Vatican II was a seminal council, both an end and a beginning. It left behind intuitive perceptions in need of precise articulation and pointed to theological values in need of structural support. Bearing in mind that Vatican II was the conclusion of one era and the opening of another, Ladislas Orsy insists that the task of the church is to continue 'with both creative insights and critical debates. Creative insights, though never the final answer, are the indispensable stages of development that emerge as we undertake the holy exercise of trying to imagine the best possible state of the church. Creative insights demand that we think anew our perceptions of some challenging aspects of reform: the people of God, unity of Christians, communion, development, freedom, role of the laity. Creative insights emerge within the crucible of the debating community 'the sensus fidei at work to discern the true from the false with regard to such challenging things as infallibility and indefectibility of the church, synodality, collegiality, ecumenism. Receiving the Council is a gift from a highly renowned and deeply respected canon lawyer and theologian who was an eye witness to Vatican II. It is filled with well-articulated questions and intelligent insights as well as prudent proposals for good structures in the house of God" that is the church. Ladislas Orsy, SJ, is a professor of law at Georgetown University, where he teaches Roman Law, History of Philosophy of Law, and Canon Law. During the council he was professor of canon law at the Gregorian University in Rome, then taught theology at Fordham University and canon law at The Catholic University of America. He is the author of Theology and Canon Law as well as eight other books and more than 200 articles. The main intent of his writings is to keep the spirit of the council alive.

As the church marks the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, too few Catholics have an adequate grasp of what the council contributed to the life of the church. The problem is understandable. The Second Vatican Council produced, by far, more document pages than any other council. Consequently, any attempt to master its core teachings can be daunting. There is a danger of missing the forest for the trees. With this in mind, Keys to the Council identifies twenty key conciliar passages, central texts that help us appreciate the Vision of the council fathers. Each chapter places the given passage in its larger historical context, explores its fundamental meaning and significance, and finally considers its larger significance for the life of the church today. Chapters include exploration of Sacrosanctum Concilium's demand for full, conscious, and active participation in the liturgy; Lumen Gentium's eucharistic ecclesiology; Gaudium et Spes's vision of marriage as an intimate partnership of life and love; Nostra Aetate's approach to non-Christian religions; and more.

Offers guidance and motivation for more effectively using councils in leadership positions as well as family situations.

Lumen Gentium, Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, changed how the church thinks about the laity, holiness, baptism, and even the nature and purpose of the church itself. In A Council That Will Never End, the highly regarded ecclesiologist Paul Lakeland marks the fiftieth anniversary of this document's promulgation by taking up three major themes of the constitution, analyzing the text, and identifying some of the questions with which it leaves us. These themes are the role of the bishop in the church and the ways Lumen Gentium's teaching relates to various tensions in today's church the laity and in particular the mixed blessing of describing them in the category of "secularity" and the relationships between the church and the people of God and what they tell us about the ways in which all people are offered salvation. Lakeland is convinced that Lumen Gentium leaves much unfinished business (as any historical document must), that attending to it will take us beyond much of the now sterile ecclesial divisions, and that the ecclesiology of humility it implies marks the way that theology must guide the church in the years ahead.

Winner of a first-place award for a first time author and second-place in popular presentation of the faith from the Catholic Media Association. During the past five decades, the Second Vatican Council has been alternately celebrated or maligned for its supposed break with tradition and embrace of the modern world. But what if we’ve gotten it all wrong? Have Catholics—both those who embrace the spirit of Vatican II and those who regard it with suspicion—misunderstood what the council was really about? Fr. Blake Britton discovered the truth and beauty of the council while he was in seminary and he has witnessed firsthand the power of its teachings in the life of his own parish. In Reclaiming Vatican II—a partnership between Ave Maria Press and Word on Fire Catholic Ministries—Britton presses beyond the political narrative foisted upon the post-conciliar Church and contends that Vatican II was neither conservative nor liberal, but something much more beautiful and challenging. Britton clears up misconceptions about the council and reveals how—when properly understood and applied—it fosters a richer experience of being in the Church. Britton says Vatican II promotes a radical return to the Church Fathers and the Scriptures, holding both a commitment to tradition and the need for constant renewal in life-giving balance, recenters the Church on sacred liturgy and encourages both active participation and genuine encounter with transcendence, and charts a clear path for the Church’s renewal and empowers it for evangelism and transformative engagement with the world. Britton invites all Catholics to step beyond the polarization and embrace Vatican II as one of our greatest resources for being in the Church in a way that is faithful, engaged, and effective if we answer its radical call to worship and renewal.

The Second Vatican Council ended in December 1965, but Vatican II is still happening in the global church. Catholicism has always had a universal claim, but the globalization of Catholicism as a truly world church became part of Catholic theology only thanks to that gatheringconvoked by Blessed John XXIIIof bishops, theologians, lay observers, ecumenical representatives, and journalists. Vatican II is the most important event in church history after the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, and this book demonstrates why it is the key to understanding Catholicism and its inner tensions today.

Winner of the John Gilmary Shea Prize The Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Catholic Church’s attempt to put its house in order in response to the Protestant Reformation, has long been praised and blamed for things it never did. Now, in this first full one-volume history in modern times, John W. O’Malley brings to life the volatile issues that pushed several Holy Roman emperors, kings and queens of France, and five popes—and all of Europe with them—repeatedly to the brink of disaster. During the council’s eighteen years, war and threat of war among the key players, as well as the Ottoman Turks’ onslaught against Christendom, turned the council into a perilous enterprise. Its leaders declined to make a pronouncement on war against infidels, but Trent’s most glaring and ironic silence was on the authority of the papacy itself. The popes, who reigned as Italian monarchs while serving as pastors, did everything in their power to keep papal reform out of the council’s hands—and their power was considerable. O’Malley shows how the council pursued its contentious parallel agenda of reforming the Church while simultaneously asserting Catholic doctrine. Like What Happened at Vatican II, O’Malley’s Trent: What Happened at the Council strips mythology from historical truth while providing a clear, concise, and fascinating account of a pivotal episode in Church history. In celebration of the 450th anniversary of the council’s closing, it sets the record straight about the much misunderstood failures and achievements of this critical moment in European history.