In 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council in Rome. Before the Council, the Church's liturgy was in Latin, its hierarchy largely unquestioned by it members, and Catholics were everywhere recognizable by their habit of abstaining from meat on Fridays, as much as by their devotion to the Virgin Mary. Everyone knew that Catholics thought theirs was the one true Church, and that it was opposed to much in the modern world, most obviously contraception, abortion and sex outside marriage.
Within five years of the Council's closing in 1965, all of these things had changed--the liturgy was translated into vernacular, Catholics no longer abstained from meat on Fridays, and vast numbers of its members--including its clergy--openly rejected its teaching on sexual morality. To this day, debates rage among Catholic clergy and scholars about what sort of changes Vatican II introduced.
Please subscribe to our podcast on Anchor and check out Controversies in Church History on our other platforms:
LINKS:
YouTube
Website
SOCIAL:
Facebook
Twitter
