A significant 60^th anniversary of an occasion that has changed all our lives profoundly

October 11^th 1962 – the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

After almost four years of consultation/preparation, around 2000 bishops assembled in Rome, Pope John XXIII was carried on that soon-to-be abolished Sedia Gestatoria. They processed into St Peter’s and the doors were closed – and immediately the Pope talked about updating, renewal and exhorted the opening of the windows.

Actually, the first topic discussion was the media, means of social communication, but then the liturgy, the nature of worship and the question of the liturgy in the vernacular. (Your editor never dreamed in October in 1962 that only two and half years later, in April 1965, he would celebrate his First Mass in English.)

Four sessions, around two months each, from 1962-1965,

the spirit continuing when John XXIII died in June 1963 and Paul VI was elected.

A range of themes, the nature of the Church as the people of God,

Dialogue with contemporary world, the Joy and Hope in the Signs of the Times

Renewal of Scripture studies, mission, priesthood…

And the groundbreaking Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions

And, December 12^th, Paul VI brought the Council out of the Basilica on to the steps of St Peter’s and crowds massing in the piazza for the official closure of the Council.