title of the first volume in the Quaderni del Concilio series. The author, Elio Guerriero, a historian and theologian, uses his expertise and fresh, direct style to draw us into the atmosphere of ferment and novelty that characterized those years of research, encounter, and discussion.
With the broad overview the Author offers of the entire event of the Second Vatican Council, he first retraces its history, defining its dates, places, beginning, various sessions, and conclusion, before focusing on its significance for the life of the Church and then on the reforms that set the Church’s renewal in motion.
In this concise guide, as we too become infected by the “wonder” felt by the faithful around the world when Saint John XXIII, the Good Pope, announced it, we read beautiful firsthand accounts that draw us into the deepest and most intimate aspects of a period of renewal that changed the course of Church history.
In this way, Elio Guerriero gives us the opportunity to read the Pope’s moving “speech to the moon,” which has remained in everyone’s heart, even though it was delivered extemporaneously.
The book explains that, that evening, John XXIII was preparing to go to bed, but when the secretary saw the square packed with people, he could not help but inform the Pope. Without thinking twice, he got dressed again and went to that window, where he invited people to carry the Pope’s caress into every home.
This anecdote, like many others that are recounted, allows us to touch firsthand an era, an atmosphere, and a desire to respond and answer the invitation of the Holy Spirit to be Church for the men and women of our time and of every time.
The Second Vatican Council is a close event
Taking a broad look at the journey of the Second Vatican Council brings us closer to the heart of the Church, makes it feel near to us, rich in humanity, and at the same time illuminated and guided by the light of the Spirit.
The doubts, fears, hopes, and acts of courage that animated the Council’s protagonists open an unprecedented and incredibly engaging door onto an event that is usually perceived as distant and difficult to understand.
This simple, authentic, and clear look at the Second Vatican Council helps us learn to love the Church and become passionate builders of it every day.
