The sixteen official documents—constitutions, decrees, and declarations—of the Second Vatican Council are now available from Liturgical Press in the most popular and widely used inclusive-language edition translated by Irish Dominican Austin Flannery (+October 21, 2008). As the worldwide Church continues to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Council (1962–65), there is a great need in college classrooms and parish faith formation groups—as well as for individuals—to again have access to these documents in contemporary English. As Flannery wrote in his introduction to the 1996 edition, “The translation of the texts of the Vatican documents in the present volume differs from that in the previous publication in two respects. It has been very considerably revised and, in place, corrected. It is also, to a very large extent, in inclusive language. “I say ‘to a very large extent,’ because we have used inclusive language in passages about men and women but not, however, in passages about God, except where the use of the masculine pronoun was easily avoidable.”

The sixteen official documents—constitutions, decrees, and declarations—of the Second Vatican Council are now available from Liturgical Press in the most popular and widely used inclusive-language edition translated by Irish Dominican Austin Flannery (+October 21, 2008). As the worldwide Church continues to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Council (1962–65), there is a great need in college classrooms and parish faith formation groups—as well as for individuals—to again have access to these documents in contemporary English. As Flannery wrote in his introduction to the 1996 edition, “The translation of the texts of the Vatican documents in the present volume differs from that in the previous publication in two respects. It has been very considerably revised and, in place, corrected. It is also, to a very large extent, in inclusive language. “I say ‘to a very large extent,’ because we have used inclusive language in passages about men and women but not, however, in passages about God, except where the use of the masculine pronoun was easily avoidable.”

As Pope Francis leads the worldwide church wholly within and from the teachings of the Council (1962-65), there is a great need in college classrooms and parish faith formation groups—as well as for individuals—to again have access to these documents in contemporary English. This volume contains the sixteen official documents—constitutions, decrees, and declarations—of the Second Vatican Council in the most popular and widely used inclusive-language edition translated by Irish Dominican Austin Flannery (+2008). This edition is also presented with a larger, more readable font than previous editions. Table of Contents: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilum Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church, Christus Dominus Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis Decree on the Training of Priests, Optatam Totius Decree on the Up-to-Date Renewal of Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, Apostolicam Actuositatem Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, Ad Gentes Divinitus Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio Decree on the Catholic Eastern Churches, Orientalium Ecclesiarum Decree on the Mass Media, Inter Mirifica Declaration on Religious Liberty, Dignitatis Humanae Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate Declaration on Christian Education, Gravissimum Educationis Each of these sixteen documents is also available as separate eBooks (PDF, ePub, and Mobi) priced at $2.99 each. An affordable solution for students and scholars who only need to reference particular decrees or declarations. See more on our digital edition page. https://litpress.org/LP/vatdoc_chapter_ebook

The concept and institution of priesthood in the Catholic Church has been the subject of serious challenge not only since the time of the Protestant Reformation but also, more recently, from within the Catholic Church, as the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and theologians afterward have reconsidered the place and function of priests in relation to both bishops and laity. In dialogue with those challenges, and by means of research into Scripture and the theological tradition--patristic, medieval, and modern--the author of this book considers classic images of priests and priestly ministry as a way of recovering an understanding of the priesthood that is at once both biblically and theological sound.