Fifty years ago Thursday, the fourth child from a family of Italian sharecroppers convened a epochal meeting of Roman Catholic Church leaders designed to “open the windows” of the nearly 2,000-year-old institution and let some of the modern world’s “fresh air” inside.
Pope John XXIII’s Second Vatican Council, now remembered as “Vatican II,” began Oct. 11, 1962, with pomp and ceremony. It concluded more than three years later under Pope Paul VI with a transformed church, a church still struggling to digest – and in some cases accept – the changes that the conclave approved.
A Mixed Legacy – Sylvia Poggioli, NPR
Why is Vatican II so Important? – Jordan Teicher, NPR
A Baptist Appreciation – Steve Harmon, Associated Baptist Press