It was the most important event in the history of Christianity since the Reformation and the Council of Trent.
Forty-five years ago today, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Paul VI closed the Second Vatican Council in St. Peter’s Basilica along with 2,300 bishops gathered from the entire world.
They had approved and signed Gaudium et Spes, the last of the major conciliar documents, the day before. The same day, the Pope had signed a decree making the year 1966 a special jubilee year, and he had joined the Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras I in formally expressing together for the first time their regret for the mutual excommunications pronounced by their predecessors, Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Cerularius, in 1054.
But the Council Fathers saved December 8, the day on which they wanted to place everything in Mary’s hands, for something even more special.
And so Paul VI, together with all the bishops assembled, solemnly invoked Mary under a new title: Mother of the Church. That had been one of the most surprising features of Lumen Gentium’s teaching on the Church: the concluding chapter discussed Mary as “Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and the Church.” It had always seemed a little out of place theologically. Until now.
As he concluded his homily, the Pope drew out a little bit of the meaning of that:
While we close the ecumenical council, we are honoring Mary Most Holy, the mother of Christ, and consequently, as we declared on another occasion, the mother of God and our spiritual mother. We are honoring Mary Most Holy, the Immaculate One, therefore innocent, stupendous, perfect. She is the woman, the true woman who is both ideal and real, the creature in whom the image of God is reflected with absolute clarity, without any disturbance, as happens in every other human creature.
Is it not perhaps in directing our gaze on this woman who is our humble sister and at the same time our heavenly mother and queen, the spotless and sacred mirror of infinite beauty, that we can terminate the spiritual ascent of the council and our final greeting? Is it not here that our post-conciliar work can begin? Does not the beauty of Mary Immaculate become for us an inspiring model, a comforting hope?
Just as Mary’s Immaculate Conception marked a new beginning for humanity, Paul and the assembled bishops hoped that the Council would be a new beginning for the Church’s engagement of culture.
Everyone knew that the story of the council’s work was really only beginning. To get a bit of the flavor of the time and its expectations, read this fascinating contemporary take on the Council’s closing from Life in 1965. How prescient were the historians quoted who “ask 30 or 50 years before Vatican II can be evaluated, since its chief product was words. The effect of these words on mankind will depend largely on post-council decisions, especially by the Pope.”
And so Pope Benedict is now in a position to look back at all that has transpired and all that has been accomplished, and see the work of Mary’s hand:
Presiding at a solemn Eucharistic celebration in the Vatican Basilica this morning, I wanted to give thanks to God for the gift of the Second Vatican Council.
Furthermore, I wished to pay homage to Mary Most Holy for having accompanied these 40 years of the Church’s richly eventful life. In a special maternal way, Mary has kept watch over the Pontificates of my venerable Predecessors, each one of whom, with great pastoral wisdom, steered the boat of Peter on the course of authentic conciliar renewal, ceaselessly working for the faithful interpretation and implementation of Vatican Council II. — December 8, 2005 (before reciting the Angelus)
Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us!
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A much more interesting anniversary than the death of John Lennon!
It is well to recognize that today is the Feast of Immaculate Conception, but we must also try to request the Pope to Consecrate Rusia to Mary with all the Bishops of the World. Mary made the above request at Fatima in 1917, but this request has yet to be done.
Strange background music! What is the connection between Brahms’ Hungarian Dances and the close of Vatican II? No one is suggesting that we do a liturgical czardasz “in the Spirit of Vatican II”, are they? o{|:>)
In response to John’s “much more interesting than John Lenon’s death anniveary.” That’s because Catholic Church is still alive inspite of taking a bullet from Vatican II and continues to bleed out.
In response to Rev.Thomas Extejt and the significance of Brahms’ Hungarian Dance playing in the video. The socialist left was celebrating it’s victory over consevative Catholic docterine and the eminent decline of 1500 years of responsible Christian teachings and behavior.
I wish all could share in the joy of the closing of the council that has been SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO misinterpreted! Latin almost non-exsistant, Priest facing the people, All the good music went away and was replaced by the KUMBAYA’S in the “Spirit of Vatican II”
The present Holy Father, GOD LOVE HIM! GETS it! Thank God the progressives are dying out, and the new breed of Priests coming in are sound and don’t preach “in the spirit of Vatican II”.
New liturgy was rail roaded thru by bugnini and co-hurts, what in the world happened, well we are seeing now 45 yrs later…...........
I would urge the previous commentators to reread were the Pope said
‘In a special maternal way, Mary has kept watch over the Pontificates of my venerable Predecessors, each one of whom, with great pastoral wisdom, steered the boat of Peter on the course of authentic conciliar renewal, ceaselessly working for the faithful interpretation and implementation of Vatican Council II.’
I don’t understand why there is such a malediction in some camps against all things that happened after the Vatican II. The Church is growing, new religious orders with tremendous zeal are being born, millions of Catholics are learning about their faith, converts from protestantism are returning to the Church as in no other time in history. Is the fact that the “progressives are dying out” the greatest thing you can celebrate right now? There will be enemies of the Catholic Church from without and within until the end of time; so instead of bowing to the falsehood that “Vatican II has hurt us,” perhaps it is time to join ourselves to the statement of the Pope, wherein it is also implied that Paul VI & John Paul II have done a tremendous job, and that the course of the events of their pontificates were in line with the doctrinal and liturgical developments of the Church.
Jose,
You miss my point. Pope Paul VI inhertied a run away train after the death of Pope John XIII. It is said that Blessed John XXIII thought the council would last at the most 3 months, and it lasted 3 plus years….
It was a pastoral council, nothing doctrine wise changed, but what did happen is how the council was interpreted…...to be honest it was horrid, espically with the Holy Mass. Pope Paul VI’s GREATEST Achivement during his pontificate was Humane Vitae. The revision of the Holy Mass fell short of being a great achivement. Bugnini (so one reads) played both ends against the middle.
The Blessed Mother it very evident protects the Holy Fathers, Look at May 13, 1981, when John Paul the Great was nearly killed in the Piazza…....
Could go on and on, BUT Again for Thank God for Pope Benedict’s reform of the reform….......People below him need to listen and be obidient.
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