Today’s jewel from Joan: To forgive someone is the best use of any day.
I was so excited today to hear Pope Leo announced a brand new series of weekly general audience catecheses dedicated to Vatican Council II and a re-reading of and then reflection on its documents. In announcing the new series of catecheses, I think one of the most important things Leo XIV had to say was this: “It will be important to get to know [the council] again closely, and to do so not through ‘hearsay’ or interpretations that have been given, but by rereading its documents and reflecting on their content.” Getting to know the documents by reading them, not by hearsay or interpretations!
Vatican Council II produced 16 official documents, in three categories: Constitutions (4), Decrees (9), and Declarations (30 dedicated to the nature of the Church, liturgy, divine revelation, the modern world, communication, ecumenism, religious freedom, and the role of lity, bishops, priests, and missions. Constitutions, weighty doctrinal statements, are the highest-level, foundational documents defining Church doctrine/structure; Decrees are authoritative, specific directives for Church life or implementation; and Declarations are authoritative statements, often pastoral, clarifying Church teaching or relating it to the modern world.
Interestingly enough, as I was studying Vatican Council II documents, I saw that, in addition to the languages you would expect to find – Latin, Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German (and a few in Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hungarian and Latvian)– all have been translated in Byelorussian and Swahili!
The first VC II document to be promulgated was the Constitution Sacrosanctum concilium on the Sacred Liturgy, approved 2,147 to 4 and promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 4, 1963.
It will be interesting to see in what order Pope Leo will deliver the catecheses. Will he start in chronological order with the first document promulgated, Sacrosanctum concilium or might he start with the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, approved 2,151 to 5, that was promulgated on November 21, 1964. Or, given that Pope Leo’s Prayer Intention for January 2026 is Praying with God’s Word in Sacred Scripture, perhaps Dei Verbum, Dogmatic Constitution On Divine Revelation, approved 2,344 to 6 and promulgated on November 18, 1965.
We will probably know next Wednesday!
POPE LEO DEDICATES NEW CATECHESES SERIES TO VATICAN COUNCIL II AND A RE-READING OF ITS DOCUMENTS
Pope Leo at today’s general audience in the Paul VI Hall, the first of the New Year 2026, told the faithful he “is starting a new series of catecheses dedicated to the Second Vatican Council and to re-reading its documents. He added, “we see that the documents have lost none of their relevance and are pertinent to the demands and challenges of today. Closely studying the Council documents will help us to be attentive interpreters of the signs of the times, and to proclaim the Gospel to all.”
Importantly, Leo XIV stated, “It will be important to get to know [the council] again closely, and to do so not through ‘hearsay’ or interpretations that have been given, but by rereading its documents and reflecting on their content. Indeed, it is the Magisterium that still constitutes the guiding star of the Church’s journey today.”
The Holy Father further explained that “when Pope Saint John XXIII opened the Council on 11 October 1962, he spoke of it as the dawn of a day of light for the whole Church. The work of the numerous Fathers convened from the Churches of all continents did indeed pave the way for a new ecclesial season. After a rich biblical, theological and liturgical reflection spanning the twentieth century, Vatican Council II rediscovered the face of God as the Father who, in Christ, calls us to be his children; it looked at the Church in the light of Christ, light of nations, as a mystery of communion and sacrament of unity between God and his people; it initiated important liturgical reform, placing at its centre the mystery of salvation and the active and conscious participation of the entire People of God. At the same time, it helped us to open up to the world and to embrace the changes and challenges of the modern age in dialogue and co-responsibility, as a Church that wishes to open her arms to humanity, to echo the hopes and anxieties of peoples, and to collaborate in building a more just and fraternal society.”
Leo noted that, “At the beginning of the Council, Monsignor Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I, as Bishop of Vittorio Veneto, wrote prophetically, “As always, there is a need to achieve not so much organizations or methods or structures, but a deeper and more widespread holiness.”
“Brothers and sisters,” said Leo XIV in concluding, “Saint Paul VI’s words to the Council Fathers at the end of its work remain a guiding principle for us today. He affirmed that the time had come to leave the Council assembly and go out towards humanity to bring it the good news of the Gospel, in the awareness that they had experienced a time of grace in which the past, present and future were condensed. … the future is here in the urgent appeal of the peoples of the world for more justice, in their will for peace, in their conscious or unconscious thirst for a higher life, that life precisely which the Church of Christ can and wishes to give them.”
“This is also true for us,” stressed the Pope. “As we approach the documents of Vatican Council II and rediscover their prophetic and contemporary relevance, we welcome the rich tradition of the life of the Church and, at the same time, we question ourselves about the present and renew our joy in running towards the world to bring it the Gospel of the kingdom of God, a kingdom of love, justice and peace.”
(In the second slideshow of pictures, there are two consecutive photos of Pope Leo with an individual that I so wanted to label! Can you tell which ones?)
Joan's Rome 