October 11, 1962

Second Vatican Council

Pope John XXIII opens the Second Vatican Council

Before two thousand bishops he rebuked the "prophets of gloom." That night, from a window, he told parents to take a caress from the pope home to their children.

More than two thousand in procession

On 11 October 1962, Pope John XXIII formally opened the Second Vatican Council in St Peter's Basilica, after a solemn procession of more than 2,000 Council Fathers.

This was not the first ecumenical council. It was traditionally counted as the Catholic Church's twenty-first, and the first in about ninety-two years.

John had announced his intention to summon it on 25 January 1959, and had fixed this date after three years of preparation.

The medicine of mercy

In the opening address later known as Gaudet Mater Ecclesia, John said the council's principal task was to guard and teach Christian doctrine more effectively, distinguishing the unchanging deposit of faith from the manner in which it is presented.

He rejected the outlook of the "prophets of gloom" and said the Church now preferred the medicine of mercy to severity.

His program was not an adaptation of belief: the same address described Catholic doctrine as certain and immutable and insisted it be transmitted intact.

Nothing was decided that week

The opening enacted none of the reforms later associated with Vatican II; the council had not yet begun debating its first schema. The 22 texts left after preparatory consolidation were draft schemata, not final documents — the council ultimately promulgated 16 substantially revised ones across four sessions.

On 13 October the first business meeting adjourned after Cardinals Achille Liénart and Josef Frings successfully asked for time to consider candidates for the council's commissions. Voting was postponed to 16 October.

John did not see it finished. He died in 1963, and Paul VI reconvened and completed the council.

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